How can I disable and/or remove the clipboard service (Klipper, I think)?
Why would you want to??? That is one of the neatest things in Linux.
Oh well if you must right click some were under the icon select systemtray settings and disable it there.
There’s a file called klipper.desktop in two places:
/etc/xgd/autostart/klipper.desktop
and
/usr/share/applications/org.kde.klipper.desktop
I would temporarily move them out of those spots and see what happens.
Actually, I just saw gogalthorp’s post. That’s a lot less drastic.
Done, but does this completely removes the stuff, or just hide it from system tray?
The reason I want to disable/remove it is that some of the data kept there are sensitive information, with some being passwords copied from password-storages meant to be quickly removed. Klipper keeps them for quite some time, and there’s also the concern that they may not stored or removed securely. I prefer some temporary clipboard. Or am I wrong? Please let me know. I appreciate it.
That won’t have any effect.
Those .desktop files are from the standalone klipper application (which isn’t run by default anyway), but there’s also the system tray plasmoid/widget which is enabled by default.
The klipper service won’t be started at all if you disable it in the system tray settings (unless you run the klipper application manually).
It won’t uninstall it though, if that’s what you mean.
The reason I want to disable/remove it is that some of the data kept there are sensitive information, with some being passwords copied from password-storages meant to be quickly removed. Klipper keeps them for quite some time, and there’s also the concern that they may not stored or removed securely. I prefer some temporary clipboard. Or am I wrong? Please let me know. I appreciate it.
Yes, the clipboard contents are stored in klipper’s config file (in plain text).
There is an option to clear the history though.
Pretty sure the klipper is built into KDE and “removing” it may remove a good junk of the plasma desktop. Disabling it should Totally disable it
No, it is not “built in”.
But it is part of the plasma5-workspace package, uninstalling that will indeed remove the Plasma desktop completely.
Disabling it should Totally disable it
Yes.
You need to logout/in (or reboot) though for full effect.
There was a bug a while ago 381988 – clipboard content in journal/syslog where klipper was placing contents of the clipboard to the system log, journal, and xorg-session.log
The bug report indicates it’s fixed… not filtered through to current TW though, as I just found this snippet (amongst others) in xorg-session.log
log_klipper: Checking clip data
log_klipper: Synchronize? false
DBusMenu disabled for this application
log_klipper: Checking clip data
log_klipper: Synchronize? false
DBusMenu disabled for this application
log_klipper: Setting selection to < "On all other platforms, such as Linux and Android, Qt's built-in CLDR-based facilities are always used. " >
log_klipper: Setting clipboard to < "On all other platforms, such as Linux and Android, Qt's built-in CLDR-based facilities are always used. " >
DBusMenu disabled for this application
log_klipper: Setting selection to < "https://wiki.qt.io/Locale_Support_in_Qt_5" >
log_klipper: Setting clipboard to < "https://wiki.qt.io/Locale_Support_in_Qt_5" >
DBusMenu disabled for this application
log_klipper: Setting selection to < "On all other platforms, such as Linux and Android, Qt's built-in CLDR-based facilities are always used. " >
log_klipper: Setting clipboard to < "On all other platforms, such as Linux and Android, Qt's built-in CLDR-based facilities are always used. " >
DBusMenu disabled for this application
shell did not close, sending SIGHUP
QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 38221, resource id: 58720292, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0
QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 38225, resource id: 31457474, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0
log_klipper: Checking clip data
log_klipper: Synchronize? false
DBusMenu disabled for this application
log_klipper: Checking clip data
log_klipper: Synchronize? false
… which shows previously pasted text from the clipboard.
Yes, because that fix has only been committed to the master branch, not 5.10.
So it will be in 5.11.0.
You can disable the debug output via kdebugsettings though if you want.
Also, I wouldn’t consider this as a security (or privacy) issue, as klipper saves the same data anyway (that’s its purpose after all), and every running application can get it from the clipboard/X11 and do with it whatever it wants.
(and disabling klipper will of course also disable this debug output)
There was a similar but probably more severe bug in kdelibs4 a while ago, it logged every key press because a developer forgot to remove some debug output…
https://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=942810
Can’t entirely agree with you there. If clipboard data has been placed in journal/syslog (which it also did) that would still be there after one has cleared the clipboard, or indeed, after one has logged out. I’ve not checked, but does not xorg-session.log also remain, at least until the next login of that user. So, potentially a privacy issue I would have thought.
If you’re that concerned about saved personal data,
I wouldn’t be running a Desktop, particularly one that has as many bells and whistles as KDE.
I’d have to look more carefully, but I’d instead recommend a MinimalX (IceWM) UI, and if you’re running in a virtualized environment, to uninstall any Guest enhancements.
TSU
In this instance, I’m not, I was merely pointing out the fact this (at the moment) happens.
Nonetheless, thanks for your comments and suggestion. 