On ubuntu 64bit it crashes the client now if I paste text into the chat.

Yea, some issues since update. Which dist of Linux, etc? More info you post the quicker they can figure out the issues.

its ubuntu 11.04 I believe, I'm so behind on updates.

Also, in ship selection in a station the vulture has some graphical issues, for instance the canopy is detached from the model

Yeah the vulture model is coming apart on mine too. The canopy window and the engines are detached from the rest of it.

I'm able to paste a URL into the chat and other text without problems. X11's middle-click paste.

Copy/paste hasn't been tested for the new multithreaded game engine yet, so that may be the problem.