AttributeError: When using gi.repository you must not import static modules like "gobject".

[coreycb]

When using pyperclip in Ubuntu Artful, we are hitting the following AttributeError from pygobject:

AttributeError: When using gi.repository you must not import static modules like "gobject". Please change all occurrences of "import gobject" to "from gi.repository import GObject". See: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=709183

For a much more detailed explanation and debug please see:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/python-pyperclip/+bug/1722553

To reproduced this on Ubuntu Artful all you need to do is:

#!/usr/bin/env python
import keyring # imports gi
import pyperclip # imports gtk
pyperclip.paste()

Narrowing down a bit more, this can also be reproduced with the following python script:

#!/usr/bin/env python
import gtk
import gi

The 2 lines of code that appear to be conflicting are:

1. /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/keyrings/alt/Gnome.py
   import gi
2. /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pyperclip/clipboards.py
   import gtk

And if I understand correctly from https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=709183, this is importing gtk+2 modules via 'import gtk' as well as gtk+3 modules via 'import gi' which causes module conflicts (according to the same bug).

From http://www.pygtk.org/: Note: New users are encouraged to use GTK+3 through the PyGObject bindings instead of using PyGTK with GTK+2.

So it seems to me that pyperclip in artful needs to move to GTK+3. Artful is set to release this week, but we can still backport a patch from upstream post release as a stable release update.

[coreycb]

I think this is mainly what needs to be done to move to GTK+3 (and also remove import gtk from cmd2).

def init_gtk_clipboard():
    from gi.repository import Gtk, Gdk

    def copy_gtk(text):
        global cb
        cb = Gtk.Clipboard.get(Gdk.SELECTION_CLIPBOARD)
        cb.set_text(text, -1)
        cb.store()

    def paste_gtk():
        clipboardContents = gtk.Clipboard().wait_for_text()
        # for python 2, returns None if the clipboard is blank.
        if clipboardContents is None:
            return ''
        else:
            return clipboardContents

[gruns]

Also encountering this bug.

AttributeError: When using gi.repository you must not import static modules like "gobject". Please change all occurrences of "import gobject" to "from gi.repository import GObject". See: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=709183

Linux Mint v18.2.