Copy and Paste issue - specific and wierd case

[schroedingersca]

I'm having a weird issue with Copy and Paste on both the VMplayer and Workstation.  I have spent many hours trying to diagnose this and have finally thrown my hands up in frustration.

First, my environment is:

• Host: Ubuntu Linux version 14.04
• Vmware Workstation 10.0.2 build-1744117
• VMware Player 6.0.2 build-1744117
• VM's running Windows XP and Ubuntu Linux 14.04
• Browser on Host: Google Chrome Version 35.0.1916.153

The issue is that I cannot copy and paste text between the Host browser (Google Chrome) and any application on any Guest VM.

Here is what I can do:

• I am able to Copy and Paste files between the Host and Guest VM's. 
• I am able to Copy and Paste text between other applications on the Host and applications running on the VM's.
• I am able to Copy and Paste text between FireFox, running on the Host and applications running on the VM's.
• I can use the Google Chrome browser, running in the VM's, to Copy and Paste text to applications within the same VM's. 
• I can use the Google Chrome browser within the VM to transfer data to another application running on a different VM.
• I can transfer text from Google Chrome running on a VM to a text input box on the Host Google Chrome.

The common denominator seems to be Google Chrome on the Host. 

Is this an issue with VMware or Google Chrome or Ubuntu Linux or a combination of the three?  Has anyone else had this issue?  The only work-around I have found to this is to copy the desired text on the Chrome browser of the Host to a text editor on the Host and then copy from the text editor to the desired VM application, but this is cumbersome.  Any suggestions would be welcome.

[abrama]

Same exact issue here.  Cannot copy/paste from Chrome on Ubuntu 14.04 host to Win2k8 guest.  Wasn't until I read this post however did I realize it was just an issue with copy/pasting from chrome.

Did you ever find a solution?

[schroedingersca]

Haven't found a solution, yet, but since I found the inconvenient workaround of copying and pasting to a Gedit text editor then to the VM I've sort of moved on.  But if you find a solution I would appreciate knowing.

[Ben_Miller]

Exact same problem.  I can copy/paste to gedit to bypass.  I'm beginning to wonder if there is a data type that is copied to the clipboard (HTML?) that vmware is not supporting for paste.

Just amazed I found someone else with the same problem. 😉

[dbca]

Same exact issue here.  Chrome and VMWare Workstation 10.0.2 on Ubuntu Linux 14.04 and Windows 7 guest.

[djbarrett]

Same here: Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS running KDE, VMware workstation 10.0.3, and guests = Windows XP and Windows 7.

I wonder if it's because X windows has multiple clipboards (see "man xclip" for the -selection option) and Chrome uses one while other Linux apps use another...?

[djbarrett]

Also being discussed in the Google Chrome forum:

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/chrome/4s5_Sx-e4z0

Bug report:

https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=395077

A workaround is listed there.

KeePass Linux Copy & Paste to Chrome Workaround

[Ben_Miller]

The gist script did not work for me out of the box.  A minor change made it work perfectly.  Thank you  for this post!

FWIW, the change was to comment out the original find window list command and replace it with a search specifically for Workstation:

#task = subprocess.Popen("xdotool getactivewindow getwindowname", shell=True, stdout=subprocess.PIPE)

task = subprocess.Popen("xdotool search --name 'VMware Workstation' getwindowname", shell=True, stdout=subprocess.PIPE)

Thanks again.

[schroedingersca]

Thanks for posting this.  I made the changes you suggested but needed one more to make it work.  I had to append the window_name_matches array on line 26 of the original script to:

window_name_matches = ['KeePass', 'kdbx', 'Edit Entry', 'Add Entry', 'VMware Player']

It's important in the loop that begins around line 54.

[abrama]

Just tried this script out and it worked!  Thanks for the tip.

[ph0cean]

Can we get a fix ?

I opened a bug report but it is not advancing much, it seems that the issue is not taken seriously.

I am skeptical when I hear that the issue is solely on the Google's, because if I fire up a Virtualbox guest, it just works as expected.

The issue is only between VMware and Google Chrome or Chromium.

Reproduced with Chrome 40.0.2214.94 and VMware 11, on a fresh system install and coworkers computers.

[Stoobert]

I think the onus is on VMWare to fix this issue as there are other applications that also do not use the primary clipboard.

I am experiencing the same issue using VMWare Workstation 11 (As well as on VMWare Workstation 10) and both Chrome and IntelliJ IDEA 14.0.3 cannot paste unless I use the clipboard workarounds posted in this thread.

[TomKUK]

Any update on this?  Have VMware actually acknowledged this as a bug yet?

[ph0cean]

I reported it to the support months ago (along with other embarassing bugs) and they acknowledged it. But no news since then.

I guess they don't care much about Workstation issues these days.

[awesomey]

Same issue on Debian Jessie, XFCE - guest: windows 2012 server r2.

Chrome will copy text ok, and can use it in other apps, but VMWare bombs with CTRL+V to paste. What's odd is I can do Edit->Paste from the workstation menu and it'll paste into the VM. So frustrating.