MX Linux Forum

Posted: **Thu Nov 12, 2020 7:22 pm**

This is apparently a problem that has been around in linux for decades.
The problem is that most mice these days have sensitive mouse wheel button action.
Thats great for most things , except click-to-paste. I know Im not alone with this issue as there are thousands of requests over the web for a simple way to disable this.
Im not changing my expensive G304 mouse to one with a heavier action after finally finding one that has high enough DPI to work productively on a 4K display.
The problem is with accidental pastes when writing article, emails etc. Imagine your username or password mistakenly being pasted into an email:
This issue
- Big SECURITY RISK
- Poor Productivity, having to manually check and re-check articles before sending/publishing.
- Random pastes completely stuffing php/html coding.

I could not find a setting in the Settings Editor or other Mouse/Touchpad settings managers.
My last resort may be to dismantle the mouse to try and make the click tension heavier.

Is there a way to disable JUST the Click to Paste "feature" of the Middle-Mouse-wheel in MXL xfce?

Posted: **Thu Nov 12, 2020 7:43 pm**

A web search comes up with many, many sites with solutions for disabling only the click-to-paste mouse wheel function in Linux. Try it.

Posted: **Thu Nov 12, 2020 8:11 pm**

Thank you for your suggestion Jay,
After I tried one, that did nothing, decided to reach out to a more direct approach...the forum.
Most "solutions" describe known bugs associated with clipboard managers, or are for Gnome or other platforms. I was hoping for a specific solution for Debian/Xfce to prevent wasting my life testing this-and-that possible application for days on end!
This is a productivity issue... and Ive got work to do!solution
Crazy that in the end I may need to mechanically modify the mouse to solve an obvious security risk.

Posted: **Thu Nov 12, 2020 8:18 pm**

Well, of some help is the config setting in Mozilla FF and Thunderbird for middlemouse.paste
Still need this OS wide for coding etc. but its a start.

Posted: **Thu Nov 12, 2020 9:09 pm**

https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-disable- ... ossa-linux

Install the gnome-tweaks package, open a terminal and run

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gnome-tweaks

and follow the instructions on that website. I found this by searching Duckduckgo for the text of the subject of your post. Since Xfce is GTK-based it should work even though the instructions are for Gnome.

Posted: **Thu Nov 12, 2020 11:14 pm**

Thanks JayM, that seems to have worked, I'll test further to see if it stuffs anything else.
I did find that page with a Startpage search, but am so used to getting failures/bugs of non-GTK-based apps that didnt want to risk it.
Mind you the list of errors that pop up in terminal are a worry:

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WARNING : Shell not installed or running
WARNING : Error loading desktopfile: ~/.config/autostart/gnome-keyring-secrets.desktop
WARNING : Error loading desktopfile: ~/.config/autostart/copyq.desktop
WARNING : Error loading desktopfile: ~/.config/autostart/blueman.desktop
WARNING : Error loading desktopfile: ~/.config/autostart/xfce4-volumed.desktop
WARNING : Shell not running
NoneType: None
WARNING : Error detecting shell
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/gtweak/tweaks/tweak_group_shell_extensions.py", line 217, in __init__
    raise Exception("Shell not running or DBus service not available")
Exception: Shell not running or DBus service not available

(gnome-tweaks:7999): Gtk-WARNING **: 14:30:31.380: gtk_window_present_with_time() should not be called with 0, or GDK_CURRENT_TIME as a timestamp, the timestamp should instead be gathered at the time the user initiated the request for the window to be shown

(gnome-tweaks:7999): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: 14:30:31.391: g_dbus_proxy_new: assertion 'G_IS_DBUS_CONNECTION (connection)' failed
(repeated ~11 times )

Posted: **Fri Nov 13, 2020 12:53 am**

Disabling middle-click is something I would expect find as a white check-box in the Terminal Settings manager.

Posted: **Fri Nov 13, 2020 1:33 am**

metreo wrote: Fri Nov 13, 2020 12:53 am Disabling middle-click is something I would expect find as a white check-box in the Terminal Settings manager.

