Kazam doesn't work in 13.10, but did in 13.04

[Lonnie Lee Best]

In Ubuntu 13.04, Kazam was my choice for screen recording with audio. However, after upgrading to 13.10, it now always crashes in the first few seconds I attempt to do a screen-cast.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.10
Package: kazam 1.4.3-2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.11.0-12.19-generic 3.11.3
Uname: Linux 3.11.0-12-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: wl
ApportVersion: 2.12.5-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
Date: Fri Oct 18 23:41:11 2013
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-10-07 (12 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 13.04 "Raring Ringtail" - Release amd64 (20130424)
MarkForUpload: True
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: kazam
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to saucy on 2013-10-18 (1 days ago)

[Lonnie Lee Best (launchpad-startport)]

I found this file:
/home/user/.cache/upstart/update-notifier-crash-_var_crash__usr_bin_kazam.1000.crash.log

This was its contents:

Fri Oct 18 23:18:29 CDT 2013 crash report /var/crash/_usr_bin_kazam.1000.crash detected
kazam
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/50-user.conf", line 14: reading configurations from ~/.fonts.conf is deprecated.
Fri Oct 18 23:19:18 CDT 2013 crash report /var/crash/_usr_bin_kazam.1000.crash detected
kazam
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/50-user.conf", line 14: reading configurations from ~/.fonts.conf is deprecated.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Dave Gilbert (ubuntu-treblig)]

High: Crashes making application unusable
Triaged: Trivially repeatable

Start kazam:
Click capture

Wait a few seconds
Seg faults.

[jen0f0nte (juanluisfg)]

In my case, it works with raw-avi format, but it's too laggy. It crashes with mp4 format and it stops recording after 5-6 minutes with webm format.

[turbolad (turbolad995)]

Same problem. Kazam worked properly in Ubuntu 13.04 (64-bit) and does not work in Ubuntu 13.10 (64-bit). I wish I didn't upgrade to Ubuntu 13.10 now.

[Andrew Starr-Bochicchio (andrewsomething)]

Segfault happened at: 0x7fca422ce5c5 <__memcmp_sse4_1+2997>: mov -0x10(%rdi),%rax
PC (0x7fca422ce5c5) ok
source "-0x10(%rdi)" (0x00000000) not located in a known VMA region (needed readable region)!
destination "%rax" ok
Stack memory exhausted (SP below stack segment)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Andrew Starr-Bochicchio (andrewsomething)]

Looks like the real culprit here is bug #1241772 in libx264-123:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/x264/+bug/1241772

I'll leave this open instead of duplicating this to it since someone is going to just open a new one against kazam. So we'll catch that here, but you should follow that bug for progress on a fix.

[Andrew Starr-Bochicchio (andrewsomething)]

The fix is in saucy-proposed. You can try it by installing libx264-123 following the below instructions:

Accepted x264 into saucy-proposed. The package will build now and be
available at
http://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/x264/2:0.123.2189+git35cf912-1ubuntu1.1
in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to
enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update
out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug,
mentioning the version of the package you tested, and change the tag
from verification-needed to verification-done. If it does not fix the
bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to
verification-failed. In either case, details of your testing will help
us make a better decision.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in
advance!

[Odysseas Stamoglou (xb-creations)]

Hello,
I had the same problem after upgrading from kubuntu 13.04 to 13.10: Kazam wouldn't record in mp4, it immediately crashed.
I had a little adventure after trying to upgrade my nvidia drivers: It was a disaster, and I had to uninstall them.

From then on, on startup I had always kdaemon crashing and the cause was kscreen and libkscreen.
I uninstalled them and the system was back to normal again. And what's more, Kazam now records mp4 and sound normally.

I hope it helps, I am no programmer but maybe kscreen is connected in some way.