LXQt and xclip

pfr

I've recently started using LXQt on the desktop and am having an issue where my rbw (Bitwarden client) script no longer copies my passwords to the clipboard (xclip) when launched from an LXQt keybinding.

I have my script rbw-dmenu:

#!/bin/sh                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
set -e                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
rbw-menu password | xclip -selection clipboard

which is bound to Ctrl+p in the LXQt keybindings. The script launches the rbw-menu which is another script that reads the defined menu option in ~/.profile. For me this is export RBW_MENU_COMMAND="dmenu". While the script does launch from the LQXt keybinding, when I select my password that I require it does not get copied to the clipboard.

If I run the script from the terminal however, the it works just fine.

I was looking to see if there was another clipboard manager installed as part of LXQt, and a quick internet search revealed that qlipper is meant to be the default, howerve it appears that qlipper is not included with LXQt on NetBSD.

Can anyone help me fix this? It's only become an issue on LQXt and It kind of defeats the purpose of the script altogether if I have to run it manually from the terminal. I may as well just create an alias for the command instead.

pfr I was looking to see if there was another clipboard manager installed as part of LXQt, and a quick internet search revealed that qlipper is meant to be the default, howerve it appears that qlipper is not included with LXQt on NetBSD.

Where is it stated that qlipper is meant to be default in LXQt?

While I could agree that it would fit, it's not officially a part of the project. The DE doesn't provide a default text editor either, though featherpad is shipped by default on several Linux distros. The same goes for kvantum as a theme engine.

Actually, not even a window manager is default and shouldn't be included within the desktop package. Although, in this case, the user experience would be seriously affected.

When packaging LXQt, I've simply followed upstreams recommendations, with two exceptions that I will comeback to. There are several discussions on the projects GitHub covering what users think default apps should be. The answer from the devs is usually consistent, "it's the users choice". So, I've just followed the recommendations. Even, lxqt-sudo, regardless of the name, doesn't require sudo and supports doas and su so, sudo is not included in the package.

With the exception of a window manager which, is included by default and, qps which, is not (too Linux specific), I've just followed upstreams recommendations. Hence, no clipboard, no text editor, no calculator, ...

As for your issue, just try what @seninha suggested.

seninha

I think it might be related to the way LXQt handles background jobs that the script spawns.
xclip forks itself into the background. I think that, when the script returns, LXQt reaps that background process.

Since (I think, am not using it) LXQt does not lock while the spawn processes is running, you can make xclip not fork itself by passing it -loops 0. XClip will then return (and the script terminate) when another process (maybe another instance of xclip) claims the clipboard for itself.

However, since that is for passwords, you should else use -loops 1, so it waits for the first pasting operation before returning (and discarding the clipboard). Either that or combine -loops 0 with -sensitive for a timed clipboard (50s) with unlimited pastes until it time out.

pfr

seninha you should else use -loops 1

Hmmm nope, this doesn't seem to help. Also, it seems that there is no -sensitive flag for my version of xclip - v0.3

It's works launching the script from the command line as before, but still not from the keybinding.

pin Where is it stated that qlipper is meant to be default in LXQt?

I apologise, I was incorrect. I pretty much assumed it was the default based on all the lubuntu threads on the matter. Perhaps it's the default for lubuntu but I'd just be assuming that also.

seninha

pfr Hmmm nope, this doesn't seem to help. Also, it seems that there is no -sensitive flag for my version of xclip - v0.3

I still think that may be related to how background process on that non-interactive shell are handled by either LXQt or /bin/sh or something else... I sugest you to try trapping SIGHUP:

#!/bin/sh
trap : HUP
rbw-menu password | xclip -selection clipboard

I removed the unneeded set -e line (which exits the shell when something fails). The only command whose exit status is known to shell is xclip (in a pipeline, only the last command's exit status is known), and if XClip fails the shell would exit on error anyway (nothing is run afterwards).

pfr

seninha Thanks again, but still no luck 🙁

Any more ideas??

rvp

pfr Any more ideas??

Deja-vu time!

