[linux] Copilot blocks right click menu of console

[laeubi]

Describe the bug

Previously I could just use right-click > copy of the Standard console application or use other option.

No it seems copilot captures the right-click and try to use their own copy/paste... while paste works, copy fails with

spawn xclip ENOENT

I think its generally a bad idea to "capture" the mouse from the user in a CLI application at least it should be configurable.

Affected version

No response

Steps to reproduce the behavior

No response

Expected behavior

No response

Additional context

Installing xclip explicitly fixes the issue of copy but the remaining actions from the native context menu are still blocked.

[devm33]

Hi @laeubi this is part of a larger change to how the CLI is approaching rendering (in order to fix flickering and flashing).

You can disable capturing the mouse by running with --no-mouse (which will persist "mouse": false in your ~/.copilot/config.json). However, this comes with a trade-off that the CLI doesn't receive mouse scrolling events, so page-up and page-down keys will need to be used to scroll the timeline.

but the remaining actions from the native context menu are still blocked

If there are other actions you need we can look into implementing them. Let us know!

[laeubi]

@devm33 thanks for the fast feedback!

After installing xclip it now works and I think its useful but think should be improved

1. If for any reason the xclip failed there should be a hint that one needs to check it is installed and functional - otherwhise it looks like a copilot-bug to the user
2. It might show a hint that this feature can be disabled and maybe its worth to have a command in copilot like /config mouse false (editing config files by hand is often cumbersome and would require context switch)
3. Equally you might show a message if the feature is disabled to make the user aware of the limitations as you mentioned them

Regarding

If there are other actions you need we can look into implementing them. Let us know!

I think its not really feasibly as it is specific to the Terminal UI e.g. with Debian GNOME-Terminal it show me things like

• Open new Window
• Open new Tab
• Settings
• Show menu bar
• ... and so on among copy / paste ...

so this is not really feasible to be emulated I think... maybe an option would be to have a modifier key one can use to skip copilot inhibit the current mouse click.

[examon]

This appears to already be addressed. The --no-mouse flag and "mouse": false config option let you disable mouse capture so the terminal handles right-click natively. If this still does not fully resolve the issue for you, feel free to reopen it.

[laeubi]

@examon regular "users" can not reopen an issue.

Also please note that while completely disable works with the --no-mouse the issue is more with making it visible / discoverable to the user as mentioned here:

After installing xclip it now works and I think its useful but think should be improved

1. If for any reason the xclip failed there should be a hint that one needs to check it is installed and functional - otherwhise it looks like a copilot-bug to the user

2. It might show a hint that this feature can be disabled and maybe its worth to have a command in copilot like /config mouse false (editing config files by hand is often cumbersome and would require context switch)

3. Equally you might show a message if the feature is disabled to make the user aware of the limitations as you mentioned them