Synergy clipboard (copy/paste) not working with glipper?

Question

(just wanted to document this; self-answer to follow)

I have a setup with QuickSynergy between two Ubuntu machines, set up like this:

• Ubuntu 10.04.4 LTS (lucid) - synergy server, has mouse attached
• Ubuntu 11.04 (natty) - synergy client (wants to use server mouse)

I've been using this setup some year(s) ago - and everything was working fine.

I come back to such a setup these days - and while the mouse pointer switches fine between screens, copy/paste on the client failed to work completely: that is, I select some text in any application (from scite to firefox) and copy (either via Ctrl-C; or via right-click/Copy from context menu) - I then try to paste (either via Ctrl-V; or via right-click/Copy from context menu), and absolutely nothing happens. Even more, after doing a copy action, right-clicking on the context menu shows "Paste" menu entry to be greyed out (disabled) - as if there is no data whatsoever on clipboard!

So, first I checked synergy versions on both machines, and it turns out they don't match (even though that was probably the case also previously in time, when I used the same setup, and everything was working). So I updated synergy in both machines by using Synergy : gogo [ppa:trebelnik-stefina/synergy] (I've used the maverick binaries for the lucid machine). Now both of them show the same version; e.g. for client:

$ synergyc --version
synergyc 1.4.11, protocol version 1.4
...
$ synergys --version
synergys 1.4.11, protocol version 1.4

However, the copy/paste problem still persists.

The only thing that may have changed in respect to clipboard on these machines since last time I used a synergy connection successfully, is that I have installed the glipper clipboard applet on both machines. Could this have been the problem?

Answer 1

Yup - and indeed, glipper was the problem: however, only if it is running on the synergy server machine! Strange for me, because it influences the copy/paste on the client machine locally...

In fact, now I have the synergy server machine running without glipper - however, with glipper running on the synergy client machine - and all seems to work fine re: copypasting!

I tried getting some logs; this is approximately what was generated as messages when glipper was working on the server machine:

client log of problem situation (with glipper running on server):

$ synergyc -f --debug DEBUG 192.168.1.XX
INFO: Synergy 1.4.11 Client on Linux 2.6.38-16-generic #67-Ubuntu SMP Thu Sep 6 
....
INFO: leaving screen
INFO: entering screen
DEBUG: recv clipboard 0 size=21
DEBUG: open clipboard 0
DEBUG: empty clipboard 0
DEBUG: grabbed clipboard 0
DEBUG: add 9 bytes to clipboard 0 format: 0
DEBUG: close clipboard 0
DEBUG: recv clipboard 1 size=21
DEBUG: open clipboard 1
DEBUG: empty clipboard 1
DEBUG: grabbed clipboard 1
DEBUG: add 9 bytes to clipboard 1 format: 0
DEBUG: close clipboard 1

DEBUG: lost clipboard 1 ownership at time 758675
DEBUG: lost clipboard 1 ownership at 758675
DEBUG: recv grab clipboard 1
DEBUG: open clipboard 1
DEBUG: empty clipboard 1
DEBUG: grabbed clipboard 1
DEBUG: close clipboard 1
DEBUG: lost clipboard 1 ownership at time 761802
DEBUG: lost clipboard 1 ownership at 761802
DEBUG: recv grab clipboard 1
DEBUG: open clipboard 1
DEBUG: empty clipboard 1
DEBUG: grabbed clipboard 1
DEBUG: close clipboard 1
INFO: leaving screen
DEBUG: adopting new buffer
DEBUG: discarding 1 event(s)
DEBUG: closed display
NOTE: stopped client

server log of problem situation (with glipper running on server):

$ synergys -f --debug DEBUG -c ~/.quicksynergy/synergy.conf
INFO: Synergy 1.4.11 Server on Linux 2.6.32-44-generic #98-Ubuntu SMP Mon Sep 24 17:32:45 UTC 2012 i686
...
INFO: switch from "SynSERVER" to "SynCLIENT" at 1023,319
INFO: leaving screen
DEBUG: open clipboard 0
DEBUG: ICCCM fill clipboard 0
DEBUG:   available targets: TIMESTAMP (404), TARGETS (402), MULTIPLE (403), SAVE_TARGETS (441), UTF8_STRING (277), COMPOUND_TEXT (469), TEXT (502), STRING (31), text/plain;charset=utf-8 (503), text/plain (499)
DEBUG:   added format 0 for target UTF8_STRING (277) (9 bytes)
DEBUG: close clipboard 0
INFO: screen "SynSERVER" updated clipboard 0
DEBUG: open clipboard 1
DEBUG: ICCCM fill clipboard 1
DEBUG:   available targets: TIMESTAMP (404), TARGETS (402), MULTIPLE (403), UTF8_STRING (277), COMPOUND_TEXT (469), TEXT (502), STRING (31), text/plain;charset=utf-8 (503), text/plain (499)
DEBUG:   added format 0 for target UTF8_STRING (277) (9 bytes)
DEBUG: close clipboard 1
INFO: screen "SynSERVER" updated clipboard 1
DEBUG: send clipboard 0 to "SynCLIENT" size=21
DEBUG: send clipboard 1 to "SynCLIENT" size=21
DEBUG: received client "SynCLIENT" grabbed clipboard 1 seqnum=7
INFO: screen "SynCLIENT" grabbed clipboard 1 from "SynSERVER"
DEBUG: open clipboard 1
DEBUG: empty clipboard 1
DEBUG: grabbed clipboard 1
DEBUG: close clipboard 1
DEBUG: lost clipboard 1 ownership at time 809607
DEBUG: lost clipboard 1 ownership at 809607
INFO: screen "SynSERVER" grabbed clipboard 1 from "SynCLIENT"
DEBUG: send grab clipboard 1 to "SynCLIENT"
DEBUG: received client "SynCLIENT" grabbed clipboard 1 seqnum=7
INFO: screen "SynCLIENT" grabbed clipboard 1 from "SynSERVER"
DEBUG: open clipboard 1
DEBUG: empty clipboard 1
DEBUG: grabbed clipboard 1
DEBUG: close clipboard 1
DEBUG: lost clipboard 1 ownership at time 812691
DEBUG: lost clipboard 1 ownership at 812691
INFO: screen "SynSERVER" grabbed clipboard 1 from "SynCLIENT"
DEBUG: send grab clipboard 1 to "SynCLIENT"
NOTE: client "SynCLIENT" has disconnected
...