MX/Xfce doesn't have a terminal settings manager. There's Preferences within the Xfce4 Terminal if that's what you mean but I don't know why you'd expect to find global mouse configuration settings there.

Posted: **Fri Nov 13, 2020 5:22 am**

Update Re: gnome-tweaks - did not fix the issue for gtk3 apps

Posted: **Fri Nov 13, 2020 3:28 pm**

remoteone wrote: Thu Nov 12, 2020 7:22 pm Is there a way to disable JUST the Click to Paste "feature" of the Middle-Mouse-wheel in MXL xfce?

Please post the output of this command running from terminal command line:

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xinput --list

You will get something like this as shown on my pc:

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xinput --list
⎡ Virtual core pointer                    	id=2	[master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer              	id=4	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Logitech USB Laser Mouse                	id=11	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ X10 WTI RF receiver mouse               	id=12	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard                   	id=3	[master keyboard (2)]
    ↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard             	id=5	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                            	id=6	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                            	id=7	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳   USB Keyboard                          	id=8	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳   USB Keyboard System Control           	id=9	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳   USB Keyboard Consumer Control         	id=10	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ X10 WTI RF receiver                     	id=13	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ ACPI Virtual Keyboard Device            	id=14	[slave  keyboard (3)]

My mouse has id=11
Now I can get the mouse buttons order this way:

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xinput --list 11 | egrep 'Buttons? '

where I got:

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xinput --list 11 | egrep 'Buttons? '
Buttons supported: 16
Button labels: "Button Left" "Button Middle" "Button Right" "Button Wheel Up" "Button Wheel Down" "Button Horiz Wheel Left" "Button Horiz Wheel Right" "Button Side" "Button Extra" "Button Forward" "Button Back" "Button Task" "Button Unknown" "Button Unknown" "Button Unknown" "Button Unknown"

Please post the output of those command mentioned and we can adjust it to construct a command running e.g at login or bound to a keyboard shortcut dis disable / enable middle-click.

Posted: **Fri Nov 13, 2020 7:11 pm**

Thank you for the assistance. I
At this stage, I should point out my opinion that the middle-wheel click-to-paste function can be an asset and a liability.
An asset when you actually WANT to just paste to an input box... but a DISASTER to productivity when accidental clicks occur.
Thus, an OS-wide solution isn't really the best solution. Since discovering that FireFox and Thunderbird have the setting to disable this, surely its technically possible for this to be disabled at app level, if the authors would implement.
At the risk of getting a bit off-topic...
What I really need now is a good code editor that also has this "disable-middle-click-paste" preference... alas, Geany and Bluefish dont seem to have this ability.

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 xinput --list
⎡ Virtual core pointer                    	id=2	[master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer              	id=4	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Logitech G304                           	id=11	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ DLL07BF:01 06CB:7A13 Mouse              	id=13	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ DLL07BF:01 06CB:7A13 Touchpad           	id=14	[slave  pointer  (2)]

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xinput --list 11 | egrep 'Buttons? '
Buttons supported: 24
Button labels: "Button Left" "Button Middle" "Button Right" "Button Wheel Up" "Button Wheel Down" "Button Horiz Wheel Left" "Button Horiz Wheel Right" "Button Side" "Button Extra" "Button Forward" "Button Back" "Button Task" "Button Unknown" "Button Unknown" "Button Unknown" "Button Unknown" "Button Unknown" "Button Unknown" "Button Unknown" "Button Unknown" "Button Unknown" "Button Unknown" "Button Unknown" "Button Unknown"
		Button state:

Posted: **Fri Nov 13, 2020 7:14 pm**

I found that there is an atom-disable-middle-click-paste extension for the Atom editor.

