Kazam ver. 1.4.4 and 1.4.5 area selector option blocks screen output with a grey rectagle

[Isaak Babaev]

I am using Kazam version 1.4.3 from PPA stable releases. When I click on Area button in Screencast mode the whole screen turns grey with a message to select by clicking and dragging. The problem with that I can't see the area on the screen output to select. For example if I am to record a VLC video ouput I can't see the shape or size of the VLC video output with the greyed out screen. If it were transparent somehow it would make a world of difference. Thank you for all your help, and for writing a great program for linux.

[Isaak Babaev (ibabaev)]

One more thing: If you could add a color border rectangle over the area that is selected for recording that would also be helpful. Thanks again.

[Isaac Mercer (nos-developer)]

Still Present In Kazam 1.4.4

[David Klasinc (bigwhale)]

Thank you for your report.

If you are kind enough to include a full debug output (run kazam with --debug switch) so that I can get more information on what is going on, I'd be grateful.

[Prakan Puvibunsuk (prakan)]

DEBUG msg is the following

DEBUG Kazam - Starting ...
DEBUG Kazam - Running on: Ubuntu 14.04
DEBUG Kazam - Kazam version: 1.4.4 NCC-80102
DEBUG Kazam - Starting new instance ...
DEBUG Prefs - XDG_PICTURES is a directory and accessible
DEBUG Prefs-HW - Getting hardware specs
DEBUG Prefs-HW - Getting Video sources.
DEBUG Prefs-HW - Found 1 monitor(s).
DEBUG Prefs-HW - Monitor 0 - X: 0, Y: 0, W: 1600, H: 900
DEBUG Main - Gstreamer version detected: 1.2.4.0
DEBUG Main - Setting variables.
DEBUG PulseAudio - Starting mainloop.
DEBUG PulseAudio - Getting API.
DEBUG PulseAudio - Setting context.
DEBUG PulseAudio - Set state callback.
DEBUG PulseAudio - Connecting to server.
DEBUG PulseAudio - Start mainloop.
DEBUG PulseAudio - State connected.
DEBUG Main - Connecting indicator signals.
DEBUG Main - Starting in silent mode: False
DEBUG Indicator - Indicatior silent: False
DEBUG Indicator - Trying to bind hotkeys.
DEBUG Main - Main Window UI setup.
DEBUG Main - Unable to get name for '<Adjustment object at 0x7f92a6205990 (GtkAdjustment at 0x15cd920)>'

(kazam:26825): Gtk-WARNING **: Can't set a parent on widget which has a parent

(kazam:26825): Gtk-WARNING **: Can't set a parent on widget which has a parent

DEBUG Prefs - Getting Audio sources.
DEBUG PulseAudio - get_audio_sources() called.
DEBUG PulseAudio - pa_sourcelist_cb()
DEBUG PulseAudio - IDX: 0
DEBUG PulseAudio - Name: b'alsa_output.pci-0000_01_05.1.hdmi-stereo.monitor'
DEBUG PulseAudio - Desc: b'Monitor of RS880 HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 4200 Series] Digital Stereo (HDMI)'
DEBUG PulseAudio - pa_sourcelist_cb()
DEBUG PulseAudio - IDX: 1
DEBUG PulseAudio - Name: b'alsa_output.pci-0000_00_14.2.analog-stereo.monitor'
DEBUG PulseAudio - Desc: b'Monitor of Built-in Audio Analog Stereo'
DEBUG PulseAudio - pa_sourcelist_cb()
DEBUG PulseAudio - IDX: 2
DEBUG PulseAudio - Name: b'alsa_input.pci-0000_00_14.2.analog-stereo'
DEBUG PulseAudio - Desc: b'Built-in Audio Analog Stereo'
DEBUG PulseAudio - pa_sourcelist_cb() -- finished
DEBUG Prefs - Device found:
DEBUG Prefs - - 0
DEBUG Prefs - - alsa_output.pci-0000_01_05.1.hdmi-stereo.monitor
DEBUG Prefs - - Monitor of RS880 HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 4200 Series] Digital Stereo (HDMI)
DEBUG Prefs - Device found:
DEBUG Prefs - - 1
DEBUG Prefs - - alsa_output.pci-0000_00_14.2.analog-stereo.monitor
DEBUG Prefs - - Monitor of Built-in Audio Analog Stereo
DEBUG Prefs - Device found:
DEBUG Prefs - - 2
DEBUG Prefs - - alsa_input.pci-0000_00_14.2.analog-stereo
DEBUG Prefs - - Built-in Audio Analog Stereo
DEBUG Main - Capture cursor: True.
DEBUG Main - Capture cursor_pic: True.
DEBUG Main - Capture borders_pic: True.
DEBUG Main - Start delay now: 3
DEBUG Main - Area ON.
DEBUG Window Select - Initializing select window.
WARNING Window Select - Compositing window manager not found, expect the unexpected.
DEBUG Main - Area mode clicked.
DEBUG Window Select - Selected coords: 214 145 1213 797
DEBUG Main - Area selected: SX: 214, SY: 145, EX: 1213, EY: 797
DEBUG Main - Area selected: GX: 214, GY: 145, GX: 1213, GY: 797
DEBUG Window Select - Move to X: 0 Y: 0
DEBUG Main - Quit requested.
DEBUG PulseAudio - Disconnecting from server.
DE...

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for Kazam Screencaster because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[Václav Haisman (vzeman79)]

I am seeing the same thing on Xubuntu 14.10. I am attaching a log.

Even if I manage to select the right rectangle for the recording, when I try to record, there is black rectangle over the selected screen area and I cannot actually see the application windows I want to record.

[Václav Haisman (vzeman79)]

ApportVersion: 2.14.7-0ubuntu8.1
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: XFCE
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.10
InstallationDate: Installed on 2011-11-13 (1195 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Release amd64 (20111012)
Package: kazam 1.4.5-1
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.16.0-30.40-lowlatency 3.16.7-ckt3
Tags: utopic
Uname: Linux 3.16.0-30-lowlatency x86_64
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to utopic on 2014-10-25 (118 days ago)
UserGroups: adm admin audio cdrom dialout dip fax floppy fuse lp lpadmin mythtv netdev plugdev sambashare scanner tape vboxusers video wireshark
_MarkForUpload: True

[Václav Haisman (vzeman79)]

apport information

[Václav Haisman (vzeman79)]

apport information

[Charl P. Botha (cpbotha)]

Just tried this with the unstable kazam 1.5.3 on Ubuntu 14.04 with Gnome Flashback desktop: Unfortunately the problem persists.

I also see it with 1.4.4 stable on this system.

Has anyone with the problem tried to downgrade to a previous working version?

[Charl P. Botha (cpbotha)]

When I logged out of Gnome Flashback with Metacity (i.e. no compiz and no compositing) and back into Unity (default Ubuntu desktop) the Kazam area selection started working like it always did.

Could it be that this issue has something to do with the use of compositing?

[Eric Dujardin (eric-dujardin)]

Trying Kazam on Trusty with Mate 1.8.2. The window manager is marco. Same problem, making kazam a no-go.

[Ben Stähli (benzkji)]

confirming this old non-bug: enabling the compositor makes it work as expected (transparent selection area, window / area contents visible when recording).

Looks more like a documentation / help issue to me.

[Andrew Harvey (andrew-harvey4)]

I see this issue too using the XMonad window manager.

[Josh Bialkowski (josh-bialkowski)]

Confirm this bug is still present in ubuntu 18.04. I'm using i3 window manager and even with compton (compositer) running, clicking "window" or "area" blanks the screen (to the desktop background, windows are all invisible) and I can't see any windows.