Pasting from the copy buffer occasionally takes two tries before it pastes the correct thing

[z0w0]

Say if I had copied google.com and pasted it into my browser to go there (for who knows what reason), and then I copy github.com and paste it into a steam chat with one of my friends, it will occasionally paste google.com instead. Doesn't happen all the time, but it's slowly becoming more present and a real annoyance. I'm 99% sure this is not an issue system-wide, because this doesn't happen with any other apps.

Operating System Version:
    "Arch Linux" (64 bit)
    Kernel Name:  Linux
    Kernel Version:  3.7.1-1-ARCH
    X Server vendor:  The X.Org Foundation
    X Server release:  11301000

Yes I know I'm not on Ubuntu and ArchLinux isn't officially supported, but this is literally the only issue I've ever had with it -- everything else has worked perfectly.

[Cheeseness]

I was just in the middle of writing an issue for this. I've seen it in Fedora 17 with Gnome Shell, and have heard other users on Ubuntu 12.10 mention it also.

Pressing paste a second time will yield the expected results.

It seems to almost reliably happen for me 100% of the time, and seems to only occur for content copied from outside the Steam client being pasted into the Steam client (I've never had it occur when pasting outside of Steam).

This bug gives the impression that Steam's clipboard sits one copy event behind the system clipboard.

[mdaffin]

Also, I have noticed that on the Community > Discussions tab ctrl+v/c does not work at all.

[biltongza]

I have this issue sometimes too.

[pbhj]

As for @James147 copy to buffer doesn't work in the ToS and Policy pages when registering. Print failed for me and the old copy-paste back up didn't work either.

[V10lator]

Just wanted to reference this, as I think it is somehow connected: http://steamcommunity.com/app/221410/discussions/2/846939615090756197/

[memorynoise]

I'm experiencing a somewhat different behaviour while answering any discussion: pressing CTRL+V twice doesn't paste any text if not followed by right clicking on the chat area. This problems leds to sporadic crashes, too.

[Hirato]

I can confirm this too, it's weird and annoying.

The first time Ctrl-V/Shift-Insert is invoked, steam will paste the contents of the copy-buffer properly (not too sure of this fact at the moment).
It will then copy that into some internal buffer, and on a future invocation of Paste, it will paste this into the destination, and then copy what it should've pasted into the textbox into this internal buffer.
Rinse and repeat for successive paste attempts.

At least, this is the behaviour I've observed, and it describes the "paste twice for the right result" phenomenon.

[mattyy1hp]

It happens to me sometimes.
Also, sometime, mouse right button has a same function, like CTRL+V.
Linux Mint 13 LTS x64, Cinnamon.

[velociostrich]

Happens to me consistently (i.e., 100% of the time) as well.

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS x32 (though I'm using the XFCE desktop environment in place of that Unity garbage)

If it has not already been mentioned, pasting with the middle-mouse button does not work at all.

[BurritoBazooka]

Happening to me too. I said so on the Steam for Linux discussion forum too.
Here are my specs, as reported by Steam:
http://pastebin.com/S8LqYgh2

[Majkl578]

Happening also here in recent days, probability: always.
System info + Debian + Gnome Shell 3.6

This should be High priority bug.

[stevethepocket]

If this is meant to be a catch-all for copy/paste bugs, I discovered today that I can't copy or paste using Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V (which works on other apps), but the context menu options to Copy and Paste work fine. Specifically in the in-client browser. This is in Kubuntu 12.04 with KDE 4.8.5, latest client version.

[Cheeseness]

Would love to see (or hear of) some progress on this one. Is it being looked into?

[LiamDawe]

Yes I would like to know as well, it's really annoying me!! I try to copy/paste the Wargame cd key to put in game but it never works.

[abc-mikey]

Yep, just experienced this again recently using the community section in Steam. In the forums [Ctrl]+C and [Ctrl]+V don't work and when using right click menu no "Cut" was available for text in an entry box, and using right click to copy and paste from the page into the text entry box pasted the last thing copied not the current.

[BurritoBazooka]

This bug is still existing.. Any news? :/ The amount of times I pasted something completely irrelevant to a friend, or pasted the same thing twice, is uncountable now.

[LiamDawe]

Yes I would like to see an update as well? Pretty annoying issue to be left for over a month.

[BurritoBazooka]

Still curious about any progress...

[ghost]

I'm having the exact same issue on Linux Mint 14 x64 very frequently.

[BurritoBazooka]

It seems that the common factor here is that it's happening to people who are not using Unity AND Ubuntu 12.04, am I right?

Another issue I have as a consequence of not using Unity is that my chat windows don't flash when they are supposed to. I've been told the developers are not planning on solving that issue. But I see the copy/paste one as pretty trivial to fix, and at the same time essential for a smooth user experience. Other programs manage copying and pasting fine, no matter what desktop environment you use.

edit: bold 'not' because it's easily missed when speedreading.

