How to copy text from another application to emacs in ubuntu?

Question

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

Answer 1

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)

Answer 2

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