How do I disable middle mouse click pasting clipboard?

Question

I am running Kubuntu 20.04.

I just noticed that clicking the middle mouse button pastes my clipboard; I don't like that.

I cannot find a way to disable this behaviour. I would like to keep middle mouse button click working, but disable the paste action.

There are two "clipboards," which in X11 terminology are called the primary selection and the clipboard selection. The primary selection holds text that you've selected. The clipboard selection holds text that you've copied using control-C. Middle-clicking should be pasting the primary selection by default, not the clipboard selection. However, if you select text and then do a control-C, both selections will have that text in them, until you select something else. — , Nov 11 '21 at 13:36
possible duplicate of: https://askubuntu.com/questions/4507/how-do-i-disable-middle-mouse-button-click-paste?noredirect=1&lq=1 https://askubuntu.com/questions/597064/disabling-middle-mouse-button?noredirect=1&lq=1 https://askubuntu.com/questions/349503/any-updates-on-disabling-middle-click-paste?noredirect=1&lq=1 — , Nov 11 '21 at 13:40
Two possible solutions : 1) Don't use it 2) Learn to love it, and understand the difference between "Ctrl+C"+"Ctrl+V" and "Selecting"+"Middle click". It's simple, efficient and very versatile. — Eric Duminil, Nov 11 '21 at 15:07
@EricDuminil on my mouse in work the scroll wheel does this for the very lightest of touches, so disabling could be quite handy — Chris H, Nov 11 '21 at 16:42
@EricDuminil Many graphical programs use middle mouse to pan the view. — Scorb, Nov 11 '21 at 20:50
@Scorb: Is there a conflict, though? As far as I know, the programs are still free to decide what to do with a middle click. It's not like those graphical programs pan the view and copy the text somewhere, is it? — Eric Duminil, Nov 11 '21 at 21:00
Yes. When I pan the view in Figma with middle mouse, it also pastes the clipboard contents into the figma view. — Scorb, Nov 11 '21 at 21:22

score 11 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 15 '22 at 14:58

11

The following solution globally disables paste on middle click for me while retaining all middle mouse button and clipboard functionality:

Follow the steps described in this answer, that is:

Install xbindkeys xsel xdotool
Place this in ~/.xbindkeysrc
"echo -n | xsel -n -i; pkill xbindkeys; xdotool click 2; xbindkeys"  
b:2 + Release
Reload xbindkeys -p

In step 2. you may need to remove the + Release part as described in this post, depending on what works on your machine.

Set up xbindkeys to run on startup.

Then open Klipper, e.g. via the clipboard icon in the system tray > right click > Configure Clipboard. Uncheck the option 'Prevent empty clipboard'. Reboot and the problem should be solved.

The latter idea is thanks to milaq's XMousePasteBlock.

answered Jan 15 '22 at 14:58

Natalie Clarius

509

2

For anyone searching the internet for a solution that hasn't stopped working, this one works in 22.04. (Thanks!) – Tachytaenius Dec 12 '22 at 18:49
Funnily enough, this actually breaks middle mouse scrolling using a tablet input device. Guess I'm sticking with middle mouse paste after all. – Tachytaenius Dec 12 '22 at 19:05
I use gnome and wayland and I thought I needed to do this to fix VSCode middle mouse paste to the vertical selection. Turns out there is a VSCode config that controls it as well, so if you're using VSCode to litmus test, be careful because it will still middle mouse click unless you have set "editor.selectionClipboard": false on your settings – Andrew Knackstedt Feb 27 '23 at 21:34
2 years later, after some new bug I need that tool again. Thx a lot! – Joergi Mar 12 '24 at 09:27

score 7 · Answer 2 · edited Nov 12 '21 at 07:29

7

Right-click somewhere on the desktop and choose Configure Desktop and Wallpaper... from the context menu. This will open the Desktop Folder Settings window. There you can configure the mouse actions:

edited Nov 12 '21 at 07:29

BeastOfCaerbannog

14,585

answered Nov 10 '21 at 20:57

mook765

15,925

4

This only affects the desktop background, not any applications. – Natalie Clarius Jan 17 '22 at 18:16

score 2 · Answer 3 · edited Nov 12 '21 at 07:30

Steps for a solution:

Identify the ID/IDs of your device with
```
xinput list 
```
Get the button map with
```
xinput get-button-map <ID>
```

Set the button action

xinput set-button-map <ID> 1 <new action>

Repeat the last command for as many IDs as your mouse has. 1 stands for the mapping of left-click, then for middle click, etc. Use for <new action> number 0 to disable middle-click, number 1 if you want to make it equivalent to left-click, etc.

There are other possible methods.

Related:

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 05 '24 at 12:18

These random pastes were polluting my source code. I was able to stop them on my Ubuntu 22.04 by setting:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-enable-primary-paste false

No restart or additional command was necessary. Source here: https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-disable-middle-mouse-button-click-paste-on-ubuntu-20-04-focal-fossa-linux

Developer 123 · Answer 5 · 2024-02-12T03:41:53.640

0

I had the middle mouse button paste problem on Kubuntu 23.10.

The only solution that worked for me and was easy to follow is at http://www.humans-enabled.com/2019/03/how-to-disable-mouse-middle-click-in.html

edited Feb 12 '24 at 03:41

answered Feb 12 '24 at 03:40

Developer 123

1

How do I disable middle mouse click pasting clipboard?

5 Answers5