Comment 13 for bug 873283

The surfaceflinger screenshot functionality relies on the OpenGL ES FBO (frame buffer objects) extension, as it renders all the surfaces into such a virtual framebuffer:
http://androidxref.com/4.1.1/xref/frameworks/native/services/surfaceflinger/SurfaceFlinger.cpp#2355
That probably accounts for the message tixy is seeing.

The code which DDMS uses for capturing a screenshot will first try the above SurfaceFlinger/OpenGL compositing method, then fall back to reading /dev/graphics/fb0 directly. At least, that certainly was the case until recently.
http://androidxref.com/4.1.1/xref/frameworks/base/cmds/screencap/screencap.cpp#133
This may account for some of the symptoms on different devices.