select all in terminal not working [Solved]

[decuser]

So, before I go switching terminals (I like the default and don't wanna change), I thought I would ask to see if it's just me or if this is an issue for others...

In terminal, do something that outputs more than one screenful of information.
Select All and copy

Only one screen of the output gets copied. I looked around on the internet and this appears to be a bug in vte https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/vte/-/issues/2504... if that's actually the issue, it's been around for a while.

Some folks are like, why would you want to copy more than a screenful? or just use

Code: Select all

script

... ugh, neither is reasonable. Select all works in numerous terminals and I use it all the time (I would have noticed it earlier, but I've been using tmux a lot lately and when I hit the issue a few days ago, figured it was something up with tmux, now I know tmux isn't involved).

So, is it a known issue in the MX community, is it not an issue with your install, or do you know a fix?

[CharlesV]

Please post your QSI. ( MX Menu, Quick System Info, Copy for Forum, Paste here )

[decuser]

Code: Select all

System:
  Kernel: 6.1.0-17-amd64 [6.1.69-1] arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.2.0
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.1.0-17-amd64 root=UUID=<filter> ro quiet splash
  Desktop: Xfce v: 4.18.1 tk: Gtk v: 3.24.36 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm v: 4.18.0 vt: 7
    dm: LightDM v: 1.26.0 Distro: MX-23.1_x64 Libretto October 15  2023 base: Debian GNU/Linux 12
    (bookworm)
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: LENOVO product: 20193 v: Lenovo IdeaPad Y500 serial: <superuser required>
    Chassis: type: 10 v: Lenovo IdeaPad Y500 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: LENOVO model: INVALID v: 31900003WIN8 STD MLT serial: <superuser required> UEFI: LENOVO
    v: 6BCN44WW(V2.04) date: 05/21/2013
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT1 charge: 65.5 Wh (100.0%) condition: 65.5/62.7 Wh (104.5%) volts: 12.2 min: 10.8
    model: LENOVO PABAS0241231 type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: full
  Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech ERGO M575 Trackball serial: <filter> charge: 100%
    rechargeable: yes status: discharging
CPU:
  Info: model: Intel Core i7-3630QM bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Ivy Bridge gen: core 3 level: v2
    built: 2012-15 process: Intel 22nm family: 6 model-id: 0x3A (58) stepping: 9 microcode: 0x21
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 4 tpc: 2 threads: 8 smt: enabled cache: L1: 256 KiB
    desc: d-4x32 KiB; i-4x32 KiB L2: 1024 KiB desc: 4x256 KiB L3: 6 MiB desc: 1x6 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 2204 high: 2732 min/max: 1200/3400 scaling: driver: intel_cpufreq
    governor: ondemand cores: 1: 2732 2: 2624 3: 2591 4: 2369 5: 1299 6: 1723 7: 2600 8: 1700
    bogomips: 38313
  Flags: avx ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: gather_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled
  Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT vulnerable
  Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
  Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI
  Type: mmio_stale_data status: Unknown: No mitigations
  Type: retbleed status: Not affected
  Type: spec_rstack_overflow status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Retpolines, IBPB: conditional, IBRS_FW, STIBP: conditional, RSB
    filling, PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected
  Type: srbds status: Vulnerable: No microcode
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GK107M [GeForce GT 750M] vendor: Lenovo driver: nouveau v: kernel non-free:
    series: 470.xx+ status: legacy-active (EOL~2023/24) arch: Kepler code: GKxxx process: TSMC 28nm
    built: 2012-18 pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 8 link-max: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16
    ports: active: LVDS-1 empty: HDMI-A-1,VGA-1 bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:0fe4 class-ID: 0300
    temp: 50.0 C
  Device-2: Realtek Lenovo EasyCamera type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 3-1:2 chip-ID: 0bda:58b9
    class-ID: 0e02 serial: <filter>
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 compositor: xfwm v: 4.18.0 driver: X:
    loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa dri: nouveau gpu: nouveau display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 508x285mm (20.00x11.22") s-diag: 582mm (22.93")
  Monitor-1: LVDS-1 model: LG Display 0x01e9 built: 2009 res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 141
    gamma: 1.2 size: 345x194mm (13.58x7.64") diag: 396mm (15.6") ratio: 16:9 modes: max: 1920x1080
    min: 640x350
  API: OpenGL v: 4.3 Mesa 22.3.6 renderer: NVE7 direct-render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 7 Series/C216 Family High Definition Audio vendor: Lenovo 7 driver: snd_hda_intel
    v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8086:1e20 class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: NVIDIA GK107 HDMI Audio vendor: Lenovo driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: gen: 1
    speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 8 link-max: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 01:00.1
    chip-ID: 10de:0e1b class-ID: 0403
  API: ALSA v: k6.1.0-17-amd64 status: kernel-api tools: alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.0 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse status: active
    2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin 4: pw-jack type: plugin
    tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
  Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros AR8161 Gigabit Ethernet vendor: Realtek driver: alx v: kernel pcie:
    gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: 2000 bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 1969:1091 class-ID: 0200
  IF: eth0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Intel Centrino Wireless-N 2230 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel modules: wl pcie: gen: 1
    speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 03:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:0888 class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Intel Centrino Bluetooth Wireless Transceiver type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8
    bus-ID: 1-1.3:4 chip-ID: 8087:07da class-ID: e001
  Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 3 state: down bt-service: N/A rfk-block: hardware: no
    software: no address: <filter>
  Info: acl-mtu: 310:10 sco-mtu: 64:8 link-policy: rswitch hold sniff park
    link-mode: peripheral accept
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 931.51 GiB used: 47.55 GiB (5.1%)
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
  ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Samsung model: SSD 870 EVO 1TB size: 931.51 GiB block-size:
    physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 3B6Q scheme: GPT
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 782.05 GiB size: 768.7 GiB (98.29%) used: 47.52 GiB (6.2%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 512 MiB size: 511 MiB (99.80%) used: 31.7 MiB (6.2%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 15 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 4 GiB used: 1.8 MiB (0.0%) priority: -2 file: /swap/swap
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 57.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: nouveau temp: 50.0 C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Repos:
  Packages: 3140 pm: dpkg pkgs: 3122 libs: 1644 tools: apt,apt-get,aptitude,nala,synaptic pm: rpm
    pkgs: 0 pm: flatpak pkgs: 18
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-updates main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
    2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64] https://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/megasync.list
    1: deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/meganz-archive-keyring.gpg] https://mega.nz/linux/repo/Debian_12/ ./
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list
    1: deb http://mxrepo.com/mx/repo/ bookworm main non-free
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nordvpn.list
    1: deb https://repo.nordvpn.com//deb/nordvpn/debian stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/opera-stable.list
    1: deb https://deb.opera.com/opera-stable/ stable non-free
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/skype-unstable.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64] https://repo.skype.com/deb unstable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/sublime-text.list
    1: deb https://download.sublimetext.com/ apt/stable/
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vscode.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64,arm64,armhf] http://packages.microsoft.com/repos/code stable main
Info:
  Processes: 326 Uptime: 8h 43m wakeups: 16 Memory: 15.57 GiB used: 4.32 GiB (27.7%) Init: SysVinit
  v: 3.06 runlevel: 5 default: graphical tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 12.2.0 alt: 12
  Client: shell wrapper v: 5.2.15-release inxi: 3.3.26
Boot Mode: UEFI

