gnome-screenshot produces black screenshot with only the mouse pointer visible

[Michael Nagel]

I am running Ubuntu 12.04 inside Virtualbox on a Windows host.
3D acceleration is enabled in Virtualbox and I am using compiz + unity, NOT unity2d.

gnome-screenshot produces black screenshot with only the mouse pointer visible.
it does not matter if I run it by pressing the PrintScreen key or running
gnome-screenshot -d 5
in a terminal.

WORKAROUND:
use unity2d instead of compiz+unity

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: gnome-screenshot 3.4.1-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-24.39-generic 3.2.16
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-24-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu7
Architecture: amd64
Date: Tue May 29 15:59:15 2012
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Alpha amd64 (20111129.1)
SourcePackage: gnome-screenshot
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Rootbrian (rootbrian2000)]

I am having the same issue too. When will this be fixed? I wanted to make some stills for a video and now it is impossible. It is only a matter of time before somebody brings this up in the ubuntu forums and everywhere else. I'll also be making a video to compliment this issue too. Not sure if it's apparent in Linux Mint 13 since it's based on ubuntu 12.04 LTS.

[Michael Nagel (nailor)]

Some more info:

- right now I get the desktop background+mouse pointer, even though there are open windows, and the dock is missing...
- 3d acceleration is activated in virtualbox and I am running unity3d. I have not tested deactivating either.

[Michael Nagel (nailor)]

I found some references that 3d acceleration might indeed be a problem when taking screenshots in virtualbox. I do not know if this is a problem with virtualbox or ubuntu, however. It should "just work", however...

https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=32801
http://www.upubuntu.com/2012/03/take-and-edit-screenshots-with.html

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Michael Nagel (nailor)]

melchiaros (melchiaros) wrote in a merged bug:

I have just retested with unity 2d and deactivated 3d support in virtualbox.
The screenshot works normal in this configuration (Virtualbox4.1.12 on Ubuntu12.04 64bit host).

PS: I fixed a typo in the text to make it clearer.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Michael Nagel (nailor)]

same thing with recordmydesktop

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Egon A. Rath (egon-rath)]

There's a workaround available until it has been fixed: Enable the Compiz Screenshot Plugin in the compiz settings manager ("ccsm", installed by compizconfig-settings-manager)

[Michael Weimann (m982)]

Still present in Ubuntu 12.10 with Unity3d and VirtualBox 4.2.6.

[Alan (alanjas)]

I get the same problem in Saucy. In my case, all black: no cursor

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[akatdim (akatdim)]

Same problem with shutter in ubuntu 13.04 (x86_64)

[Jarosław Guza (jarekj83-4)]

same problem

[Ryan owens (ryanvader)]

Same on 13.04 with screenshot, shutter, and record-my-desktop. KDE is unaffected of course....

I had this issue in 12.04 also. Why is this not fixed yet?

[MP (pagel-d)]

Using 12.04 (unity)
uname -a: Linux xxxx 3.8.0-39-generic #57~precise1-Ubuntu SMP Tue Apr 1 20:04:50 UTC 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
lsb_release: LSB Version: core-2.0-amd64:core-2.0-noarch:core-3.0-amd64:core-3.0-noarch:core-3.1-amd64:core-3.1-noarch:core-3.2-amd64:core-3.2-noarch:core-4.0-amd64:core-4.0-noarch:cxx-3.0-amd64:cxx-3.0-noarch:cxx-3.1-amd64:cxx-3.1-noarch:cxx-3.2-amd64:cxx-3.2-noarch:cxx-4.0-amd64:cxx-4.0-noarch:desktop-3.1-amd64:desktop-3.1-noarch:desktop-3.2-amd64:desktop-3.2-noarch:desktop-4.0-amd64:desktop-4.0-noarch:graphics-2.0-amd64:graphics-2.0-noarch:graphics-3.0-amd64:graphics-3.0-noarch:graphics-3.1-amd64:graphics-3.1-noarch:graphics-3.2-amd64:graphics-3.2-noarch:graphics-4.0-amd64:graphics-4.0-noarch:multimedia-3.2-amd64:multimedia-3.2-noarch:multimedia-4.0-amd64:multimedia-4.0-noarch:printing-3.2-amd64:printing-3.2-noarch:printing-4.0-amd64:printing-4.0-noarch:qt4-3.1-amd64:qt4-3.1-noarch
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS
Release: 12.04
Codename: precise

unity --version: unity 5.20.0

I have virtualbox-3.4 installed, but I cannot take a screenshot in the HOST (my bug is not with the guest) with gnome-screenshot even without running virtualbox GUI or any virtualbox guest sessions.

The compiz screenshot utility under extras works but is inconvenient

[Josh McCullough (joshua-mccullough)]

Same issue here but with LinuxMint 17.1 running on VirtualBox 4.3.28 r100309 running on a WIn7 host. 3D acceleration enabled; screenshot works correctly when disabling 3D acceleration.

[fcole90 (fcole90)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug. We have tried to recreate this on the latest release of Ubuntu and cannot reproduce it. This bug is being marked as Invalid. If you believe the problem to still exist in the latest version of Ubuntu please comment on why that is the case and change the bug status to NEW.

[Dr. Gianluigi "Zane" Zanettini (zaneceo)]

This is to confirm that the issue is still present with Ubuntu 16.04 as guest inside VirtualBox 5.0.14.

Disabling 3D acceleration from the VM settings is still an effective workaround.

[NoOp (glgxg)]

Also with Virtualbox 5.1.6 with Ubuntu 16.04 as guest.
https://s10.postimg.org/tc5zjxb7t/Screenshot_from_2016_09_12_18_12_53.png

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.