Silent clipboard failure on Linux when xclip is missing
Author: mastercom82Created Aug 21, 2026Updated Aug 21, 2026
Bug Report: Silent clipboard failure on Linux when xclip is missing
Summary
On Linux, Pinokio's clipboard feature (pterm clipboard copy/paste) fails
silently when xclip is not installed. The control-plane endpoint returns an
error that is never surfaced to the user, so copy-paste appears broken with no
explanation.
Environment
- OS: Linux Mint 22.3 (Ubuntu Noble base)
- Pinokio: /opt/Pinokio (Electron app)
- pterm CLI
Steps to Reproduce
- Fresh Linux system without
xclip. - Run
pterm clipboard copy "hello world"-> exits 0, appears successful. - Run
pterm clipboard paste-> empty output.
Actual Behavior
POST to http://127.0.0.1:42000/clipboard returns:
{"error":"Error: spawn xclip ENOENT ..."}The error is swallowed; the CLI prints nothing and exits 0.
Expected Behavior
- Auto-install or detect
xclipon Linux, or - At minimum, surface the error to the user ("xclip is required for clipboard support on Linux: sudo apt-get install xclip").
Fix That Worked
sudo apt-get install -y xclip -- after install, clipboard round-trip works
immediately without restarting Pinokio.
Source: pinokiocomputer/pinokio