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.

score 12 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 15 '22 at 14:58

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.

score 8 · Answer 2 · edited Nov 12 '21 at 07:29

8

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

16,703

answered Nov 10 '21 at 20:57

mook765

18,644

score 3 · 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