Characters being changed when pasted from Keepass
 

I have installed Keepass2, (Ubuntu v2.34) as I use this under Windows. Unfortunately it’s not working correctly for me in Mint.

It has the same layout as the Windows version, and I’m using the same database, but when trying to paste a login into a site - either by dragging & dropping it, (as I can do in the Windows version every time) or copying & pasting – all the logins are in English, but in Mint, 20-25% of the time they get transposed into Chinese characters in the login field (sometimes the password too, I know that if the login's correct, but it's rejected).

I've noticed now that a couple of times it has pasted the login ID correctly when I use the drag and drop method, other times it's still pasted as Chinese again.

A few times I’ve tried some logins twice (drag & drop/c&p), without changing the screen, or anything - first time was Chinese, then second time, sometimes third time it’s English.

I have Mint Cinnamon 18.1, using Firedox 50.1.0 My locale, language, region is set to EN-GB, although I’m in Thailand (but definitely not China!)
It was suggested checking Firefox - the Text Encoding to ensure sure Auto-Detect was off, which it was anyway.

Example of websites causing this issue for me: mail.google.com 1and1.com facebook.com reddit.com to name just a few, although I somehow doubt it’s anything to do with the site – they all work fine in KeePass2 under Windows.
outlook.com – this is much more difficult to paste anything into for some reason – this is the only site I’ve had problems with KeePass2 in Windows too Maybe it’s just MS website setup?

It was suggested to me to start a new thread about this specifically. If you want to read the original post, it’s here: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...nt-4175596687/

probably LC_LOCALE is not set properly.
I don't know what is ubuntu v2.34

I'm sorry, I didn't write that clearly: What I installed is KeePass v2.34 for Ubuntu.

I'm wondering if the LC_LOCALE ia the one I've had help with editing to set my locale to appear as UK?
I typed #locale# in terminal to get this, if that's the one?
I know how to paste that now. It's pasted below, if that's any help.
#LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
LANGUAGE=
LC_CTYPE="en_GB.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC=en_GB.UTF-8
LC_TIME=en_GB.UTF-8
LC_COLLATE="en_GB.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY=en_GB.UTF-8
LC_MESSAGES="en_GB.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER=en_GB.UTF-8
LC_NAME=en_GB.UTF-8
LC_ADDRESS=en_GB.UTF-8
LC_TELEPHONE=en_GB.UTF-8
LC_MEASUREMENT=en_GB.UTF-8
LC_IDENTIFICATION=en_GB.UTF-8
LC_ALL=
#

paxolin,

The second answer on here has plenty of detail:
http://unix.stackexchange.com/questi...es-lc-all-c-do

Thanks so much for your reply.
When I had the editing of the locale settings explained to me step-by-step last week, I had no idea what I was doing, only following the instructions.

I clicked on the link, and I'm sorry to say that my eyes just glazed over as I tried to read the text. I really have very little understanding of any this.
What does it mean in plain English - will it resolve my problem, and if so, what is it I need to do?

if you think your problem is solved please mark the thread solved.
Also if you want to say thanks just click on yes.

Err, no the problem isn't solved for me. That was why I wrote that I didn't understand what any of it meant.

Sorry, looks like I misunderstood.
So you need to set LC_* variables properly, otherwise you will get the result what you described (or something similar). Probably it was changed somehow or it was not specified at all.
From the other hand on gui there is a system settings dialog, where you can select language support and also regions and language. Probably you can check them too.
(LC_LOCALE itself does not exist, I wanted to write LC_* variables, the locale, just mixed a bit)

Ah, now I think I understand that! Is the attached what you're referring to, I wonder?
If so, you can see (from what I can work out) that it's all set to English UK already. Or have I got that wrong?

From here I don't really know, but I can see 22 languages are installed, probably you need to remove the unwanted ones. Probably the system has some built-in "intelligence" and tried to recognise the language you use auto-magically, just cannot identify properly.

Thanks for the suggestion, I appreciate it.
I've been through and removed all surplus languages (although I didn't see any character-based ones there).
I have left only: EN-US, EN-GB, Thai, Laos. The last two are alphabet-based anyway.

I rebooted and sadly, the first login I tried with drag & drop placed Chinese in the login field again. After I deleted the Chinese from the google login field (but deleting that only, changing nothing else at all), I tried again - this time it was in English.
Obviously when I get to the password field I'll never know if it's correct or not until the login attempt fails.

I suppose looking on the positive side, we've now removed the additional language settings as causing the problem. I still haven't got any further with the #locale# suggestion, but that's only because I have no idea what to do there.

I've attached a screenshot for you to see the problemn.

I do not know where did you set locale (LC_* variables), probably too late.
Also you may need to restart gui (or reboot) to forget those language completely.

