GNU Linux How to -> Screencast – ScreenRecording – Record your Linux Screen even with Audio :)

23.Mar.2015

alternatives, cool tested GNU Linux Apps, Debian, Multimedia

UPDATE: 2018-12: Debian 9.5 now comes with “simplescreenrecorder” (official website) in the repository: AND IT WORKS GREAT! 🙂

IT EVEN RECORDS THE COMPUTER’S AUDIO! X-D NICE JOB!

how to install it:

lsb_release -d; # tested on (but also works on Debian 10 and 11
#  Operating System: Debian GNU/Linux 9 (stretch)
#            Kernel: Linux 4.9.0-8-amd64
#      Architecture: x86-64

su - root
# update debian repo info
apt update
# install the screen recorder
apt install simplescreenrecorder
# show info about package
apt cache show simplescreenrecorder
E: Invalid operation cache
root@DebianLaptop:/home/user# apt-cache show simplescreenrecorder
Package: simplescreenrecorder
Version: 0.3.8-2
Installed-Size: 3091
Maintainer: Debian Multimedia Maintainers <pkg-multimedia-maintainers@lists.alioth.debian.org>
Architecture: amd64
Depends: libasound2 (>= 1.0.16), libavcodec57 (>= 7:3.2.2) | libavcodec-extra57 (>= 7:3.2.2), libavformat57 (>= 7:3.2.2), libavutil55 (>= 7:3.2.2), libc6 (>= 2.14), libgcc1 (>= 1:3.0), libgl1-mesa-glx | libgl1, libglu1-mesa | libglu1, libjack-jackd2-0 (>= 1.9.10+20150825) | libjack-0.125, libpulse0 (>= 0.99.1), libqtcore4 (>= 4:4.8.0), libqtgui4 (>= 4:4.6.1), libstdc++6 (>= 6), libswscale4 (>= 7:3.2.2), libx11-6 (>= 2:1.2.99.901), libxext6, libxfixes3, libxi6 (>= 2:1.2.99.4)
Description-en: Feature-rich screen recorder for X11 and OpenGL
 Simple Screen Recorder is, despite its name, an actually feature-rich screen
 recorder. The name reflects the fact that it is simple to use unlike many
 other free screen recording applications available. It can be easily
 configured to start recording from an intuitive wizard-like interface.
 .
 It can record the entire screen or part of it directly.  The recording can be
 paused and resumed at any time. Many different file formats and codecs are
 supported. To perform an X11 recording, all it takes is selecting an area on
 the root window with the mouse, choosing an output file and pressing record,
 either by using the mouse or using a hotkey.
 .
 It has a Qt-based graphical user interface.
 .
 Its complexity becomes apparent in its powerful features. It allows one
 to record X11 screen areas and fullscreen OpenGL applications including sound
 supporting both ALSA, PulseAudio, JACK and OSS. It uses libavformat to encode
 the recorded material into a variety of video formats. Scaling the recorded
 video is possible as well as configuring the encoding quality for the codec
 chosen directly from the user interface.
 .
 This package contains the main program.
Description-md5: cddf7fe0ef2c2d228de95967189f4a1d
Homepage: http://www.maartenbaert.be/simplescreenrecorder/
Tag: field::arts, hardware::video, interface::graphical, interface::x11,
 role::program, scope::utility, sound::recorder,
 works-with-format::oggtheora, works-with::video, x11::application
Section: video
Priority: optional
Filename: pool/main/s/simplescreenrecorder/simplescreenrecorder_0.3.8-2_amd64.deb
Size: 1259918
MD5sum: 47059a0eff7c9aca0be38a6400f5e57d
SHA256: 223f297afe6d7f2ca3fc4a61d49b1ca66c653a63c08ff44cdc6171ad13a2f8be

This Video is pretty good in quality and seems to be have done with:

https://packages.debian.org/jessie/guvcview

install procedure is a little cumbersome… you might need to install ffmpeg first.