[LiamDawe]

No it happens on Cinnamon as well. If you read others comments it happens on gnome shell too.

[V10lator]

@LiamDawe it happens on xfwm4, too, as well as on compiz and other DEs... so @BurritoBazooka isn't wrong when he says "it's happening to people who are not using Unity"

[LiamDawe]

Oh bugger I read it as "on Unity" my bad.

[BurritoBazooka]

It appears that in Cinnamon it's fixed, with Steam Beta. I just tested it in chat with a friend, and it works well.

I also tested it in the Steam Community interface, the keyboard shortcuts are not working, but no bugs using the context menu. I'll report back if it breaks again at all.

At the time of writing, Steam reports (under Help > About Steam) the time of its building as "Jul 19 2013, at 10:22:35". The version number is truncated: "1374261093 / 13742610..." They look like Unix Timestamps.

[Weegee]

Okay, so this problem affects me on Arch Linux running GNOME 3.8, but not on my Laptop which runs on the current Alpha version of Ubuntu 13.10 with Unity.

[ghost]

Just to say that this is a problem with Kubuntu 12.10 (KDE 4.9.5) and has been since the beta (for me). System Info

[BurritoBazooka]

Looks like it's happening again for me. 😦

[FutureSuture]

This issue makes using the discussion boards via the Steam client a huge pain in the neck. Yes, it's still around.

[MrSchism]

Just updating this: for some reason, a recent non-Steam update broke this for me. Not sure which update, but something changed and now the issue occurs.

[libcg]

Happening when pasting activation codes from Humble Bundle. Using an up-to-date Arch Linux, with GNOME 3.8.

[mmstick]

I guess someone needs to locate the package causing the problem. It's
happening on every distro/DE I've tried.

On Wed, Sep 11, 2013 at 7:21 PM, Clément Guérin notifications@github.comwrote:

Happening when pasting activation codes from Humble Bundle. Using an
up-to-date Arch Linux, with GNOME 3.8.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/41#issuecomment-24286618
.

[BurritoBazooka]

What do you suggest? Shall each of us post a list of packages we have installed, and then we see what's in common, or what?

The length of time this is taking to get fixed probably means that it's a tough one for Valve, so I doubt we alone would be able to do much.

[Hirato]

Complaints from the Unity camp are strangely absent, so I imagine non-Unity desktops are using a broken code path, why something like this even exists is pretty curious.

The code path we're all hitting is basically doing this:

void pasteinto(vector<char> &buf)
{
    if(!SDL_HasClipboardText()) return;

    //we paste our temporary buffer into the given buffer here.
    static vector<char> tmp;
    buf = tmp;

    //we then clear it and retrieve the data from the clipboard
    tmp.clear();
    char *cb = SDL_GetClipboardText();

    //which we then add to our temporary buffer
    char *p = cb;
    do { tmp.push_back(*p); } while(*p++);

    SDL_free(cb);
}

You can see it for yourself: copy anything, then paste it into steam once (it'll paste nothing this time). Then copy anything else and try and paste this into steam, you'll see it pastes what you wanted it to paste the previous time.
This is also why the Ctrl-V, Ctrl-Z, Ctrl-V dance gets around it.

[ghost]

Unity isn't free of this issue. I've always had this issue and I use unity.

[Kiwii]

Just booted my old laptop to confirm this happens in Unity as well.

Ubuntu 13.04
Linux 3.8.0-30-generic x86_64
Unity 7.0.0daily13.06.19~13.04-0ubuntu1
(the current version in 13.04, not experimental despite "daily" in the version number)

Full system info as given by Steam

If anyone needs any info, just ask. I'm happy to provide it if it helps to fix this bug.

[mmstick]

I'm using a custom Xfce session right now with Ubuntu 13.04 and kernel 3.10 and it is copying and pasting fine.

[Strykerraven]

I can confirm this still occurs on Arch w/ Gnome (latest).

[mmstick]

It's occurring with me and my Xfce session right now. I haven't upgraded any packages or rebooted though.

[MrSchism]

Copy/paste on my Xubuntu (up-to-date) system is working perfectly fine.

[codygarver]

I think it happens to Mutter and Mutter-based window managers. 100% reproducible for me using Gala window manager.

[iamedwin1]

i've been experiencing this on 64 bit arch w/ openbox for quite awhile now

[MeshachBlue]

Fresh install of 13.10 beta, and steam beta. This problem still occurs 95% of the time.

[ericwomer]

I have the same issue

System Info:

https://gist.github.com/salamanderrake/5c64ab09598d82fe29f9

[gdrewb-valve]

The 11/5 client beta should fix this.

[MeshachBlue]

Can confirm. Fixed.

[boombatower]

Praise Gaben!