If you look, I did say I rebooted Mint already.
Below I have pasted the exact info I followed to change #locale# - that was regarding the date format though:


It came from my query here: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...820/page2.html

[to edit the en_GB file to change that date format: the separator from “/” to “-”]

Great. Now for some editing. The default text editor in Mint 18 is xed so we will use that. Again, because it is a system file we need to edit the file as if we were a root user, not an ordinary user. Because we are going to use a GUI program, namely xed, rather than a command on the command line, we use gksudo not sudo (there are some subtle differences between gksudo and sudo which you will find explained elsewhere on the web).

gksudo xed en_GB

You will notice a red bar at the top of the editor that says "Elevated Privileges". This is there to remind you that you are editing as root, not as an ordinary user.

Don't worry that the contents of the file look a bit gobbledy-gook. Those <U0073> etc. are just a way of expressing unicode characters (see here for a list of some of them - http://www.utf8-chartable.de/).

Scroll down until you see the LC_TIME section. Then scroll down until you see the subsection called d_fmt. This is the date format, which is currently set to (translating the unicode characters) %d/%m/%y.

The forward slash is represented as <U002F>. You should see two of them on that line. The hyphen is represented as <U002D>. So, you need to change the F to a D on both occasions.

After you have finished, save the file and exit xed.

no, you misunderstood.
That is the generation of locale files, this is not releted to the usage of them (although only generated locales can be used).
You need to set those LC_* variables to be able to use the generated locales. And my question was were these LC_* variables set.
Probably it is too late. I mean that should happen before the login dialog appeared.

OK, you've completely lost me! I'm afraid I have no understanding of what it is you're saying there. It's way beyond me.
If there is some way to talk me through it, would that be an option at all? Otherwise I've got no idea, sadly.
Thanks for your persistence with me on this though.

paxolin,

TIP:
Highlight the text you wish to put in CODE tags and click on # above the text box. It makes it so much easier for others to read and for you to improve your chances of receiving a reply.

To save further messing about, I recommend that you reset and reconfigure your locales using Terminal:


Use the Down arrow on the keyboard until you reach:

en_GB.UTF-8 UTF-8

There should already be an asterisk (*) next to it:

[*] en_GB.UTF-8 UTF-8

so there is no need to use the spacebar to select it. (see attached screenshot).

If you touch the spacebar, then you will remove the asterisk!

Click on Tab (above Caps Lock) to highlight OK and press Enter.

This time en GB.UTF-8 is highlighted.

Press Tab and Enter as before, then exit Terminal.


Your locale should look like this:

Many of your locale settings are missing the quotation marks for some reason.

My /etc/default/locale is:

*The above file is accessed via:

OR
I would stick to reconfiguring your locale for now.

NB First of all, you may well need to install gedit and gksu by:

If you are not familiar with nano then you can research that later.

beachboy2
Thank you so much for your post.

As I’m really struggling to understand any of this, it is just what I need - pedantic details explaining everything (I mean that as a compliment).
You explained how to highlight code in detail. Someone before said to enclose it with # - so I did that literally (typed one before and one after the code), but didn't know about highlighting it and the advanced editor with the # feature in it. Well I do now!

Back to the main subject.
I saw your NB and installed gedit and gksu first - whatever they are.
Followed the instructions carefully. It was definitely en_GB.UTF-8 that I selected, then there was a message saying it was processing my request.
After that I looked at locale, but it looks the same as before – only three items within quotation marks. See below.
(Out of interest I saw you included your locale in your post, but there are no quotation marks at all in yours?)



I did restart Mint in case that was needed, but it made no difference.
Should I run the entire process again? Or have I missed something somewhere?

paxolin,

That's okay then!

Your locale output looks fine.

The locale command giving certain output and the /etc/default/locale file are two different animals.

The /etc/default/locale contains no quotation marks, whereas the locale does.

gedit and nano are text editors and they are used to operate on the /etc/default/locale file amongst others.

Just as a matter of interest, give this command in Terminal:

Do NOT make any changes to the /etc/default/locale file!

Simply copy and paste the file contents into CODE tags in your reply and click on the X (top right corner) to close the file.

If the file contents match mine, I suspect that there may be some LibreOffice settings that need changing.

I seem to recollect that another LQ member made reference to the input settings?

Click on Menu > Preferences > Languages/Input method to view these two.

Do NOT change them or add anything!

I am attaching screenshots of my two.

When you mentioned that some of my locale settings were missing quotation marks, I thought that's what the last editing session was to amend?

So it's a different locale (file) that's been changed then?
This is the result of the command you listed above:

Is that correct?
Can I ask why you say it might be a Libre Office issue? How does that enter into copy & pasting from KeePass into Firefox?

paxolin,

I think somebody else needs to provide some suggestions for solving this.