uname -a; # this was tested on Debian8
Linux debian 3.16.0-4-686-pae #1 SMP Debian 3.16.36-1+deb8u1 (2016-09-03) i686 GNU/Linux

su - root; # become root
# or
sudo bash; # become root

apt-get install aptitude; # if you have aptitude not yet installed, it is really helpful for resolving dependencies automatically

aptitude update; # update package definitions

aptitude install vokoscreen; # try to install vokoscreen

# aptitude will throw a bunch of info at you, first press "n" like "no" and then "y" for "yes"

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
vokoscreen : Depends: libqt5core5a (>= 5.6.0~beta) but 5.3.2+dfsg-4+deb8u1 is to be installed
Depends: libqt5x11extras5 (>= 5.6.0) but 5.3.2-2 is to be installed
Depends: libstdc++6 (>= 5.2) but 4.9.2-10 is to be installed
Depends: ffmpeg but it is not going to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.
root@debian:/home/user# aptitude install vokoscreen; #
The following NEW packages will be installed:
ffmpeg{ab} libavcodec57{ab} libavdevice57{a} libavfilter6{ab} libavformat57{ab} libavresample3{a} libavutil55{ab} libboost-filesystem1.55.0{a} libboost-regex1.55.0{a} libbs2b0{a} libchromaprint1{ab} libfaac0{a} libfdk-aac1{a} libgif4{a} libgme0{a} libilbc2{a}
libkvazaar3{a} liblept4{a} libnuma1{a} libopenh264-2{ab} libopenjp2-7{a} libpostproc54{a} libqt5network5{a} libqt5test5{a} librubberband2{a} libsoxr0{a} libswresample2{a} libswscale4{a} libtesseract3{a} libvidstab1.0{a} libx264-148{a} libx265-95{a} mkvtoolnix{a}
vokoscreen{b}
0 packages upgraded, 34 newly installed, 0 to remove and 22 not upgraded.
Need to get 18.2 MB/18.3 MB of archives. After unpacking 59.2 MB will be used.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
vokoscreen : Depends: libqt5core5a (>= 5.6.0~beta) but 5.3.2+dfsg-4+deb8u1 is installed.
Depends: libqt5x11extras5 (>= 5.6.0) but 5.3.2-2 is installed.
Depends: libstdc++6 (>= 5.2) but 4.9.2-10 is installed.
libchromaprint1 : Depends: libstdc++6 (>= 5.2) but 4.9.2-10 is installed.
ffmpeg : Depends: libva1 (>= 1.7.2) but 1.4.1-1 is installed.
libavfilter6 : Depends: libebur128-1 (>= 1.1.0) but it is not going to be installed.
Depends: libva1 (>= 1.7.2) but 1.4.1-1 is installed.
libopenh264-2 : Depends: libstdc++6 (>= 5) but 4.9.2-10 is installed.
libavutil55 : Depends: libva1 (>= 1.7.2) but 1.4.1-1 is installed.
libavformat57 : Depends: libgnutls30 (>= 3.5.3) which is a virtual package.
libavcodec57 : Depends: libsnappy1v5 which is a virtual package.
Depends: libva1 (>= 1.7.2) but 1.4.1-1 is installed.
Depends: libvpx4 (>= 1.6.0) which is a virtual package.
The following actions will resolve these dependencies:

Keep the following packages at their current version:
1) ffmpeg [Not Installed]
2) libavcodec57 [Not Installed]
3) libavdevice57 [Not Installed]
4) libavfilter6 [Not Installed]
5) libavformat57 [Not Installed]
6) libavresample3 [Not Installed]
7) libavutil55 [Not Installed]
8) libchromaprint1 [Not Installed]
9) libopenh264-2 [Not Installed]
10) libpostproc54 [Not Installed]
11) libswresample2 [Not Installed]
12) libswscale4 [Not Installed]
13) vokoscreen [Not Installed]

Accept this solution? [Y/n/q/?] n # <- no, we want to install vokoscreen, not leave it [Not Installed]
The following actions will resolve these dependencies:

Install the following packages:
1) libdc1394-utils [2.2.3-1 (stable)]
2) libqt4-test [4:4.8.6+git64-g5dc8b2b+dfsg-3+deb8u1 (stable)]
3) vokoscreen [2.1.0-1 (stable)] # <- sounds better

