Tag: xdotool

It is sometimes the case that an application will not allow you to paste in text, forcing you to write it out by hand (either because it is poorly written or because of perceived security risks). These instructions are the results of having to manually enter long and complex passwords for virtual Windows machines one time too many, and will show you how to bypass such restrictions using a simple script.

Dependencies

Klipper

xdotool

typeclipboard

#!/bin/sh
 
#This script will type out the content of the Klipper clipboard as if the user had typed it themself.
 
#Copy the content of the KDE clipboard
to_write=$(qdbus org.kde.klipper /klipper getClipboardContents)

#Clear the clipboard. Uncomment this line if you will be copying anything sensitive.
#qdbus org.kde.klipper /klipper clearClipboardHistory

#Wait for one second to give the user time to release any keys that may have been pressed.
sleep 1
 
#Type out the content of the clipboard
xdotool type --clearmodifiers "$to_write"

Common problems

If the output does not match the content of the clipboard it is possible that xdotool is using the wrong keyboard layout. This can be fixed by adding ‘setxkbmap -layout LAYOUT’ to your shell profile, where LAYOUT is the keyboard layout you want (e.g. ‘se’ for Swedish).

Try not to press down any modifier keys (Ctrl, Shift, Alt, etc.) when running the script. With ‘–clearmodifiers’  xdotool will attempt to unset all modifiers, but this will not always work. The script will type out anything you give it as if you had typed it out yourself. This includes things like keyboard shortcuts. Strange and dangerous things can happen if you are not careful. The script will wait for one second before doing anything to give you time to take your hands of the keyboard.

Create a shortcut

To create a keyboard shortcut for the script in KDE4, go to ‘System Settings -> Shortcuts and Gestures -> Custom Shortcuts’, then ‘Edit -> New -> Command/URL’. Under ‘Trigger’, select the keyboard shortcut you want, and under ‘Action’, give it the path to the script.

Pasting passwords to Windows machines running in VirtualBox

This was the reason why I wrote the script in the first place. To paste a password, simply copy it and click on the Windows password field, then press the host key (right Ctrl) so that VirtualBox does not capture the keyboard, followed by the keyboard shortcut you chose. The script will then type out the password as if you had typed it out yourself, bypassing the disabled copy/paste functionality.