Mouse wheel doesn't scroll in 'less' pager in VTE-based terminals

[Croque]

In Lubuntu 11.10, when using the 'less' pager in lxterminal, the mouse scroll wheel has no effect. The expected behaviour is that the mouse wheel would scroll the text up and down.

$sudo dpkg -l |grep vte
ii gir1.2-vte-2.90 1:0.28.2-0ubuntu2
ii libvte-2.90-9 1:0.28.2-0ubuntu2
ii libvte-common 1:0.28.2-0ubuntu2
ii libvte9 1:0.28.2-0ubuntu2
ii lxterminal 0.1.11-0ubuntu1
ii python-vte 1:0.28.2-0ubuntu2

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
Package: lxterminal 0.1.11-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-12.20-generic-pae 3.0.4
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-12-generic-pae i686
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu3
Architecture: i386
Date: Tue Oct 25 07:37:12 2011
InstallationMedia: Lubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Release i386 (20111012)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_CA:en
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_CA.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: lxterminal
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Memphis Ryans (nemini)]

First i thought, scrolling doesn't work in vi either, but with "set mouse=a" it worked. That would have been a no-go because I'm editing all my latex-files in vi.
But for man pages etc. scrolling would be great!

[Croque (pcroque)]

As a workaround, you can use vim as the system pager. Mouse scrolling then works, and you get the added benefit of syntax highlighting for your man pages and other files. There is a script that makes it easy called vimpager. Installation instructions are here: http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=1723

[Alad Wenter (the-changing-side)]

Fixed in this PPA:

https://launchpad.net/~the-changing-side/+archive/ubuntu/ppa

[Lyn Perrine (walterorlin)]

I don't think this is a problem in lxterminal but rather any terminal that depends on libvte9 in that the scrollwheel doesn't work when built against this library. I also reproduce the same thing in stjern lillterm roxterm-gtk2 mate-terminal. In roxterm-gtk3 I do not get the bug when built against gtk-3.

[Ubuntu QA Website (ubuntuqa)]

This bug has been reported on the Ubuntu ISO testing tracker.

A list of all reports related to this bug can be found here:
http://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/qatracker/reports/bugs/881433

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Thomas Dickey (dickey-his)]

Actually, reading the source code for less 458 and the Debian package,

https://packages.debian.org/sid/less

I do not see that less is aware of
wheel mouse in any form whatsoever. Filing random bug reports against every terminal emulator will
have no effect on the ability of less to behave as requested. If such a feature is wanted, it should be
opened as a wishlist item for the less package.

[Vlad Orlov (monsta)]

Fixed in vte 1:0.28.2-5ubuntu2:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1340687

Scrolling should now work in any vte-based terminal, starting from Ubuntu 15.10.
Unfortunately, I was unable to convince the maintainers to apply the patch in 12.04 and 14.04.

[Vlad Orlov (monsta)]

Hmm, rxvt-unicode doesn't use vte at all. You should file a new bug report for it.

[Vlad Orlov (monsta)]

Scrolling in lxterminal and xfce4-terminal works fine in less (in Ubuntu 15.10).

[Vlad Orlov (monsta)]

Took me a while to figure out how to launch stjerm, but in the end I've managed to do it and can confirm the issue is fixed for it as well (in Ubuntu 15.10).