bug#23681: 25.1.50; gui-get-selection error when paste from windows to Emacs 25 through vnc

bug#23681: 25.1.50; gui-get-selection error when paste from windows to Emacs 25 through vnc

[Kevin Zhao]

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Hi Greetings,

I am using Emacs 25 by connecting to a Ubuntu 12.04 desktop from Windows 7
through vnc.

When I am trying to copy something from Windows and paste them into Emacs
25 running on Ubuntu, I get gui-get-selection error in *Message* buffer and
nothing is pasted.

Meanwhile, the copy/paste between Windows 7 and Emacs 24 on Ubuntu through
vnc works fine.
Also the copy/paste between Emacs 25 and other programs on Ubuntu (Emacs
24, GNOME terminal) works just fine.

I can see the error message "Selection owner couldn't convert" is in
src/xselect.c, could this be a BUG in Emacs 25 or something related with my
build/using environments?

Thanks a lot!

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In GNU Emacs 25.1.50.1 (x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 2.24.10)
 of 2016-06-02 built on xxxxx
Repository revision: 6b985764f07ae164d8142ba64774f2beb2856ca8
Windowing system distributor 'The XFree86 Project, Inc', version
11.0.40300000
System Description: Ubuntu 12.04.5 LTS

Recent messages:
[2016-06-02 19:49:56]  *scratch*  [0 259200]
[2016-06-02 19:49:56]   *Minibuf-0*  [3 259200]
[2016-06-02 19:49:56]  *Messages*  [nil 259200]
[2016-06-02 19:49:56]   *code-conversion-work*  [nil 259200]
[2016-06-02 19:49:56]   *Echo Area 0*  [nil 259200]
[2016-06-02 19:49:56]   *Echo Area 1*  [nil 259200]
[2016-06-02 19:49:56]  *Warnings*  [0 259200]
For information about GNU Emacs and the GNU system, type M-? C-a.
Mark set
gui-get-selection: (error "Selection owner couldn't convert" UTF8_STRING)
current-kill: Kill ring is empty
Configured using:
 'configure --prefix=/disk10/xxxx/test/'

Configured features:
XPM JPEG TIFF GIF PNG RSVG SOUND DBUS GSETTINGS NOTIFY GNUTLS LIBXML2
FREETYPE M17N_FLT LIBOTF XFT ZLIB TOOLKIT_SCROLL_BARS GTK2 X11

Important settings:
  value of $LANG: en_US.UTF-8
  locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix

Major mode: Messages

Minor modes in effect:
  projectile-global-mode: t
  projectile-mode: t
  helm-mode: t
  async-bytecomp-package-mode: t
  global-semanticdb-minor-mode: t
  global-semantic-idle-scheduler-mode: t
  semantic-mode: t
  recentf-mode: t
  global-hi-lock-mode: t
  hi-lock-mode: t
  shell-dirtrack-mode: t
  auto-image-file-mode: t
  show-paren-mode: t
  display-time-mode: t
  global-auto-revert-mode: t
  which-function-mode: t
  tooltip-mode: t
  global-eldoc-mode: t
  electric-indent-mode: t
  mouse-wheel-mode: t
  menu-bar-mode: t
  file-name-shadow-mode: t
  global-font-lock-mode: t
  font-lock-mode: t
  blink-cursor-mode: t
  auto-composition-mode: t
  auto-encryption-mode: t
  auto-compression-mode: t
  buffer-read-only: t
  column-number-mode: t
  line-number-mode: t
  transient-mark-mode: t

Load-path shadows:
~/.emacs.d/site-lisp/color-theme-6.6.0/color-theme hides
~/.emacs.d/site-lisp/color-theme
~/.emacs.d/site-lisp/color-theme-6.6.0/color-theme hides
/disk10/xxxx/emacs.d/elpa/color-theme-20080305.34/color-theme
~/.emacs.d/site-lisp/color-theme-6.6.0/color-theme-pkg hides
/disk10/xxxx/.emacs.d/elpa/color-theme-20080305.34/color-theme-pkg
~/.emacs.d/site-lisp/color-theme-6.6.0/color-theme-autoloads hides
/disk10/xxxx/.emacs.d/elpa/color-theme-20080305.34/color-theme-autoloads
~/.emacs.d/site-lisp/helm-ls-git hides
/disk10/xxxx/.emacs.d/elpa/helm-ls-git-20150909.818/helm-ls-git
/disk10/xxxx/.emacs.d/elpa/helm-20150923.2134/helm-multi-match hides
/disk10/xxxx/.emacs.d/elpa/helm-core-20150923.959/helm-multi-match
~/.emacs.d/site-lisp/dash hides
/disk10/xxxx/.emacs.d/elpa/dash-20150829.433/dash
~/.emacs.d/site-lisp/wdired hides
/disk10/xxxx/test/share/emacs/25.1.50/lisp/wdired
~/.emacs.d/site-lisp/ibuffer hides
/disk10/xxxx/test/share/emacs/25.1.50/lisp/ibuffer
~/.emacs.d/site-lisp/linum hides
/disk10/xxxx/test/share/emacs/25.1.50/lisp/linum
~/.emacs.d/site-lisp/thumbs hides
/disk10/xxxx/test/share/emacs/25.1.50/lisp/thumbs
~/.emacs.d/site-lisp/ispell hides
/disk10/xxxx/test/share/emacs/25.1.50/lisp/textmodes/ispell
~/.emacs.d/site-lisp/page hides
/disk10/xxxx/test/share/emacs/25.1.50/lisp/textmodes/page
~/.emacs.d/site-lisp/browse-url hides
/disk10/xxxx/test/share/emacs/25.1.50/lisp/net/browse-url
~/.emacs.d/site-lisp/seq-2.15/seq hides
/disk10/xxxx/test/share/emacs/25.1.50/lisp/emacs-lisp/seq
~/.emacs.d/site-lisp/package hides
/disk10/xxxx/test/share/emacs/25.1.50/lisp/emacs-lisp/package

