Bug 508045

Summary: Allow FormLayout left labels to be mouse-selectable
Product: [Frameworks and Libraries] frameworks-kirigami Reporter: Jan Bidler <janbidler00>
Component: generalAssignee: kdelibs bugs <kdelibs-bugs-null>
Status: RESOLVED INTENTIONAL    
Severity: wishlist CC: kdedev, nate, notmart
Priority: NOR    
Version First Reported In: 6.17.0   
Target Milestone: Not decided   
Platform: Arch Linux   
OS: Linux   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Jan Bidler 2025-08-09 09:57:14 UTC
SUMMARY
The "About this system" page feels inconsistent on what text can be selected. E.g. "Wayland" can be selected, but "Graphics platform" cannot.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Open "about this system page"
2. Try to select text with your mouse

OBSERVED RESULT
Only some text can be selected

EXPECTED RESULT
Either all text should be able to get selected (e.g. "Graphics platform" and "Wayland") or none of the text should be able to get selected

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Operating System: Arch Linux 
KDE Plasma Version: 6.4.4
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.17.0
Qt Version: 6.9.1
Kernel Version: 6.15.7-arch1-1 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 12 × AMD Ryzen 5 1600 Six-Core Processor
Memory: 16 GiB of RAM (15.6 GiB usable)
Graphics Processor: AMD Radeon RX 570 Series
Manufacturer: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
Product Name: B450M DS3H
Comment 1 TraceyC 2025-08-11 21:51:42 UTC
Confirmed on git-master
Values (like the version strings) can be selected but labels (like "Processors") cannot

As a workaround, it's possible to use the Copy Details button to copy everything. This obviously doesn't allow the user to copy partial text.
Comment 2 Nate Graham 2025-08-12 21:06:32 UTC
This isn't a bug but rather the current design.

This is implemented using Kirigami.FormLayout which doesn't let left label text be selectable. The right labels are deliberately made selectable because you might want to copy and paste one or two of them.

But if you want to copy and paste more than just one or two, manually copying a bunch of individual labels (even if the left ones were selectable) would be really slow and annoying, right? So the expected UX is to click on the "Copy Details" page to get everything.

Can you describe the workflow or use case that would benefit from letting the left labels be selectable?
Comment 3 Jan Bidler 2025-08-13 18:07:28 UTC
Wanting to quickly copy-paste a smaller selection of the page. E.g Cpu(s), memory and gpu. The copy details is a bit too annoying there, because it puts the whole page into the clipboard, and most of the time I don't care about the software stack

> manually copying a bunch of individual labels [...] would be really slow and annoying, right?

Yes, which is why it'd be mostly useless without the ability to also select multiple lines/labels at the same time
Comment 4 TraceyC 2025-08-13 19:26:06 UTC
If there's a way to accomplish this which isn't terribly painful or difficult, it's worth considering. It's common when speaking to people to troubleshoot technical issues to be asked specifically which CPU and or GPU is in the system. Being able to copy and paste one or two things is exactly what's needed. About This System is the easiest way to see that information at a glance.
Comment 5 Nate Graham 2025-08-14 14:42:28 UTC
Unfortunately, allowing whole rows to be mouse-selectable across both of the columns is basically impossible with the current implementation. Internally there are two labels per row, and the rows are all in columns; it's a whole giant grid layout. Selectability across items isn't something natively supported in QtQuick like this; bolting it on ourselves might actually be impossible, and if it's not, it would be a fragile hack.

So I don't think we'll be able to implement the requested feature, sorry.