Try running xclip under nohup like this:

rbw-menu password | nohup xclip -loop 1 -sel clip >/dev/null

pfr

rvp Sadly still no workie... Perhapse I'll try qlipper now since it's in wip

rvp

pfr ~~Try without the -loop 1 which was just for security (exit after 1 paste); and before you do a paste, open a terminal, do a ps -Au and check that the xclip process is still around.~~

After installing LXQT, I see at least one thing that's wrong, but, it shouldn't be causing your issue:

LXQT shell quoting seems pretty broken. It works for simple commands, but, if you have chars. like | or $ or anything else exotic it just falls apart.

Explicitly quoting like this seems to work:

sh -c '...'

or, wrapping the cmd. line in a shell-script (like rbw-dmenu).

What does this rbw-menu look like?

pfr

rvp

rbw-menu:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail
IFS=$'\n\t'
# Creator: Robert Buchberger <robert@buchberger.cc>
#                            @robert@spacey.space
#
# Select an item from bitwarden with wofi, return value for passed query
# Dependencies: rbw installed and configured
#
# Usage: rbw-menu [query]
#   query: "code" or anything on the login object; username, password, totp, etc
#     - code will return a TOTP code
#     - anything else will return the value of the query
#   default: username

rbw unlocked &> /dev/null || rbw unlock

query=${1:-username}

chosen_item=$(
    # If RBW_MENU_COMMAND is set, use it to filter the list.
    if declare -p RBW_MENU_COMMAND >&/dev/null; then
        eval "rbw list | $RBW_MENU_COMMAND"
    else # use wofi
        rbw list | wofi --dmenu --matching fuzzy --insensitive --prompt "$query"
    fi
)

# Exit if user didn't select anything
declare -p chosen_item >&/dev/null || exit 1

case "$query" in
code)
    rbw code "$chosen_item"
    ;;
*)
    # Select chosen item from vault, return login.query
    rbw get "$chosen_item" --raw | jq --join-output ".data.$query"
    ;;
esac

rvp

pfr OK, can you see if this test script works?

#!/bin/sh
set -eu
ls /bin | dmenu -l 10 | xclip -loop 1 -sel clip
# ls /bin | $RBW_MENU_COMMAND -l 10 | xclip -loop 1 -sel clip

Move your rbw-dmenu out of the way; put this in its place. See if selection + paste works. If it does, then uncomment the other line (and comment out the previous one) and try again. Either way should work--it does for me (both running on the command line and via Ctrl-P).

pfr

rvp Hmmm the first one works, printing the ls /bin but why exactly is that in the second line?

Anyway, I wasn't completely honest with my first comment..

~ λ ls /bin | $RBW_MENU_COMMAND -l 10 | xclip -loop 1 -sel clip
error, cannot allocate color ''#c5b3a6''                                                                                                                      
~ λ grep RBW .profile                                                                                                                                         
export RBW_MENU_COMMAND="dmenu -fn CodeNewRomanNerdFont:style=Normal:pixelsize=13:antialias=true -nb '#1f1b18' -nf '#c5b3a6' -sb '#93a1a1' -sf '#000000'"

But, we're getting somewhere because the script works from a keybind.

pfr

OMFG...

pfr

Well... this is rather embarrassing, but I've solved it.

I had my key binding set to execute the rbw-menu script... NOT the rbw-dmenu script...
💀 ⚰️
Wow.. that's bad, even for me. Sorry for wasting your time.
I was up at 1am last night doing this so I put it down to lack of sleep 😪

@pin please delete this entire thread 🙏

pfr @pin please delete this entire thread

Do you really want me to that?

Jay

pin I think we should keep it so if anyone having same issue will check it also 😅

pfr

pin Do you really want me to that?

I mean.. It's clear now that there was never an issue to solve in the first place, only stupidity and carelessness, and this thread was a total waste of everyone's time... 😮‍💨

Jay I think we should keep it so if anyone having same issue will check it also 😅

Feel free to keep it up for amusement, but I highly doubt anyone will have the same issue. But it is a good reminder to have some (any) kind of naming convention for your scripts that wont get you into this mess. Also, just go to bed before midnight!

pfr

FML...