 

Once glipper is taken out on the server machine (note, killall glipper doesn't work on Lucid as it does on Natty - so on Lucid, I had to do ps axf | grep glipper, and then do kill 1234 on the process number), then copypasting works again - and here are some logs in that case:

client log (OK situation):

$ synergyc -f --debug DEBUG 192.168.1.XX
INFO: Synergy 1.4.11 Client on Linux 2.6.38-16-generic #67-Ubuntu SMP Thu Sep 6 
....
NOTE: started client
NOTE: connecting to '192.168.1.XX': 192.168.1.XX:24800
DEBUG: open clipboard 0
DEBUG: empty clipboard 0
DEBUG: grabbed clipboard 0
DEBUG: close clipboard 0
DEBUG: open clipboard 1
DEBUG: empty clipboard 1
DEBUG: grabbed clipboard 1
DEBUG: close clipboard 1
NOTE: connected to server
DEBUG: lost clipboard 1 ownership at time 997135
DEBUG: lost clipboard 1 ownership at 997135
DEBUG: open clipboard 1
DEBUG: ICCCM fill clipboard 1
DEBUG:   available targets: TIMESTAMP (373), TARGETS (371), MULTIPLE (372), text/html (581), text/_moz_htmlcontext (588), text/_moz_htmlinfo (589), UTF8_STRING (315), COMPOUND_TEXT (510), TEXT (529), STRING (31), text/x-moz-url-priv (590)
DEBUG:   added format 2 for target text/html (581) (966 bytes)
DEBUG:   added format 0 for target UTF8_STRING (315) (433 bytes)
DEBUG: close clipboard 1
DEBUG: lost clipboard 0 ownership at time 998704
DEBUG: lost clipboard 0 ownership at 998704
DEBUG: open clipboard 0
DEBUG: ICCCM fill clipboard 0
DEBUG:   available targets: TIMESTAMP (373), TARGETS (371), MULTIPLE (372), SAVE_TARGETS (499), text/html (581), text/_moz_htmlcontext (588), text/_moz_htmlinfo (589), UTF8_STRING (315), COMPOUND_TEXT (510), TEXT (529), STRING (31), text/x-moz-url-priv (590)
DEBUG:   added format 2 for target text/html (581) (966 bytes)
DEBUG:   added format 0 for target UTF8_STRING (315) (433 bytes)
DEBUG: close clipboard 0
^CDEBUG: adopting new buffer
DEBUG: discarding 1 event(s)
DEBUG: closed display
NOTE: stopped client

server log (OK situation):

$ synergys -f --debug DEBUG -c /home/USERNAME/.quicksynergy/synergy.conf
INFO: Synergy 1.4.11 Server on Linux 2.6.32-44-generic #98-Ubuntu SMP Mon Sep 24
...
NOTE: accepted client connection
DEBUG: received client "SynCLIENT" info shape=0,0 1024x600 at 642,225
NOTE: client "SynCLIENT" has connected
DEBUG: received client "SynCLIENT" grabbed clipboard 1 seqnum=0
INFO: screen "SynCLIENT" grabbed clipboard 1 from "SynSERVER"
DEBUG: open clipboard 1
DEBUG: empty clipboard 1
DEBUG: grabbed clipboard 1
DEBUG: close clipboard 1
DEBUG: received client "SynCLIENT" clipboard 1 seqnum=0, size=935
INFO: screen "SynCLIENT" updated clipboard 1
DEBUG: open clipboard 1
DEBUG: empty clipboard 1
DEBUG: grabbed clipboard 1
DEBUG: add 433 bytes to clipboard 1 format: 0
DEBUG: add 482 bytes to clipboard 1 format: 2
DEBUG: close clipboard 1
DEBUG: received client "SynCLIENT" grabbed clipboard 0 seqnum=0
INFO: screen "SynCLIENT" grabbed clipboard 0 from "SynSERVER"
DEBUG: open clipboard 0
DEBUG: empty clipboard 0
DEBUG: grabbed clipboard 0
DEBUG: close clipboard 0
DEBUG: received client "SynCLIENT" clipboard 0 seqnum=0, size=935
INFO: screen "SynCLIENT" updated clipboard 0
DEBUG: open clipboard 0
DEBUG: empty clipboard 0
DEBUG: grabbed clipboard 0
DEBUG: add 433 bytes to clipboard 0 format: 0
DEBUG: add 482 bytes to clipboard 0 format: 2
DEBUG: close clipboard 0
NOTE: client "SynCLIENT" has disconnected

 

Note that the client reports "lost clipboard 1 ownership" both when copy/paste works and when it doesn't; the difference I can see between the working and non-working case, is that in the working case, the client shows messages like "ICCCM fill clipboard 1" and "available targets: TIMESTAMP (373),...".

Well, other than that, I can't really say I understand these logs too well - but I hope they may help someone :),
Cheers!