64-bit Clipboard troubles

David Stacey drstacey@tiscali.co.uk
Sun Jun 9 18:59:00 GMT 2013


I am trying to package keepassx for 64-bit Cygwin, and have noticed a 
difference between the way the clipboard functions under 32-bit and 
64-bit Cygwin/X. Essentially, keepassx is an encrypted password database 
that copies your username and password to the clipboard. Then, you can 
paste these into a web site (say) to log in.

When I run keepassx (both 32-bit and 64-bit builds) using the 32-bit 
version of XWin, keepassx copies the username and password to the 
clipboard, and these can be pasted into a native Windows web browser 
(e.g. Firefox). However, when I run keepassx (again, both 32-bit and 
64-bit builds) using the 64-bit version of XWin, the procedure breaks: I 
instruct keepassx to copy to the clipboard, but when I paste in the web 
browser, no test is pasted.

I attempted to write a testcase programme to access the clipboard in 
various ways. The programme doesn't work as I had quite intended (which 
is almost certainly down to my limited understanding of how the 
clipboard works in X), but it does highlight differences between 32-bit 
and 64-bit XWin, so I have attached it in case it is useful.

The testcase programme reads and writes to the clipboard using two 
techniques - either through Qt4 (identical to the code used in keepassx) 
or by accessing /dev/clipboard. The difference comes when writing to the 
clipboard by writing to /dev/clipboard and then reading it back using 
Qt4 - under 32-bit XWin this succeeds (i.e. the correct text is read 
back), but under 64-bit XWin an empty string is read.

I mentioned that my testcase programme doesn't quite work as I intended: 
writing to the clipboard using Qt4 and reading it back by reading 
/dev/clipboard fails when using both 32-bit and 64-bit XWin. I don't 
understand why, but this is probably down to my own limited 
understanding of the clipboard in X.

Here is my environment: I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate x64 SP1.
32-bit Cygwin: Qt4-4.8.4-2 with xorg-server-1.14.1-1
64-bit Cygwin: Qt4-4.8.4-3 with xorg-server-1.14.1-1
The two Cygwin installations are installed side-by-side.

The 32-bit build of keepassx can be found in your favourite Cygwin 
mirror; if you need the 64-bit build then you can download it here:

BASEURL=http://dl.dropbox.com/sh/7y1yn4whbyho9a7
wget --no-check-certificate --no-host-directories --force-directories 
--cut-dirs=6 \
${BASEURL}/gMetoiuG3_/64bit/release/KDE/keepassx/keepassx-0.4.3-1-src.tar.bz2 
\
${BASEURL}/faOgOyuoYS/64bit/release/KDE/keepassx/keepassx-0.4.3-1.tar.bz2 \
${BASEURL}/xaqPOGFz3J/64bit/release/KDE/keepassx/setup.hint \
${BASEURL}/U82Dz9jF1S/64bit/release/KDE/keepassx/keepassx-debuginfo/keepassx-debuginfo-0.4.3-1.tar.bz2 
\
${BASEURL}/J4n6_izWKV/64bit/release/KDE/keepassx/keepassx-debuginfo/setup.hint

As the behaviour is different depending on whether I start 'XWin 
-multiwindow' on 32-bit or 64-bit Cygwin, I am posting here. If this is 
nothing to do with the xfree list then please accept my apologies and I 
will take the discussion to the main Cygwin list.

Apologies also for the length of the post, but hopefully there's enough 
information here to help to track down the cause of the problem.

Many thanks in advance for your help,

Dave.

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