How do I prevent VNC from automatically coping selected text?

Question

Whenever I select any text the text is immediately copied to the clipboard without me explicitly issuing copy text command. How do I fix this bug or feature?

I am using RealVNC client. The server is running IceWM.

Answer 1

1. Open ~/.vnc/xstartup
2. Change the vncconfig line to include SendPrimary=0 (e.g. vncconfig SendPrimary=0 –nowin &)
3. Restart your VNC sessions

How it works:

• vncconfig is a program that manages shared functionality between the x11 server and your VNC session, most notably shared clipboard functionality. Without this running in the background, you cannot share a clipboard.
• X11 maintains a concept of a “primary” buffer (for selected text) and a “clipboard” buffer
• SendPrimary defaults to 1 (on) which instructs vncconfig to send the primary (selection) buffer to the clipboard buffer, in effect overwriting anything there