Having saved your KeePass2 database to an external drive or similar, it may be an idea to totally remove KeePass2 and then reinstall it using the PPA.

I am out of ideas.

Actually I have already been down the PPA path & d/loading it from https://launchpad.net/~jtaylor/+archive/ubuntu/keepass. It was yourself who gave me the information on how to do that in the previous thread I had on KeePass2.

Not to worry, I am really, really appreciative of your help - especially in clear-no-jargon-English!!

I'll wait to see if anyone else has any ideas.

paxolin,

I am sorry that I cannot think of a solution to this problem.

On the plus side, you have learned a bit more about using Linux, so it is not all bad news.

Good luck.

just a question: this drag&drop works with other apps or the same thing happens with any of them?
you can try geany, gedit, or any other gui or terminal to check it.

paxolin,

I was getting mixed up with another post regarding the Burmese language!

It's right next door to Thailand, so therefore understandable as you're miles away in Wales!

That's a difficult question.
I'm trying the think of another program I have that uses drag and drop. Unless you can suggest one that's commonly available, I don't think I have one.

If it's terminal you're suggesting, I just don't know what to do. So far I just blindly follow instructions posted on here (like locale in earlier posts), as I have no understanding of it sadly.

paxolin,

You could try installing and using one of these browsers and see whether you still get the Chinese characters.

You can always uninstall them if it makes no difference.

Try QupZilla first.

QupZilla:
http://www.qupzilla.com/

Chromium:

Midori:
http://midori-browser.org/

Opera:
http://www.opera.com/download/guide/?os=linux

Right, first thanks for not giving up on this! That was a good idea to suggest a different browser.

I installed the one called Qupzilla. It seemed OK initially, so I persisted:

Qupzilla - twenty times I dragged & dropped into the Gmail login. Worked every time. Then without closing that browser, I did the same with my existing Firefox v50.1.0. That failed on the fourth attempt with drag & drop, pasted the good old Chinese characters again.

Second try: Qupzilla twenty times OK, Firefox failed on attempt number six.

It does look pretty conclusive at the moment it's Firefox causing the error. Btw, I use Firefox on Windows 7, never any problems with that though. Wonder what it is causing that? I have Text Encoding>Auto Detect <off>.

paxolin,

Signs of success at last!

probably you can find here something
firefox->edit->preferences->content->languages->choose

Thanks for the suggestion. That's been checked already. I have only "en-gb" and "en" installed, in that order.

paxolin,

The language should already be set to en-gb or en, as pan64 suggests.

Edit > Preferences > Content > Fonts & Colours > Advanced.

Normally the box next to "Allow pages to choose their own fonts" is ticked/checked.

I have no idea what happens if you remove the tick.

If another browser does the job without any problem, then you may have to use that instead of Firefox, unless somebody can come up with a definitive solution to resolve this matter.

and again you may try to drag&drop from firefox into another window, like gedit or similar just to check the result.

This is getting interesting now.

beachboy2: I unticked that checkbox as you suggested, restarted Firefox as well. It look ten goes before it pasted in Chinese.

pan64: When I had the Chinese characters pasted into Firefox from KeePass, I dragged them into Libre Office. The result was still Chinese.
The thing that made me smile is that I can even tell you font LO selected: "WenQuanYi Micro Hei" Ha ha!

Thanks all of you once again for the invaluable and continuing suggestions.
It would be nice to resolve this rather than have to use another browser, but at least we know a lot more about this issue than before.

I think I'm going to try Firefox support, to see if anyone has any experience of it happening before.
I will keep you posted if I find anything down that route.
In the meantime if anyone here has any ideas, I'm still all ears!

paxolin,

Firefox Settings:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb...nts_and_colors

I suggest that you contact Firefox Support and describe your problem in detail.

Failing that, use QupZilla which looks an awful like Firefox anyway.

Thanks, I contacted them about an hour ago. I'll wait to see what (hopefully) comes back.

To keep everyone updated, this is the reply I had bck from Firefox Support:

I’ve since dragged & dropped from Keepass into Libre Office Writer – that seemed a good idea to narrow it down further: successful fifty times continuously, no errors.
I have also asked in the KeePass discussion group too. Have to wait and see if anything comes back from there.

Regarding what Mozilla Support said about Linux distros and the Mozilla build: Someone else may have some input on that? I wouldn't have any idea about it.
If it was built by Moziila, then Bugzilla could be another avenue to explore, although I worry about it becoming way too technical for me.

is this running in virtualbox, or without VM?
Do you have any clipboard related software installed?

Virtualbox? I've heard of it, but no. I dual-boot between Windows 7 and Mint, nothing complicated. I have to reboot to switch between OSes.