Keep the following packages at their current version:
4) ffmpeg [Not Installed]
5) libavcodec57 [Not Installed]
6) libavdevice57 [Not Installed]
7) libavfilter6 [Not Installed]
8) libavformat57 [Not Installed]
9) libavresample3 [Not Installed]
10) libavutil55 [Not Installed]
11) libchromaprint1 [Not Installed]
12) libopenh264-2 [Not Installed]
13) libpostproc54 [Not Installed]
14) libswresample2 [Not Installed]
15) libswscale4 [Not Installed]

Accept this solution? [Y/n/q/?] Y # <- solution accepted

# i can now select vokoscreen from my MATE Gnom2 Menu and it starts and i can record my screen

developer’s website: http://linuxecke.volkoh.de/vokoscreen/vokoscreen.html

github: https://github.com/vkohaupt/vokoscreen

per default it records into *.mkv format in your home folder ~/Videos

vokoscreen-2015-03-23_11-56-43.mkv
vokoscreen-2015-03-23_11-56-59.mkv

Credits / Many thanks to:

Eriberto (maintainer for debian packages)

Dominique (maintainer for launchpad ppa packages)

Marc Kohaupt (technical ideas)

Bersil (translations into Italian and Spanish)

Ole “froksen” (danisch translation, source)

atilacamurca (brazilian portuguese translation)

agaida (code reworking)

Karel (dutch translation)

Phan Anh (vietnamese translation)

Mariusz Fik (openSUSE package maintainer, polish translation)

Rob Frohne (code for timestamp)

Fayssal Chamekh (arabic translation)

Lowrider (russian translation)

Fitoschido (spanish translation)

Varga Gabor (hungrian translation)

Arthur Titeica (romanian translation)

Llumex003 (asturian translation)

zeugma (turkish translation)

Christoph Schenk (swedish translation)

Adam Kosik (czech translation)

Brommer Matthieu (french translation)

jerk1989 (Ukrainian translation)

krupong (Thai translation)

Andrew West (code for dualscreen support)

And many people who send us good ideas 🙂

“…after several hours of struggling, it was VOKOSCREEN which worked, so I did not look further. My system is Linux Mint 15 Olivia, 64-bit, which is based on Ubuntu Raring.This is my summary/log which I wrote while experimenting. Hope it will save you several hours:

avconv: audio and video get out of sync, audio is lagging behind Tried all the options I could. This is the command line I used:

avconv -f alsa -i pulse -f x11grab -r 15 -s 1024x768 -i :0.0 -vcodec wmv1 -acodec pcm_s16le -q 7 b4.avi

Byzanz: creates animated gif (not tried, since I need sound as well and longer screencast)

Eidete: unable to install (with 20 years of Linux experience, didn’t try forever though)

gtk-recordmydesktop: creates ogg which is fine, but unable to convert to anything. Best converter was mencoder but is speeds up video (but not audio) so they get out of sync.

istanbul: freezes immediately

Kazam: if record area larger than ~640×480 memory starts leaking, leaving at most a few minutes before system becomes unresponsive. Many have reported similar issue, this is a known bug.

pyvnc2swf: Is a tool to record a VNC session. Not convenient if you want to record your own screen (not tried)

screenkey: advertised as a “screencast tool”, but is not about recording your screen

tibesti: seems to be no longer maintained (since 2011), does not even install

vokoscreen: FINALLY!!!! Quality is good: both audio and video. After recording I could compress the file to about 1:7 with mencoder without any loss of quality. I discovered that it uses the following command line:

ffmpeg -f alsa -i pulse -f x11grab -r 15 -s 1024x768 -i :0.0+0,0 -vcodec mpeg4 -acodec libmp3lame -ar 48000 -sameq -r 15 my.avi

xvidcap: As stated above: “We’ve removed xvidcap from the repository now because it’s no longer maintained.” (not tried)

wink: distributed as downloadable executable not as package, (not tried)”

source: http://askubuntu.com/questions/4428/how-to-create-a-screencast

GNU Linux How to -> Screencast – ScreenRecording – Record your Linux Screen even with Audio :)

how to install it:

Links:

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