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I am using emacs 23.3 on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. I am having problems trying to copy text from another application (most of the time, Firefox) to emacs. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Any way to fix this?

Thanks

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  • Please try to isolate when you can copy text successfully, and when you cannot. – Dan♦ Apr 12 '17 at 21:00
  • How do you usually try to copy and paste..? Are you using a keyboard shortcut? Do you highlight + Middle-click paste? Are you pasting into a terminal? – Archenoth Apr 21 '17 at 16:08
  • From my experience, GUI Emacs just works with the clipboard without any configuration. I think I've tried it on Ubuntu too. Just make sure you're using the correct keyboard shortcuts. In most programs C-c copies and C-v pastes, but in Emacs it's M-w and C-yrespectively. – user12563 Apr 21 '17 at 22:28
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I have that in my configuration : 

(setq select-enable-primary nil)
(setq select-enable-clipboard t)

on my side it works for gnome-shell (I didn't try with unity)

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  • I guess I neglected to mention that I am completely new to both emacs and linux. Do I have to add this code to the .emacs file? – Nirjhar Alam Apr 18 '17 at 22:00
  • yes you should had the code in the .emacs file but I just realize that this variables are obsolete since emacs 25.1, I updated the previous comment in consequence – slemaguer Apr 21 '17 at 15:41
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This should use the system clipboard:

(defun copy-from-ubuntu (text &optional push)
  (interactive)
  (if (display-graphic-p)
      (progn
        (message "Yanked region to x-clipboard!")
        (call-interactively 'clipboard-kill-ring-save)
        )
    (if (region-active-p)
        (progn
          (shell-command-on-region (region-beginning) (region-end) "xsel -i -b")
          (message "Yanked region to clipboard!")
          (deactivate-mark))
      (message "No region active; can't yank to clipboard!")))
    )

(defun paste-to-ubuntu ()
  (interactive)
  (if (display-graphic-p)
      (progn
        (clipboard-yank)
        (message "graphics active")
        )
    (insert (shell-command-to-string "xsel -o -b"))
    )
  )

And then finally add:

(setq interprogram-cut-function 'copy-from-ubuntu)
(setq interprogram-paste-function 'paste-to-ubuntu)

You will also need to install xsel

$ sudo apt-get install xsel
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  • I guess I neglected to mention that I am completely new to both emacs and linux. Do I have to add this code to the .emacs file? – Nirjhar Alam Apr 18 '17 at 22:01
  • Yes, just add the two defuns and two setq to your .emacs (or init.el) file. The "sudo apt-get install xsel" command you must run in the terminal application. – Darryl Hebbes Apr 20 '17 at 19:40

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