Synaptics touchpad pastes when clicked in the top-right corner

[Ethan Trewhitt]

When I tap the Synaptics touchpad of my laptop, the contents of the clipboard are pasted. It's exactly as if I typed "Ctrl-V" in the current window. I see no way in the touchpad settings to disable this behavior, so it seems like a bug.

Action taken: tap the touchpad in the top right of the touchpad
Expected result: the mouse is clicked at the current location
Erroneous result: the clipboard is pasted into the current application.

WORKAROUND: Put in /etc/X11/xorg.conf :
    Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "touchpad"
        Driver "synaptics"
        MatchIsTouchpad "on"

        Option "RTCornerButton" "0"
        Option "RBCornerButton" "0"
    EndSection

---
ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.19
Architecture: amd64
CompizPlugins: No value set for `/apps/compiz-1/general/screen0/options/active_plugins'
CompositorRunning: None
CurrentDesktop: XFCE
DistUpgraded: Fresh install
DistroCodename: trusty
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
DistroVariant: ubuntu
DkmsStatus:
 vboxhost, 5.0.10, 3.19.0-32-generic, x86_64: installed
 vboxhost, 5.0.10, 3.19.0-33-generic, x86_64: installed
ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes
GraphicsCard:
 Intel Corporation Broadwell-U Integrated Graphics [8086:1616] (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:062e]
InstallationDate: Installed on 2015-10-16 (33 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 14.04.1 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Release amd64 (20140723)
LightdmGreeterLogOld:
 ** (lightdm-gtk-greeter:1286): WARNING **: Failed to load user image: Failed to open file '/home/trewhitte/.face': No such file or directory
 init: indicator-power main process (1321) killed by TERM signal
 init: indicator-application main process (1326) killed by TERM signal
MachineType: Dell Inc. Latitude E7450
Package: xorg 1:7.7+1ubuntu8.1
PackageArchitecture: amd64
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.19.0-33-generic root=UUID=7d0dc4da-2a18-4838-b806-126cae6a56d3 ro quiet splash intel_pstate=enable vt.handoff=7
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.19.0-33.38~14.04.1-generic 3.19.8-ckt7
Tags: trusty ubuntu
Uname: Linux 3.19.0-33-generic x86_64
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
UserGroups: adm cdrom dip lpadmin plugdev sambashare sudo wireshark
_MarkForUpload: True
dmi.bios.date: 09/01/2015
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: A07
dmi.board.name: 06HN6G
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.board.version: A00
dmi.chassis.type: 9
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA07:bd09/01/2015:svnDellInc.:pnLatitudeE7450:pvr:rvnDellInc.:rn06HN6G:rvrA00:cvnDellInc.:ct9:cvr:
dmi.product.name: Latitude E7450
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.
version.compiz: compiz N/A
version.ia32-libs: ia32-libs N/A
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.60-2~ubuntu14.04.1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 10.1.3-0ubuntu0.5
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 10.1.3-0ubuntu0.5
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.15.1-0ubuntu2.7
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.8.2-1ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:7.3.0-1ubuntu3.1
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.99.910-0ubuntu1.6
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.10-1ubuntu2
xserver.bootTime: Wed Nov 18 16:26:50 2015
xserver.configfile: /etc/X11/xorg.conf
xserver.errors:

xserver.logfile: /var/log/Xorg.0.log
xserver.outputs:
 product id 4925
 vendor AUO
xserver.version: 2:1.15.1-0ubuntu2.7

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Ethan Trewhitt, thank you for reporting this and helping make Ubuntu better.

Could you please run the following command from a terminal as it will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report:
apport-collect -p xorg 1511496

Please ensure you have the package xdiagnose installed, and that you click the Yes button for attaching additional debugging information.

When reporting xorg related bugs in the future, please do so via the above method. You can learn more about this functionality at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs.

[Ethan Trewhitt (courtarro)]

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[Ethan Trewhitt (courtarro)]

I updated my bios to A08 as requested and the problem persists.

[Ethan Trewhitt (courtarro)]

Okay, here are some additional data points.

Attempt 1 (good)

1. Open gedit
2. Type some text
3. Select some text
4. Copy
5. Move cursor
6. Tap top-right of touchpad
7. DOES NOT paste

Attempt 2 (bad)

1. Open Google Chrome
2. Select text on page
3. Return to gedit
4. Tap top-right of touchpad
5. PASTES

Attempt 3 (good)

1. Open xfce4 Terminal
2. Select some text
3. Right-click, copy
4. Return to gedit
5. Tap top-right of touchpad
6. DOES NOT paste

Summary: whether the paste bug occurs depends on which app was used to copy the text. It also depends on which app is receiving the paste, but that list of apps is different.

Here's another really weird element of this problem: when the paste occurs in gedit, as in attempt 2, it pastes at the current mouse location, NOT at the location of the text caret. So it's not simply that the mouse driver is triggering a Ctrl-V, otherwise the text would appear at the text caret.

In gedit, the paste bug DOES NOT move the text caret, so it's not causing an actual mouse click before the paste; it's pasting INSTEAD of clicking. In Chrome the caret moves along with the paste in the new location. Caveat: if App 1 is active and I hover over App 2, then tap the top-right, the paste occurs in App 2.

I tried copying and pasting images in Gimp but the problem doesn't seem to occur with image content.

COPY - Apps I've tested where copying triggers a paste:
- Google Chrome
- Firefox
- Character Map
- AbiWord

COPY - Apps that do not cause a paste:
- Gedit
- xfce4-terminal

PASTE - Apps that receive a paste (if copied from one of the apps above):
- Google Chrome
- Firefox
- Gedit
- xfce4-terminal
- Character Map

PASTE - Apps that do not receive a paste (regardless of how it was copied):
- AbiWord

[Ethan Trewhitt (courtarro)]

A08
10/28/2015

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Ethan Trewhitt, if you execute the following in a terminal is the issue reproducible:
synclient RTCornerButton=0

[Ethan Trewhitt (courtarro)]

That worked. Apparently the top-right corner is set, by default, to be a middle-click. The bottom-right corner, I've since learned, is a right click. None of this makes any sense to leave enabled since I have two physical buttons below the trackpad.

Thanks for helping me debug this. Hopefully it'll be easier for people to fix in the future. For reference, here's what I added to my /etc/X11/xorg.conf to fix the issue permanently:

    Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "touchpad"
        Driver "synaptics"
        MatchIsTouchpad "on"

        Option "RTCornerButton" "0"
        Option "RBCornerButton" "0"
    EndSection

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Ethan Trewhitt, the issue you are reporting is an upstream one. Could you please report this problem via https://bugs.freedesktop.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=xorg (Component: input/synaptics)?

Please provide a direct URL to your bug report once you have made it so that it may be tracked.

Thank you for your understanding.