Clipboard related software, again no, (not that I'm aware of anyway). It's purely dragging and dropping, so I'm that must be something to do with KeePass?

I'm still at a very basic level with Linux, so I'm not doing anything clever at all. Just trying to use KeePass the same way it works for me in Windows.

paxolin, I'm late to the party here, and my questions may have been answered previously, in which case my apologies.

Have you tried dragging into Firefox that is being run in Safe Mode (Help->Restart with addons disabled)?

Have you tried dragging into another browser e.g. Opera?

Have you tried using KeePassX?

paxolin,

I take it that you still have no problems at all when you use QupZilla?

Be adventurous and try using Chromium as another test:

Do keep us informed of progress.

hydrurga,
For the late partycomers, here’s a recap:

Yes, I tried another browser. Picked Qupzilla. The results were:
Qupzilla - twenty times worked every time. Firefox failed on the fourth attempt.
Second try: Qupzilla twenty times OK, Firefox failed on attempt number six.

I installed KeePass2 initially, saw the Chinese character problem and thought it wasn’t possible to run it in Mint, so went for KeePassX. That ran with no noticeable issues, although the functionality wasn’t the same, which I didn’t like so much personally. Users here told me it was possible to run Keepass2, so I re-installed that.

Running Firefox in Safe Mode is a good idea, it's not been suggested before. Just tried that: Out of ten attempts it failed twice.

beachboy2,
Be adventurous? I can see your game – you’re just trying to get me into using terminal more – ha ha!
OK, Chromium installed, the result: drag & drop twenty times successfully, no failures.
So to me that’s looking pretty conclusive it’s a Firefox issue? See post #37 regarding the reply from Mozilla Support, they’re asking questions beyond my knowledge (and understanding). So far, not seen any response to it here.

I wonder if users may think I'm being pedantic by keep using Firefox. The thing is I've used it for years under Windows and would ideally like to stick with it in Mint. Under Windows there's no issues with it and KeePass2.

paxolin,

Since QupZilla and Chromium work perfectly, it seems that Firefox is the culprit.

I really like Firefox and I would hate to lose it, but in your position it would just have to go, at least in relation to use on Mint.

You pedantic?

Never!

Thanks. That seems to rule out it being one of your Firefox extensions that's causing the problems.

If you want, I can try and replicate the problem myself in a VM. All you need to do is confirm the following: your distro/version/desktop environment, the version of KeePass2 that you're running, the version of Firefox that you're running, and a site where you consistently have at least 1 out of 10 errors when using the combination. I'm sure this info is scattered around in this thread somewhere but it would be easier for me if it were gathered here.

As an alternative, let me know what you can't get working in KeyPassX - I use it and haven't had any issues with it so far.

It that a back-handed compliment, I wonder?

Would you suggest I start a new post to ask about the what Mozilla Support said about Linux distros and the Mozilla build: Is Mint building their version of Firefox from source code? Or are they using the Mozilla build?

Thanks for the offer, here a the details:

I’m running Mint 18.1 Cinnamon 64-bit
Version of KeePass2 V2.34 (although yesterday it upgraded to V2.35 which hasn’t changed the issue in hand, whatsoever).
I have Firefox V50.1.0
A site where it consistently fails: Gmail login - https://accounts.google.com/ServiceL...il/#identifier

What I couldn’t I get working in KeePassX? I just didn’t like the functionality of it.
You seem to have to click on the icons at the top to copy the login and the copy password, rather than drag & drop. Also it doesn’t display the Notes for each highlighted entry in the bottom view pane automatically, you need to click to display them each time, then cancel afterwards.

Thanks. I've now set up the VM and installed the required software. Which method are you using to transfer the KeePass2 login details onto the web page?

And is the character change noticeable on the username or the password, or both?

Thanks very much for your help with this.

It’s the drag and drop method that I’ve consistently used.

The character change is clearly noticeable in the login field, but sometimes happens in the password field too. I know that, because if the login is correct, but it fails to be authenticated. Btw, all my logins are in English.

You can see a login example attached that I've just done now.

Thanks. It seems to work ok for me and I know from another thread that we both have the same locale, so something else is obviously awry.

Can you replicate the problem with cut-paste or have you only experienced it with drag-drop?

Have you changed any of the KeePass2 options from the defaults after installation?

Have you tried putting those Chinese characters into Google translate to see what they come out as? Does the same name in English always produce the same Chinese characters?

paxolin,

I am struggling to understand why hydrurga, who has the same setup, is not having the same problem as you.

Clutching at straws time:

Is your router using the latest firmware?

If not, then update it and then temporarily use an ethernet cable to connect from your laptop to the router.

Do you still get Chinese characters at login?

(The answer is probably yes).