Why i cannot use in Ubuntu 12.10 Console COPY and PASTE ?

Posted May 31, 2013 25.5k views
I cant PASTE in console (Terminal). Does anyone help me how i can do it ? and Can I Upload some file to the server ? THX !!!


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11 answers

I wasn’t satisfied with the mod’s answer since pretty much every time I’ve ever needed to use a web console like this, I’ve needed at the very least paste.

So here’s a paste function you can throw into the console. To use:

  1. Open developer tools
  2. Paste this code in and hit enter
  3. sendString(‘wow, i cannot believe this fundamental functionality is still nonexistent’)

You might need to play with the sendDelay (increase) if you’re having problems, but I was able to use this to add an authorized key.

To abort the sending of the current string, do sendString()

var sendString = (function(rfb, force, sendDelay) { 
  sendDelay = sendDelay || 25;
  var _q = [];
  var _qStart = function() {
    var chr = _q.shift();
    if (chr) {
      setTimeout(_qStart, sendDelay);
  var _qStop = function() { _q.length = 0; };
  var fn = function sendString(str) {
    str = str || '';
    var chr;
      chr = str[i].charCodeAt();
  if (rfb.sendString && true !== force) {
    console.warn('rfb.sendString not installed because it already exists.  Use force if you\'d like');
  else {
    rfb.sendString = fn;
  return fn;

There also seems to be copy/paste functionality in the code (disabled?).

If for some reason you’re at some moment unable to ssh, and you need to paste in a large chunk of text, you can paste your text into a Your text will be pasted to something like You can then type at the console:

To PASTE attempt:



right click


middle mouse click.

To upload files us FTP promgram as FileZilla
I access SSH by MAC TERMINAL its more easy to me...
You cannot paste in the Remote Console. It's meant only for out-of-band emergency access, I recommend using an ssh client:
My fault I assumed that it was a terminal in Linux or Putty on Windows.


Reading into how to deploy a Ruby on Rails app and I’m instructed to type “gpg –keyserver hkp:// –recv-keys 409B6B1796C275462A1703113804BB82D39DC0E3” into the console.

Great solution!

However, I am not able to place a ’@’ sign either in a normal way or by using your method. Using sendString, a ’@’ is transformed to a ‘2’ :(

Any ideas?

  • I found a solution!

    Using the sendString method, the ’@’ was transformed to a ‘2’, so that got me thinking that it might be a keyboard/translation problem. My keyboard is in Danish, so I tried to add a US keyboard. That did the trick: “@” can now be accessed with Shift+2 :)

To add your SSH key via copy & paste from your local terminal to your console - to establish the SSH connection - as explained. You need to copy the console window URL (at the top of the pop up browser frame) then add this URL to a new tab in your chrome browser - then in your chrome browser go to View>Developer>Developer Tools>Console & enter this minimised script (below) - which will enable you to PASTE your copied SSH key into the console no problems. As per answer on github

!function(){function t(){function n(t,e){s=s.concat(RFB.messages.keyEvent(t,e))}var o=e.shift(),s=[],i=o.charCodeAt(),c=-1!==’!@#$%^&*()+{}:“<>?~|’.indexOf(o),r=XKShiftL;c&&n(r,1),n(i,1),n(i,0),c&&n(r,0),rfb.sock.send(s),e.length>0&&setTimeout(t,10)}var e=prompt("Enter text to be sent to console, (This wont send the enter keystroke)”).split(“”);t()}();

Fantastic fix! Some chars are off, but nothing that vim s/g can’t fix. Saved my life in adding SSH keys via the console

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