Features:
(shadow sort mail-extr emacsbug message puny rfc822 mml mml-sec epa epg
gnus-util rmail rmail-loaddefs mm-decode mm-bodies mm-encode mail-parse
rfc2231 mailabbrev gmm-utils mailheader sendmail rfc2047 rfc2045
ietf-drums mm-util mail-prsvr mail-utils helm-command helm-elisp
helm-eval edebug add-log winner ido helm-projectile projectile ibuf-ext
dash helm-gtags pulse scroll-all cus-start cus-load helm-mode helm-files
rx image-dired dired-x dired-aux ffap helm-buffers helm-elscreen
helm-tags helm-bookmark helm-adaptive helm-info bookmark pp helm-locate
helm-grep helm-regexp helm-plugin helm-external helm-net browse-url
executable xml url url-proxy url-privacy url-expand url-methods
url-history url-cookie url-domsuf url-util mailcap helm-utils helm-help
helm-types helm-config helm-easymenu async-bytecomp async helm-aliases
helm helm-source eieio-compat helm-multi-match helm-lib thing-edit
thingatpt ace-jump-mode diary-lib diary-loaddefs cal-menu calendar
cal-loaddefs midnight zjl-hl region-list-edit highlight semantic/db-file
data-debug cedet-files semantic/bovine/c hideif cc-mode cc-fonts
cc-guess cc-menus cc-cmds semantic/bovine/c-by semantic/lex-spp
semantic/bovine/gcc semantic/dep semantic/bovine semantic/analyze/refs
semantic/db-find semantic/db-ref semantic/analyze semantic/sort
semantic/scope semantic/analyze/fcn semantic/db-mode semantic/db
eieio-base semantic/idle semantic/format ezimage semantic/tag-ls
semantic/find semantic/ctxt semantic/util-modes semantic/util semantic
semantic/tag semantic/lex semantic/fw mode-local find-func cedet
multi-term term disp-table ehelp recentf tree-widget buffer-move
windmove mouse-copy grep-o-matic grep-a-lot grep compile repository-root
wid-edit moccur-edit color-moccur cl avoid hi-lock tramp tramp-compat
tramp-loaddefs trampver ucs-normalize shell pcomplete comint ansi-color
ring format-spec ispell less easy-mmode image-file paren bm time
cc-styles cc-align cc-engine cc-vars cc-defs autorevert filenotify
which-func imenu ibuffer derived wdired dired dired-loaddefs advice
warnings server edmacro kmacro finder-inf info package epg-config
url-handlers url-parse auth-source cl-seq eieio eieio-core cl-macs
eieio-loaddefs password-cache url-vars seq byte-opt gv bytecomp
byte-compile cl-extra help-mode easymenu cconv cl-loaddefs pcase cl-lib
time-date mule-util tooltip eldoc electric uniquify ediff-hook vc-hooks
lisp-float-type mwheel term/x-win x-win term/common-win x-dnd tool-bar
dnd fontset image regexp-opt fringe tabulated-list newcomment elisp-mode
lisp-mode prog-mode register page menu-bar rfn-eshadow timer select
scroll-bar mouse jit-lock font-lock syntax facemenu font-core
term/tty-colors frame cl-generic cham georgian utf-8-lang misc-lang
vietnamese tibetan thai tai-viet lao korean japanese eucjp-ms cp51932
hebrew greek romanian slovak czech european ethiopic indian cyrillic
chinese charscript case-table epa-hook jka-cmpr-hook help simple abbrev
obarray minibuffer cl-preloaded nadvice loaddefs button faces cus-face
macroexp files text-properties overlay sha1 md5 base64 format env
code-pages mule custom widget hashtable-print-readable backquote
dbusbind inotify dynamic-setting system-font-setting font-render-setting
move-toolbar gtk x-toolkit x multi-tty make-network-process emacs)

Memory information:
((conses 16 506866 19387)
 (symbols 48 44087 0)
 (miscs 40 285 252)
 (strings 32 119902 14731)
 (string-bytes 1 4570591)
 (vectors 16 62289)
 (vector-slots 8 1037909 7744)
 (floats 8 586 232)
 (intervals 56 398 0)
 (buffers 976 16)
 (heap 1024 51138 1667))

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bug#23681: Observations

[Christian Lynbech]

The problem is still visible on recent versions of emacs:

    GNU Emacs 27.0.50 (build 1, x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, X toolkit, Xaw3d scroll bars) 
    of 2017-10-24

I am running emacs on Linux within a VNC4 server (vnc4server 4.1.1+xorg4. amd64).

The VNC client is running on macos 10.13.1 (High Sierra).

When copying some text from (say) the Safari web browser, one can paste
it into something like the Gnome Terminal program but trying to paste it
into emacs will provoke the error. Copying text from within the VNC
server and pasting it into applications running on the Mac works as
expected.

A work-around seems to be set the following:

        (setq x-select-request-type 'STRING)

though it is unclear to me if that has any other undesirable effects.


------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------
Christian Lynbech       | christian #\@ defun #\. dk
------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------
Hit the philistines three times over the head with the Elisp reference manual.
                                        - petonic@hal.com (Michael A. Petonic)