[solved] using wl-copy inside distrobox does not affect host

I have

wl-copy

wl-copy

wl-copy

wl-copy in my distrobox, but I can't paste on my host

Solution

solution: Just symlink the wl-copy from the host

ln -fs /usr/bin/distrobox-host-exec /usr/local/bin/wl-copy

ln -fs /usr/bin/distrobox-host-exec /usr/local/bin/wl-copy

ln -fs /usr/bin/distrobox-host-exec /usr/local/bin/wl-copy

ln -fs /usr/bin/distrobox-host-exec /usr/local/bin/wl-copy

Jump to solution

RaevenantOP•9/8/25, 6:28 PM

Hey @tulip have you ever noticed this before? I'm wondering if somehow my distrobox wayland socket is broke or smth. None of my boxes are able to use wl-copy to copy to system clipboard (I had other things going on, so I didn't ping anyone about this back in June

)

RaevenantOP•9/8/25, 6:29 PM

but you're my container wizard, so I'm betting you know what's going on haha

RaevenantOP•9/17/25, 5:12 PM

It's been a bit, and this issue is still causing problems, so I'm going to do another bump if that's alright

@tulip

tulip•9/17/25, 5:12 PM

heyo

RaevenantOP•9/17/25, 5:12 PM

oh hai!

RaevenantOP•9/17/25, 5:12 PM

that was fast

tulip•9/17/25, 5:12 PM

oh thats an odd issue?

tulip•9/17/25, 5:12 PM

can you open wayland windows on your distrobox?

RaevenantOP•9/17/25, 5:13 PM

yeah

it used to work, and now none of my boxes work, so I might have borked something? I'm hoping its simple to undo tho

RaevenantOP•9/17/25, 5:13 PM

yeah, I can open wayland windows

RaevenantOP•9/17/25, 5:13 PM

in fact, Discord is literally in a distrobox rn

RaevenantOP•9/17/25, 5:13 PM

and I can open links in it, so XDG-OPEN is even working

RaevenantOP•9/17/25, 5:14 PM

(by none of my boxes work, I mean wl_copy... otherwise they're perfect)

tulip•9/17/25, 5:14 PM

yknow...

tulip•9/17/25, 5:14 PM

i wonder if you just symlink wl-copy to flatpak-host-spawn it might work

RaevenantOP•9/17/25, 5:14 PM

lemme try

tulip•9/17/25, 5:14 PM

try running ummmm

RaevenantOP•9/17/25, 5:14 PM

wait why flatpak?

tulip•9/17/25, 5:14 PM

distrobox-host-spawn wl-copy

RRaevenant wait why flatpak?

tulip•9/17/25, 5:14 PM

sorry too deep into flatpaks recently

RaevenantOP•9/17/25, 5:15 PM

no worries I getchu XD

RaevenantOP•9/17/25, 5:15 PM

distrobox-host-exec?

RaevenantOP•9/17/25, 5:16 PM

the other distrobox shims are like ln -fs /usr/bin/distrobox-host-exec /usr/local/bin/podmanln -fs /usr/bin/distrobox-host-exec /usr/local/bin/podman

RaevenantOP•9/17/25, 5:18 PM

so maybe I'd do

ln -fs /usr/bin/distrobox-host-exec /usr/local/bin/wl-copy

ln -fs /usr/bin/distrobox-host-exec /usr/local/bin/wl-copy

RaevenantOP•9/17/25, 5:18 PM

RaevenantOP•9/17/25, 5:19 PM

oh shoot that worked! sorta... there's a random newline at the end of the paste??

tulip•9/17/25, 5:19 PM

yupyup

tulip•9/17/25, 5:19 PM

like that

RaevenantOP•9/17/25, 5:19 PM

echo "hello" | wl-copy

echo "hello" | wl-copy

hello
\n

hello
\n

RRaevenant oh shoot that worked! sorta... there's a random newline at the end of the paste?...

tulip•9/17/25, 5:19 PM

https://tenor.com/view/cat-bird-bird-cat-pointer-finger-point-finger-cat-bird-point-finger-cat-gif-2676038606799380578

Tenor

RaevenantOP•9/17/25, 5:20 PM

idk how to get newlines in those code blocks, but you get me

tulip•9/17/25, 5:20 PM

hello

hello

tulip•9/17/25, 5:20 PM

huh

RaevenantOP•9/17/25, 5:20 PM

but yeah its weird

RaevenantOP•9/17/25, 5:21 PM

oh maybe that's just the echo command

tulip•9/17/25, 5:21 PM

true that might be it

RaevenantOP•9/17/25, 5:21 PM

https://tenor.com/view/sealyx-naked-gun-the-naked-gun-facepalm-facepalm-meme-gif-11743768702765397589

Tenor

RaevenantOP•9/17/25, 5:21 PM

yeah that was it

RaevenantOP•9/17/25, 5:21 PM

echo -n "hello"echo -n "hello" doesn't do it kekw~1

RaevenantOP•9/17/25, 5:22 PM

still though, the wl-copy used to work. Should this just be treated as a workaround or as standard practice now?

RaevenantOP•9/17/25, 5:22 PM

(I'll just add that shim to my distrobox-shims.sh, but still)

RRaevenant still though, the wl-copy used to work. Should this just be treated as a workaro...

tulip•9/17/25, 5:23 PM

no idea?

RaevenantOP•9/17/25, 5:23 PM

fair enough!

RaevenantOP•9/17/25, 5:23 PM

I'll treat it as solution then, as I don't care one way or the other whether I install wl-copy on the box directly or just shim it

Solution

Raevenant•9/17/25, 5:24 PM

solution: Just symlink the wl-copy from the host

ln -fs /usr/bin/distrobox-host-exec /usr/local/bin/wl-copy

ln -fs /usr/bin/distrobox-host-exec /usr/local/bin/wl-copy

RaevenantOP•9/17/25, 5:24 PM

Thanks @tulip amazing as always!

tulip•9/17/25, 5:24 PM

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1409177741374521414/1415044300558958792/EUYFv_yusegb.gif

[solved] using wl-copy inside distrobox does not affect host

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