[CharlesV]

ty, so bash. You might try the .bashrc file or preferences and see if you can add more lines etc. to 'a page' . I typically just redirect anything to a file if it is more than a screen full, cannot say that I have ever tried select all.

[decuser]

well, maybe. It's working with konsole. I hate to switch from the default, but I need it to work, so konsole it is until I can figure it out with xfce_terminal. I'll go file a bug or something :).

[Stuart_M]

...I thought I would ask to see if it's just me or if this is an issue for others...
...

For me the answer is yes and no.

• Yes, it works for me but only in MX-19 (oh how I like MX-19)
• No, it does not work for me in my MX-21 and MX-23 test systems.

In MX-21 and MX-23 Ctrl+Shift+A will only highlight what can be displayed in the Terminal from the cursor location to the text at the top of the visible Terminal window, regardless of where the Terminal content is scrolled to.

...
...do you know a fix?

"Sorta-kinda". By that I mean that I do not have a fix per se but more of a workaround (I spent hours researching this).

Of course a common way would be to drag the mouse to highlight the entire Terminal contents and then Ctrl+Shift+C, but that is somewhat slow and the steps in the bullet points below will be much faster when there are many lines of text in the Terminal.

Another way would be to go to the Terminal menu > Terminal > "Save Contents..." which will copy the Terminal contents to a text file, but then you'll have to open the text file and Ctrl+A > Ctrl+S to copy it to the clipboard. Then that text file will still need to be deleted.

I believe a better way to highlight and copy a large amount of text in the MX-21 and MX-23 xfce4 Terminal is the below method which requires a little finger dexterity but I can highlight the entire Terminal screen in 2-3 seconds regardless of how many lines of text is in the Terminal:

• At the bottom of the screen (the end of the contents), left-click and hold the mouse button down
• drag the mouse a line or two up so highlighting begins (still holding the mouse button down)
• Now press Shift+Home to bring the text to the top of the window and, while still holding the left mouse button down, drag the highlighted text to the top.
• Release the left mouse button
• Now Ctrl+Shift+C to copy the highlighted text to the clipboard > Done.

IMPORTANT: The reason for the second bullet, highlighting a line or two while still holding the left mouse button down, is important is because if the mouse does not highlight anything then only the visible text at the top of the Terminal window will be highlighted. Highlighting at least one line before Shift+Home is done will ensure that the ENTIRE contents of the Terminal window will be highlighted and copied when brought to the top of the contents.

After doing the above procedure 15-20 times I can highlight the entire Terminal contents almost as fast as using Ctrl+Shift+A......almost.

Something changed the behavior of Ctrl+Shift+A from MX-19 to MX-21 and MX-23. That looks like a good clue to find the cause of the change.

[decuser]

Brilliant, @Stuart_M! Weird, but what worked for me:

1. Click and drag to make a partial selection from the end or beginning of what you want selected (you can let go of the mouse).
2. Hold shift and either pageup/pagedown or home/end as appropriate (if you page far enough away from the selection, new lines won't get selected until you click again) - don't let go of Shift.
3. Left click and the the selection will appear where you click, move it to the start of what you want selected and let go.

Very repeatable.

The save contents works too. Wish I had noticed that when I had those zillions of pages of output. I closed the terminal and it's all gone now. But, lesson learned.

[Stuart_M]

Oh wow! I had to log into my MX-23 test system to see for myself. That's a lot better than my "holding the mouse button down" rubbish! Thanks for the additional testing.

Now I'll have to edit my notes even though I'm still using my beloved MX-19.