Middle-click paste from primary selection does not work on Hyprland/Wayland

[ver-1000000]

Issue Description

Middle-click paste should paste from the primary selection in Ghostty.

Expected Behavior

Middle-click paste does nothing in Ghostty. The primary selection itself appears to be working.Middle-click paste does nothing in Ghostty. The primary selection itself appears to be working.

Related discussion:
#11183

That discussion states that on Linux, selected text should go to the selection clipboard and be pasteable with middle click. In my case, the primary selection exists and works (wl-paste --primary, Firefox middle-click paste), but Ghostty itself does not middle-click paste it.

Actual Behavior

1. Launch Ghostty on Hyprland/Wayland.
2. Select text in another app so it goes to primary selection.
3. Confirm wl-paste --primary prints the selected text.
4. Middle-click inside Ghostty.
5. Nothing is pasted.

Reproduction Steps

Verified:

• wl-paste --primary works
• Firefox can middle-click paste the same primary selection
• Ghostty cannot
• This happens even without tmux
• No custom Ghostty clipboard or middle-click settings are set
• GTK_IM_MODULE is unset
• QT_IM_MODULE=fcitx
• XMODIFIERS=@im=fcitx

Ghostty Logs

No response

Ghostty Version

Ghostty 1.3.1-arch1

Version
  - version: 1.3.1-arch1
  - channel: tip
Build Config
  - Zig version   : 0.15.2
  - build mode    : .ReleaseFast
  - app runtime   : .gtk
  - font engine   : .fontconfig_freetype
  - renderer      : renderer.generic.Renderer(renderer.OpenGL)
  - libxev        : epoll
  - kernel version: 6.18.21-1-lts
  - desktop env   : other
  - GTK version   :
    build         : 4.20.3
    runtime       : 4.22.2
  - libadwaita    : enabled
    build         : 1.8.4
    runtime       : 1.9.0
  - libX11        : enabled
  - libwayland    : enabled

OS Version Information

Arch Linux

(Linux only) Display Server

Wayland

(Linux only) Desktop Environment/Window Manager

Hyprland

Minimal Ghostty Configuration

font-family = Cica
font-size = 9
theme = Monokai Pro

No custom clipboard or middle-click related settings.

Additional Relevant Configuration

No tmux involved when reproducing this issue.

I acknowledge that:

• I have reviewed the FAQ and confirm that my issue is NOT among them.
• I have searched the Ghostty repository (both open and closed Discussions and Issues) and confirm this is not a duplicate of an existing issue or discussion.
• I have checked the "Preview" tab on all text fields to ensure that everything looks right, and have wrapped all configuration and code in code blocks with a group of three backticks (```) on separate lines.

[coredump]

same here. I looked at #10616 but disabling the overlay scrollbar or even disabling the full scrollbar completely didn't make a difference, no middle click paste on ghostty (works everywhere else)

[cmeyke]

Same here, cachyos, kde, wayland: middle click paste does nothing in ghostty, works everywhere else.

[marxin]

Similarly on my Omarchy Arch system, stopped working just recently.

[benoitjpnet]

Hitting this too on Arch + KDE Plasma (Wayland), same Ghostty 1.3.1-arch1. I think I found the root cause.

It's the gtk-enable-primary-paste GSetting. Ghostty 1.3.0 started honoring it in #10328, and on my system that key defaults to false — shipped that way directly by gsettings-desktop-schemas (50.0-1 here), no KDE or distro override involved. Firefox pastes fine because it implements middle-click paste itself and ignores the GTK setting; Ghostty now reads it and respects it, so it goes quiet.

Fix that worked for me:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-enable-primary-paste true

Takes effect on next Ghostty launch (the setting is read once at startup, which matches @mitchellh's note in #10328 about not re-querying per gcMouseDown).

The reason this is hard to find from a non-GNOME desktop: the schema is namespaced org.gnome.desktop.interface, which reads as GNOME-only, but GTK reads it on every DE. KDE's System Settings never exposes the key, so there's no GUI path to discover it. Might be worth a line in the 1.3.0 release notes or Linux docs for KDE/Sway/Hyprland users — happy to send a docs PR if that'd help.

Or even some logic in Ghostty to detect that we are not in Gnome DE, so don't read org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-enable-primary-paste at all.

[antoineco]

The merge request that switched the value from true to false in GNOME, for reference: gsettings-desktop-schemas!119

[ver-1000000]

benoitjpnet's workaround fixed it for me too. Thanks, that was a great find.

Or even some logic in Ghostty to detect that we are not in Gnome DE, so don't read org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-enable-primary-paste at all.

I think that idea is pretty cool.
Another option that might fit well would be letting Ghostty override this through its own config, so users could explicitly choose the behavior without depending on desktop-environment-specific settings.

[kevinclevenger]

[jcollie]

Please read the whole discussion. As seen above, Gnome 50 (GTK 4.22) disabled middle-click paste. To re-enable, run this command:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-enable-primary-paste true

[heddxh]

For reference, neovim in ghostty can't receive middle click event after this gtk/gnome update without enable gtk-enable-primary-paste in dconf/gsettings.

[josecastillolema]

Still not working after setting org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-enable-primary-paste to true on a Fedora Atomic Sway 44 setup.

[00-kat]

Rebooting might help. And make sure that gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-enable-primary-paste actually returns true: it might have not been set. If neither of those help, open a new discussion.

[jasonm23]

Testing with CachyOS / Niri:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-enable-primary-paste true

Fixed same issue, reboot was needed.

[Geobert]

How do we do that on a system without Gnome at all (and no gsettings available)?

[antoineco]

Does the system have dconf at least? (the configuration backend used by gsettings)
If so, refer to https://help.gnome.org/system-admin-guide/dconf.html, particularly the sections listed under "See also".

[Geobert]

Thanks for giving me a lead :) I’m on NixOS and that in home-manager did the trick:

  dconf.settings = {
    "org/gnome/desktop/interface" = {
      gtk-enable-primary-paste = true;
    };
  };