Posted: **Fri Nov 13, 2020 8:01 pm**

remoteone wrote: Fri Nov 13, 2020 7:11 pm

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 xinput --list
⎡ Virtual core pointer                    	id=2	[master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Logitech G304                           	id=11	[slave  pointer  (2)]

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xinput --list 11 | egrep 'Buttons? '
Buttons supported: 24
Button labels: "Button Left" "Button Middle" "Button Right" "Button Wheel Up" "Button Wheel Down" "Button Horiz Wheel Left" "Button Horiz Wheel Right" "Button Side" "Button Extra" "Button Forward" "Button Back" "Button Task" "Button Unknown" "Button Unknown" "Button Unknown" "Button Unknown" "Button Unknown" "Button Unknown" "Button Unknown" "Button Unknown" "Button Unknown" "Button Unknown" "Button Unknown" "Button Unknown"
		Button state:

OK, a bash one liner:
To switch middle click off: ( SWITCH=0 ):

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bash -c 'SWITCH=0; M="Logitech G304"; MID=$(xinput --list --short | grep -oP "$M.*id=\K\d+"); BN=$(xinput --list $MID | grep -oP "Buttons supported: \K\d+"); P="xinput set-button-map  $MID $(for i in $(eval echo {1..$BN}); do ((i==2)) && ((SWITCH==0)) && echo 0 || echo $i; done)"; echo $P; $P'

To switch middle click on: ( SWITCH=1 ):

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bash -c 'SWITCH=1; M="Logitech G304"; MID=$(xinput --list --short | grep -oP "$M.*id=\K\d+"); BN=$(xinput --list $MID | grep -oP "Buttons supported: \K\d+"); P="xinput set-button-map  $MID $(for i in $(eval echo {1..$BN}); do ((i==2)) && ((SWITCH==0)) && echo 0 || echo $i; done)"; echo $P; $P'

You can bind it to keyboard shortcuts for enabling or disabling.
HTH

EDIT: adjusted to a slightly shorter variant

Posted: **Fri Nov 13, 2020 8:41 pm**

Hello remoteone
Sympathetic tone, touchpad did it to me last week.
Scrolling to make some changes in a config file
the touchpad must have taken some of the scrolls as paste (suspected middle-click).
scrolling quickly I missed seeing it happen; ensuing error to pursue.
never had a problem with mousewheel.
This certain touchpad is the first culprit to paste on middle-click unexpectedly.

Posted: **Sat Nov 14, 2020 1:37 am**

The thing with many text editors and IDEs is that they're QT apps so the Gnome Tweak Tools mouse settings has no effect on them, but supposedly Geany is GTK-based so it should respect your GTK (Gnome) settings. Otherwise do as fehlix suggested to globally disable middle button click-to-paste everywhere on your system. Or just continue using Atom editor if you prefer, in which case please edit your post #1 and add "[SOLVED]" to the subject.

Posted: **Thu Nov 26, 2020 7:22 am**

So the bigger issue turns out to be the default linux "feature" referred to as copy-selection-to-clipboard.
This should be disabled by un-checking Clipman's [Sync selections] . But changing this has no effect at all.

Is there a Property that can be added to Settings Editor (or other) > xfce4 > plugins > ... to turn off copy-selection-to-clipboard

This so-called feature is an annoying hangover for when linux was all command line. Great for Terminal, but a productivity killer and security risk for desktop apps.
New topic needed for this no doubt.

Posted: **Thu Nov 26, 2020 7:36 am**

Maybe doing the reverse of this works: ( Option "Emulate3Buttons" "off" )

Edit: It seems you already solved that, anyway, Radivarig's suggestion here seems to have worked for many people - also referenced from other sites - .

