`xsel` cannot capture displayed text

[steinbro]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• [x] I have searched the existing issues and found none matching what I'm reporting.

Bug Description

The xsel utility grabs the currently highlighted text. It can be used to implement a dead-simple select-to-speak screen reader, which simply pipes the currently highlighted text into a text-to-speech engine. This works with most desktop apps but not App Center.

Steps to reproduce the behavior

1. Highlight some text in App Center, such as a package description.
2. From a terminal, run xsel.

Expected behavior

The output of xsel should be the highlighted text from App Center. Instead, the output is the last text highlighted from another application.

Ubuntu release

24.04 LTS

What architecture are you using?

amd64

System info

.11.0-1027-oem #27-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Tue Jul 22 06:12:35 UTC 2025 name: snap-store summary: Snap Store is a graphical desktop application for discovering, installing and managing snaps on Linux. publisher: Canonical✓ store-url: https://snapcraft.io/snap-store contact: https://bugs.launchpad.net/snap-store/ license: unset description: | Snap Store showcases featured and popular applications with useful descriptions, ratings, reviews and screenshots.

Applications can be found either through browsing categories or by searching.

Snap Store can also be used to switch channels, view and alter snap permissions and view and submit reviews and ratings.

Snap Store is based on GNOME Software, optimized for the Snap experience. commands:

• snap-store.show-updates
• snap-store snap-id: gjf3IPXoRiipCu9K0kVu52f0H56fIksg tracking: 2/stable/ubuntu-24.04 refresh-date: 2025-06-29 channels: 2/stable: 0+git.90575829 2025-04-02 (1270) 11MB - 2/candidate: ↑
  2/beta: ↑
  2/edge: 0+git.583db3fe 2025-09-10 (1298) 18MB - latest/stable: 41.3-72-g80e7130 2024-09-22 (1216) 12MB - latest/candidate: ↑
  latest/beta: ↑
  latest/edge: 0+git.583db3fe 2025-09-10 (1298) 18MB - preview/stable: –
  preview/candidate: 0.2.7-alpha 2023-02-02 (864) 10MB - preview/beta: ↑
  preview/edge: 0.3.0-alpha 2023-08-14 (1017) 11MB - 1/stable: 41.3-72-g80e7130 2024-09-22 (1216) 12MB - 1/candidate: ↑
  1/beta: ↑
  1/edge: 41.3-72-g80e7130 2024-09-16 (1216) 12MB - installed: 0+git.90575829 (1270) 11MB -

---

name: snapd summary: Daemon and tooling that enable snap packages publisher: Canonical✓ store-url: https://snapcraft.io/snapd contact: https://github.com/snapcore/snapd/issues license: GPL-3.0 description: | Install, configure, refresh and remove snap packages. Snaps are 'universal' packages that work across many different Linux systems, enabling secure distribution of the latest apps and utilities for cloud, servers, desktops and the internet of things.

Start with 'snap list' to see installed snaps. type: snapd snap-id: PMrrV4ml8uWuEUDBT8dSGnKUYbevVhc4 tracking: latest/stable refresh-date: 30 days ago, at 08:23 EDT channels: latest/stable: 2.71 2025-08-23 (25202) 53MB - latest/candidate: 2.71 2025-08-13 (25202) 53MB - latest/beta: 2.72 2025-09-19 (25577) 53MB - latest/edge: 2.72+g22.e61031e 2025-09-22 (25600) 53MB - installed: 2.71 (25202) 53MB snapd

Additional context

No response