Stack Exchange Network
Stack Exchange network consists of 183 Q&A communities including
Stack Overflow
, the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers.
Visit Stack Exchange
Unix & Linux Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for users of Linux, FreeBSD and other Un*x-like operating systems. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
Teams
Q&A for work
Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search.
Learn more about Teams
I had Cygwin and its X-Windows installed on my Windows 10 laptop. On
all of my Windows computers (Acer, EliteBook, some Dell brand, and
others), the Windows 10 and X-Windows clipboard buffers were common
(or somehow made to behave as if they were common).
Here
is a
description of the two buffers.
I recently had to duplicate this Cygwin setup. My workhorse EliteBook
(840 G6) started to show keyboard circuit problems, so I was lucky
enough to get a replacement EliteBook 650 G9. They differ in physical
form factor, but software-wise, they are more similar than any other
two laptops that I've ever used. It was simple to replicate the
Cygwin environment using
package list migration procedure, although the package versions
themselves would be the most recent available (presumably!).
Since the computers are very similar, as are the Cygwin packages, I
would expect very similar behaviour. However, when I use Cygwin to
put text into the copy/paste buffer, it
cannot
be pasted in a Cygwin
xterm using
Shift+Ins
. Instead, I need to issue a
middle-mouse-button click (which I emulate in Windows 10 with a
3-finger tap).
While this does not work on the new EliteBook 650 G9, it
did
work on
my various past laptops, including the EliteBook 640 G6. Even on the
new EliteBook 650 G9, it
Shift-Ins
does
work on a Cygwin mintty (the
default terminal that is launched for Bash).
How can I get
Shift+Ins
to paste into xterm?
Troubleshooting
Shift+Ins
doesn't paste into an xterm in the new EliteBook 650 G9
regardless of
how
I put text into the Primary or Clipboard buffers,
including the following:
Highlight in a Windows 10 window and press Ctrl+C
Highlight in a Cygwin mintty terminal
Highlight in a Cygwin mintty terminal and press <Return> (which
copies from a CMD terminal window)
Using Gvim to yank into register
*
(Primary selection buffer)
Using Gvim to yank into register
+
(Clipboard buffer)
In a CMD terminal window, highlight text and press
In an xterm, select some text
In all of the above, the emulated middle-mouse-button click
does
paste into the xterm with the exception of Gvim yanking into
register
+
; the latter doesn't seem to update the Primary selection
buffer. All of the above also seems to paste into the Cygwin mintty
terminal using
Shift+Ins
, and into Windows notepad using
Shift+Ins
and
Ctrl+V
.
I confirmed proper functionality of the
Shift+Ins
not just in
Cygwin's mintty terminal, but also in Windows's Notepad. It pastes
text placed into Cygwins Primary selection and Clipboard buffers.
Cygwin X-Windows page shows that the two buffers are supposed to be
integrated by default. I confirmed that the checkbox for
Clipboard
may use PRIMARY selection
is enabled. My ~/.Xresources files is
identical on both EliteBooks, and I have nothing in there pertaining
to clipboards (just fonts and colour).
According to
this
posted answer to the absence of an Insert key on HP EliteBooks,
Fn+E
generates an
Ins
keystroke. It only works for those EliteBooks that are designed to generate an
Ins
keystroke in response to that combination of key presses. It works on both my dying 840 G6 and my 650 G9.
It is, however, a bit more complicated than described because it's not obvious how to effect the depression of the
Fn
key. Apparently, you don't just hold down the key marked
Fn
. Rather, you hold down the
CapsLock
key
first
, then hold down the
Fn
key. Only then do you press the
E
key to paste:
CapsLock
+
Fn
+
E
.
xterm responds to this as if the middle mouse button is pressed, pasting whatever text is in the Primary Selection. Since the Primary Selection is supposed to be synchronized to the Clipboard Buffer by Cygwin, we can just think of simply as "pasting" (or at least, we can now, with the discovery of how to effect a
Shift+Ins
paste).
What this tells me is that the following input events are intercepted / received at different levels, sometimes at the application level, and conditionally mapped to each other:
Ctrl
+
V
Middle mouse button click
CapsLock
+
Fn
+
E
Shift
+
Ins[ert]
The dependency on the application is clear from these facts: (i)
Ctrl
+
V
only pastes for Windows apps; (ii) Middle-mouse button click only pastes for Cygwin apps (mintty and xterm); (iii)
CapsLock
+
Fn
+
E
pastes for Windows, Cygwin, and Cygwin X-Windows apps; and (iv)
Shift
+
Ins[ert]
pastes for Cygwin's mintty terminal and Windows apps, but not xterm (and possibly not for X-Windows in general). The last caveat about not working for xterm seems furthermore to be installation dependent, as this is the first laptop for which
Shift
+
Ins[ert]
does not work.
For laptops that have an actual
Shift
+
Ins[ert]
key, such as my new EliteBook 650 G9,
CapsLock
+
Fn
+
E
is a
different
key combination. It can therefore be very confusing to say that the latter "is"
Shift
+
Ins[ert]
. For clarity, I suggest that any discussion of
CapsLock
+
Fn
+
E
refer to that key combination as a
synthetic
Shift
+
Ins[ert]
in order to distinguish it from the
actual
depression of the physical
Shift
+
Ins[ert]
keys that are present on the keyboard.
If
Shift
+
Fn
+
E
isn't a solution for you, another potential solution is
this
use of "SharpKeys" to remap an otherwise unused key to the desired
Shift+Ins
.