Posted: **Thu Nov 26, 2020 5:27 pm**

Toggle Middle Click Desktop Icon

I've seen different proposals. Here my latest.
toggle-middle-click.desktop

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[Desktop Entry]
# filename: toggle-middle-click.desktop
# MX-Forum: https://forum.mxlinux.org/viewtopic.php?p=609993#p609993
# fehlix , 26.11.2020
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Name=Toggle Middle Click
Comment=Switch middle click on/off
Exec=bash -c 'P=($(xmodmap -pp|grep -oP '[0-9]+$'));S=${P[1]};P[1]=${P[-1]};P[-1]=$S; MM="pointer = ${P[*]}"; X="xmodmap -e \\"$MM\\""; echo $X; XM=~/.Xmodmap; touch $XM; sed -i "/^[[:space:]]*pointer[[:space:]]*=/d" $XM ; echo  $MM >> $XM;  eval $X; STATE=OFF; ((P[1]==2)) && STATE=ON; notify-send  --icon=input-mouse "Middle Click $STATE"'
#Icon=input-mouse-wheel
Icon=input-mouse
Path=
Terminal=false
StartupNotify=false
Categories=XFCE;GTK;Settings;DesktopSettings;X-XFCE-SettingsDialog;X-XFCE-HardwareSettings;

Copy and paste the content into a new text file and name it "toggle-middle-click.desktop".
Clicking on the desktop icon will switch on/off the mouse middle click.
It stays sticky after reboot or logout and login.
You can also copy the desktop-file into the folder ~/.local/share/applications
so it will be available within the menu.
HTH

Posted: **Sat Dec 05, 2020 1:28 am**

I have found my problem.. something to watch out for with linux (or maybe just xfce.. dunno)
So.. the issue really is that all text selected by double-click was being copied to Clipman manager list, even though Sync-selection setting of Clipman was unchecked.
Turns out that the title for this post should be different.

I had tried out a number of clipboards out, installed and then uninstalled properly via MX installer.
However there were ~/.conf/clipit?? and .../copyq and ~/.config/autostart/ config files left behind. Deleted these and logged back in, problem fixed.
The Clipman setting was being overridden by config files left behind.
I was alerted to this by a post somewhere about tigerVNC doing the save damage (damage to my freaking brain).
Clipman issue is solved.

And any app (Terminal, Geany etc) that does not have its own setting for this will still Middle-Mouse-wheel Click to Paste ... still works the old unix way with auto copy-selection and middle-wheel-paste.

Posted: **Sat Dec 05, 2020 1:41 am**

If this is solved to your satisfaction, could you please edit your original post #1 at the very top of the topic by clicking the pencil tip icon, the one circled in red in my screenshot image below (yours won't have the red circle)

and add [SOLVED] at the front of the subject? This will make it easier for others when they search the forum looking for a solution to the same problem. Thanks.

MX Linux Forum

How to disable Middle-Mouse-wheel Click to Paste (XFCE)

How to disable Middle-Mouse-wheel Click to Paste (XFCE)

Re: How to disable Middle-Mouse-wheel Click to Paste (XFCE)

Re: How to disable Middle-Mouse-wheel Click to Paste (XFCE)

Re: How to disable Middle-Mouse-wheel Click to Paste (XFCE)

Re: How to disable Middle-Mouse-wheel Click to Paste (XFCE)

Re: How to disable Middle-Mouse-wheel Click to Paste (XFCE)

Re: How to disable Middle-Mouse-wheel Click to Paste (XFCE)

Re: How to disable Middle-Mouse-wheel Click to Paste (XFCE)

Re: How to disable Middle-Mouse-wheel Click to Paste (XFCE)

Re: How to disable Middle-Mouse-wheel Click to Paste (XFCE)

Re: How to disable Middle-Mouse-wheel Click to Paste (XFCE)

Re: How to disable Middle-Mouse-wheel Click to Paste (XFCE)

Re: How to disable Middle-Mouse-wheel Click to Paste (XFCE)

Re: How to disable Middle-Mouse-wheel Click to Paste (XFCE)

Re: How to disable Middle-Mouse-wheel Click to Paste (XFCE)

Re: How to disable Middle-Mouse-wheel Click to Paste (XFCE)

Re: How to disable Middle-Mouse-wheel Click to Paste (XFCE)

Re: How to disable Middle-Mouse-wheel Click to Paste (XFCE)

[Solved] How to disable Middle-Mouse-wheel Click to Paste (XFCE)

Re: How to disable Middle-Mouse-wheel Click to Paste (XFCE)