You're not going to believe this.

The same script wont launch at all from keybinding under sdorfehs on OpenBSD. 😫

So, here we go again.

The script is the same:

#!/bin/sh
rbw-menu password | xclip -loop 1 -sel clip

the rbw-menu script is the same as above also...

The script runs from the command line.

These are my keybindings:

# scripts
definekey top s-t exec $HOME/.scripts/bartoggle.sh
definekey top s-d exec $HOME/.scripts/dmenu_run.sh
definekey top s-p exec $HOME/.scripts/rbw-dmenu.sh             # <<<< correct script!!! 
definekey top s-s exec $HOME/.scripts/dmenu_scrot.sh
definekey top s-r exec $HOME/.scripts/ocr.sh
definekey top s-c exec $HOME/.scripts/colorpicker.sh

Just to further prove it:

~ $ ls .scripts | grep rbw
.rwxr-xr-x   66 dave 16 Sep 14:36 rbw-dmenu.sh

Thankfully, sdorfehs outputs some info in it's bar when a scripts runs/fails..
The output in the bar is:

/bin/sh/ -c "$HOME/.scripts/rbw-dmenu.sh" finished (127)

Not very helpful.
All my other scripts work with their keybindings. This time it's not an issue with xclip, but rather that the script isn't running... Needless to say, I'm now a little confused.. 😕

rvp

pfr The output in the bar is:

/bin/sh/ -c "$HOME/.scripts/rbw-dmenu.sh" finished (127)

An exit status of 127 means "command not found". That refers to xclip in that rbw-dmenu.sh script (ie. the last command in a pipeline).
Is xclip installed and in your $PATH?
Check ~/.xsession (if running xenodm) and ~/.profile if not.

Check the error messages on the console or ~/.xsession-errors

This worked for me just now:

# pkg_add sdorfehs dmenu xclip
[...]

$ sdorfehs -h
sdorfehs 1.5
[...]

$ dmenu -v
dmenu-5.2

$ xclip -version
xclip version 0.13
[...]

$ cat ~/.config/sdorfehs/config
definekey top F1 exec $HOME/tmp/foo.sh

$ cat ~/tmp/foo.sh
#!/bin/sh
set -eu
ls /bin | dmenu -l 10 | xclip -r -loop 1 -sel clip

$

pfr

But as I said, the script runs from the command line so it can't be an issue with xclip. But let me check....

rvp

~ $ which xclip
/usr/local/bin/xclip

~ $ grep PATH .profile
PATH=$HOME/bin:/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:$HOME/.cargo/bin:$HOME/.local/bin
export PATH HOME TERM

~ $ cat .xsession-errors
sh: /home/dave/.scipts/rbw-dmenu.sh: not found

~ $ cat .xsession
# use UTF-8 everywhere
export LANG=en_US.UTF-8

# specify location of kshrc
export ENV=$HOME/.kshrc

# load Xresources file
xrdb -merge $HOME/.Xresources

# picom
picom &

# disable system beep
xset b off

# start window manager
exec sdorfehs

I do use xenomd however I haven't set my path in .xsession. seems to work from .profile (for literally everything else).

I did also try to put the script in my path but it still failed to execute

rvp

pfr But as I said, the script runs from the command line so it can't be an issue with xclip.

PATHs set in .profile don't effect progs. started in xenodm. For xdm/xenodm the PATH used is set in either a) the XDM config. file or b) ~/.xsession. (And, since I'm not sitting in front of your computer, I've no way of knowing, from what you've shown so far, where your xclip is--you could've compiled it on your own and put it anywhere...)

~ $ cat .xsession-errors
sh: /home/dave/.scipts/rbw-dmenu.sh: not found

Notice the typo there. (And, this path isn't what you showed me in post #18)

pfr I do use xenomd however I haven't set my path in .xsession. seems to work from .profile (for literally everything else).

Doesn't matter in this case as xclip is in both PATHs (xenodm default and .profile--which are usually different; see xenodm).

Fix that typo, mate.