gpm now reverse-videos transferred text, beginning with kernel 6.16

RandomTroll · 07-29-2025, 11:44 AM

This is not a problem, just a report. gpm now reverse-videos transferred text. Am I the only one?

hazel · 07-31-2025, 12:19 AM

If you transfer into an Xterm, it's in reverse video until you press Return. Then it reverts to normal. I tried transferring into a gvim window and there was no reversal. So it may be a new terminal tweek.

teckk · 07-31-2025, 11:27 AM

Are you talking about this?
https://github.com/telmich/gpm
https://lists.linux.it/pipermail/gpm/
https://www.nico.schottelius.org/docs/

hazel · 07-31-2025, 11:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by teckk

Are you talking about this?
https://github.com/telmich/gpm
https://lists.linux.it/pipermail/gpm/
https://www.nico.schottelius.org/docs/

Yes. It's a very old copy-and-paste program that works in VTs as well as in X. You paste with the middle button.

RandomTroll · 07-31-2025, 11:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hazel

If you transfer into an Xterm,

It doesn't work in xterm, does it? I never use it in X. Look at the 'bugs' section of the man page. It doesn't work for me in X.

Quote:

Originally Posted by teckk

Are you talking about this?

Yes. I didn't know it was exotic. I can't imagine anyone using the console much without it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hazel

You paste with the middle button.

If you have a middle button.

hazel · 07-31-2025, 11:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RandomTroll

It doesn't work in xterm, does it? I never use it in X. Look at the 'bugs' section of the man page. It doesn't work for me in X.

Code:

  The gpm server may have problems interacting with X: if your mouse is a single-open device (i.e. a bus mouse), 
you should kill gpm before starting X, or use the -R option (see above).  To kill gpm just invoke gpm -k. This problem 
doesn't apply to serial mice.

What's a bus mouse anyway? I've used gpm in X with ps/2 and usb mice without any problems.

Quote:

If you have a middle button.

Or a wheel. Or with some mice you can use L+R simultaneously.

RandomTroll · 07-31-2025, 04:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hazel

What's a bus mouse anyway?

Apparently a Microsoft Inport mouse.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hazel

I've used gpm in X with ps/2 and usb mice without any problems.

Quote:

The selection mechanism is disabled if the controlling virtual console is placed in graphics mode, for example when running X11, and is re-enabled when text mode is resumed.

X has its own facility for marking and transferring text; gpm is text-only.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hazel

Or a wheel. Or with some mice you can use L+R simultaneously.

On 2-button mice the right button transfers.

hazel · 08-01-2025, 12:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RandomTroll

X has its own facility for marking and transferring text; gpm is text-only.

gpm works in text programs within X, quite separately from the X clipboard. It has its own clipboard which is activated as soon as you highlight some text. Then you can paste it elsewhere with the middle button. Anything you have stored on the X clipboard remains intact when you select something different with gpm; the clipboard only gets overwritten if you press ctrl-C or ctrl-X or use the right button menu to save. That's something I occasionally find useful. On the other hand, X lets you cut text as well as copy it and gpm doesn't.

RandomTroll · 08-01-2025, 06:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hazel

gpm works in text programs within X, quite separately from the X clipboard...

Perhaps I use a different display driver, but it doesn't work for me. I just tried it. It never has.

hazel · 08-01-2025, 08:00 AM

You're right. I guess I was confused. When gpm is used inside X, it does use the X clipboard for its selections, overwriting whatever is there. But when you use it in a VT, it has its own clipboard. If you open up a VT outside of your X session, you can switch back and forth between them but you can't copy in an X session and paste in a VT or vice versa. Whatever you paste will be whatever you last copied in that session.

RandomTroll · 08-01-2025, 08:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hazel

You're right.

Thanks for letting me know. I dislike having problems no one else has: I worry about myself.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hazel

When gpm is used inside X...

I just unloaded gpm: I can mark and transfer text in X. I think it doesn't work at all in X.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hazel

If you open up a VT outside of your X session, you can switch back and forth between them but you can't copy in one session and paste in the other. Whatever you paste will be whatever you last copied in that session.

I can't transfer between X and non-X; I use a file to do that. I can copy between non-X VTs.

hazel · 08-02-2025, 12:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RandomTroll

I can't transfer between X and non-X; I use a file to do that. I can copy between non-X VTs.

Sorry, that's what I meant; I'll back-edit to make it clearer. You can switch your keyboard back and forth between X and a VT and make independent selections in each one but you can't transfer a selection across. The paste instruction always refers to the local clipboard. But two VTs will share the gpm clipboard so you can copy between them.

teckk · 08-02-2025, 07:07 AM

Have you seen:

Code:

cat /dev/vcs<n>

Code:

sudo fold -w 60 /dev/vcs1 | less

Or look at:

Code:

echo "#!/bin/bash" >> paste
echo 'DISPLAY=:0 xsel -ob' >> paste

Then paste in tty.

Or use a temp file.
X

Code:

echo "Something" > file

tty

Code:

$(cat file)