Ubuntu, copy paste, works half the time

[OutstandingBillNeal]

Hi, I’m new here. I’m a long-time N++ user. Thanks for a great product to whoever is responsible. I’ve just started using it on Ubuntu. I’m a total novice on Ubuntu.

I habitually use Ctrl-Insert to copy text. Here’s a typical sequence of events for me:

1. Select some text in N++
2. Ctrl-Insert
3. Move the caret
4. Shift Insert

Expecting result: the text selected in step 1 is pasted at the caret
Actual result: nothing happens

5. Repeat steps 1 to 4 [this time the text is pasted

Expecting result: the text selected in step 1 is pasted at the caret
Actual result: yay! this time it works

This seems to alternate reliably between fail and pass.

Can anyone offer any advice on how to get more reliable copy/pasting?

[carypt]

could you please give information about from where you copy/paste . as i presume npp runs in emulator , so i want to know if you want to copy something from outside the wine-emulator (normal linux environment) into wine-emulated npp , or vice versa . another possibility would be that you have 2 files opened in npp and copy/paste between them .

[PeterJones]

@OutstandingBillNeal said in Ubuntu, copy paste, works half the time:

I’ve just started using it on Ubuntu

Notepad++ is a Windows application, and not officially supported on Ubuntu. We have heard there is a publically-available package for Ubuntu – I’ve always assumed that was provided using the Wine interface on Linux (which allows some Windows apps to run on Linux), but I have never confirmed how that Ubuntu package actually works. The Notepad++ developers have no control over that Ubuntu package, and for all we know it has been modified from the original Notepad++ in ways that make it incompatible with the official Notepad++ Windows distribution. In this forum, we do not recommend downloading Notepad++ from anyplace but the official Notepad++ website or github repo.

My guess is that your difficulty with Ubuntu Linux copy/paste is just infamiliarity with the Linux copy/paste mechanisms, which are slightly different from Windows mechanisms. On top of that, I have found at my work, where I frequently use one or more of VNC and remote desktop and XWindows to control the Linux world from Windows and vice versa, that those interfaces between the domains cause … oddities or inconsistencies in copy/paste behavor; it would not surprise me if the Wine or similar interface that allows the Ubuntu “Notepad++” package to “work” causes similar oddities, which might make the copy/paste behavior inconsistent for you.

There might be someone else here who regularly uses the Ubuntu “Notepad++”, but I have not remembered any of the regulars here mention that they do. (Years ago, we had a very-helpful regular who had been able to get Notepad++ and even plugins to work properly on her linux setup, but I don’t know if she used the pre-package Ubuntu package distribution or configured everything herself, and she’s no longer a Notepad++ user or part of this forum, much to the Community’s detriment, so we cannot ask for her advice.)

[gstavi]

Moved back from Linux to Windows ~12 months ago, hope that memory serves.
There could be multiple issues.

If you are talking about problems of copy-pasting between Notepad++ and terminal (or other Linux app) then you are likely facing the problem of Linux PRIMARY and SECONDARY paste buffers. Go read about it.
Notepad++ over wine is copying into SECONDARY buffer and to paste into terminal you need special shortcut: ctrl-shift-v.
For the other way around copy with ctrl-ins from terminal and paste with ctrl-v into Notepad++.

From your description, I assume you are copy-pasting from Notepad++ into Notepad++.
Don’t remember an issue like you described.
I could guess that ctrl-ins and shift-ins are global shortcuts in the Linux system. This may lead into race where 2 entities, Notepad++ and “Linux”, manipulate the clipboard (or paste buffers) which leads to unpredictable results.
Using ctrl-c and ctrl-v should workaround THAT issue since they are far less global.
If that is indeed the problem then disabling global effects of ctrl-ins shift-ins will be VERY difficult. These shortcuts are embedded deep into the system.

There are also helper applications that should do automatic synchronization between PRIMARY and SECONDARY buffers to help. I didn’t install any of them myself. But as many kinds of “help” they may leave you off worse than you started.