gnome terminal doesn't leave "select" mode and keeps overwriting clipboard and makes selecting in gtk applications impossible

[Tom Mercelis]

Binary package hint: gnome-terminal

Steps to reproduce:
* open a gnome-terminal window and maximize it (i don't know wheter maximizing is necessary, but it seems to help)
* fill the window with text (run dmesg for instance)
* start selecting text from the top of the window (keep button 1 pressed)
* drag your mouse down to outside terminal window, selecting all of the text in the terminal (keep button 1 pressed)
* while keeping button 1 pressed, right click
* while holding both buttons down, move mouse pointer to something unclickable in the popup menu
* first release the left button, then the right one
* press escape or click outside the terminal window to make the popup disappear
* first check whether you might be in the bogus state (fase 1): moving the mouse over the terminal window should make the selection change (don't click anything in the terminal window!)
* now open gedit and press the middle mouse button in it: it will probably paste some of the contents of the terminal window, or even all of it if you select in the right direction and make it select everything.
* second test whether you're in the bogus state (test one should have succeeded, if it didn't try again from the start!): try to select some text in gedit (or pidgin): in input text fields it isn't possible (the selection shortly appears but disappears immediately. It is possible that the first test did work, but this one didn't, try some variations with window sizes, locations of pressing and releasing mouse buttons. I tried to describe as correctly as possible what did the trick on 2 of my pc's).
* third test: select 1 word in firefox (it seems selecting in firefox is possible while in bogus state, this make me suspect the problem is only gtk-wide), try pasting it in gedit with the middle-mouse-button: it pastes the terminal output again. (this should work if test 2 worked, if test 2 didn't work, this one probably wont either.)

Is this problem worth fixing if it's so hard to reproduce? I think it is, since I discovered this by accident (which might suggest there are other ways to enter the bogus state). It's a very frustrating experience that when you paste something, you get a 1000 line long terminal log instead of a short url you intended to paste, and you cannot remove the wrongly pasted item by just selecting the text and delete it.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
Date: Sun Jan 3 02:19:29 2010
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: gnome-terminal 2.28.1-0ubuntu1
ProcEnviron:
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 LANG=nl_BE.UTF-8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-16.53-generic
SourcePackage: gnome-terminal
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-16-generic x86_64

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

can you reproduce the same with xterm or terminator (terminal emulator) ?

[Tom Mercelis (tom-mercelis)]

terminator: reproducable
gnome-terminal: reproducable
xterm: not reproducable
konsole: not reproducable

I also noticed that the location of the mouse pointer matters when you switch from terminator/gnome-terminal to gedit: the mouse pointer should not be over the terminal window. If the mouse pointer is eg over a panel, the effect will occur, if the mouse pointer was over the terminal and you alt-tab into the gedit windows, it won't work.

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

Thanks, the issue seems like a VTE one then

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

Thanks for the report, it has been some time without any response or feedback in this bug report and we are wondering if this is still an issue for you with the latest release of Ubuntu the Natty Narwhal, May you please test with that version and comment back if you're still having or not the issue? Please have a look at http://www.ubuntu.com/download to know how to install that version.Thanks in advance.