Google-chrome – Google Chrome click and drag to highlight text not working

cursorgoogle-chromehighlighting

I'm not sure why this happened but I am no longer able to click and drag to highlight text in Google Chrome.

Using:

Google Chrome Version 41.0.2272.76 (64-bit)

OS:

Linux Kali 3.18.0-kali3-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 3.18.6-1~kali2 (2015-03-02) x86_64 GNU/Linux

The cursor changes from an arrow to the I-cursor and double clicking to highlight works, as well as holding shift & ctrl, but when I click and drag, the text does not highlight.

Can anyone help?

Best Answer

I had this problem in Chromium and Chrome when running in VirtualBox. Disabling mouse integration got it working for me.

There appear to be several related bugs https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=465660

Related Solutions

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I also have the same Samsung modelled specified by the OP. It came with an extension installed called Word CaptureX. When I disabled this extension, Ctrl+click worked again perfectly. Strangely, it only didn't work with google sites.

Google-chrome – How to configure CTRL+H as backspace under Google Chrome

I know this is an old question, but I came across this while trying to do the same thing as you so I'm gonna post this anyways.

I'm using Chromium and I used Ubuntu 12.04 (now I'm using Gentoo), but it shouldn't matter.

Executing:

$ gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-key-theme "Emacs"

will change the key bindings to the Emacs binding. If you're fine with that, then this is all. However, if you want to use Ctrl-a as "select all", there's a bit more work to do.

Take a look at /usr/share/themes/Default/gtk-2.0-key/gtkrc and /usr/share/themes/Emacs/gtk-2.0-key/gtkrc. The syntax should not be too difficult to understand. Copy all the key bindings you want to use to the /usr/share/themes/Default/gtk-2.0-key/gtkrc. Don't forget to add the

class "GtkEntry" binding "foo"
class "GtkTextView" binding "foo"
class "GtkTextView" binding "bar"

part, which can be found at the very end of the file.

GNOME

The settings should be reflected by switching to the Emacs theme and switching back to the Default theme.

$ gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-key-theme "Emacs"
$ gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-key-theme "Default"

Non-GNOME

Create and add the following to ~/.gtkrc-2.0

gtk-key-theme-name = "Default"

Restart Chromium and the settings should be reflected.

The best thing about this is that even if you set Ctrl-w to delete one word, you're still able to close tab when you're not inputting.

P.S. I also use the happy hacking keyboard and I'm happy to find someone who uses it too :)

Ubuntu 18.04 (GTK3)

Edit: 11/01/2018

After nearly 5 years, I'm updating this post for Ubuntu 18.04. I'm currently using Firefox, but the following should be independent of what browser you use.

On GTK3, the ~/.gtkrc-2.0 method no longer works. Instead, edit the ~/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini and add the following line to the end:

gtk-key-theme-name=Emacs

If you want to modify the bindings, the Emacs binding can be found in /usr/share/themes/Emacs/gtk-3.0/gtk-keys.css, which can be copied over to ~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css and modified.

Some references: