Showing standard cursor (left-ptr) instead of current cursor

[Mario Kemper (Romario)]

I need to make screenshots including the cursor.
Installled today (2009-06-17) a fresh copy of shutter from launchpad site on my Ubuntu Hardy Heron.
Activated the "Include cursor" preference.
Set 4s delay.
I made several screenshots using selection mode.
The result is invariably the following:
a) There appears a clipped cursor pointer in the saved PNG image. (looks like the standard cursor)
b) It is not the cursor I see on the screen, which indeed is what I want to catch with the screenshot.

Thank you for the attention

Louis Jean-Richard

[Mario Kemper (Romario) (mario-kemper)]

Thank you for your bug report, Louis.

a) Could you please attach a sample screenshot showing the problem?

b) Shutter always uses the standard cursor. To solve this problem we need to work with the XFixes Extension of the X Window System, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XFixes

The problem is that there is no perl binding for that and due to the fact that Shutter is written in perl that's kind of a problem.

[louis (l-jean-richard)]

Hallo Mario,

find here attached a sample screenshot .

The reason why I have installed Shutter is that the original
"Take screenshot" accessory in Ubuntu is unable to catch the cursor.
Unfortunately I have no other mean to make screenshot of the appearing
cursor . The expected cursor on the attached screenshot should
have been 4 arrows arranged as a cross.
In the meantime I've noticed that Shutter has lost the preferences I had
set ...

Anyway many thanks for the help.

Louis Jean-Richard

Mario Kemper (Romario) wrote:
> Thank you for your bug report, Louis.
>
> a) Could you please attach a sample screenshot showing the problem?
>
> b) Shutter always uses the standard cursor. To solve this problem we
> need to work with the XFixes Extension of the X Window System, see:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XFixes
>
> The problem is that there is no perl binding for that and due to the
> fact that Shutter is written in perl that's kind of a problem.
>
>

[Mario Kemper (Romario) (mario-kemper)]

Ok, I think the cursor is corrupted because you are using an alternative XCursor theme (I don't say it's not a bug). Try switching to the default cursor theme to see if this works.
I'll see what I can do to get the alternative themes working...

The preference issue:
This is a known bug and it's already fixed in trunk (Shutter 0.80 will be released in the next days). You have to close Shutter via File->Quit to avoid loosing your preferences.

[louis (l-jean-richard)]

It took me some time to recall how I managed to configure my gnome
desktop the way it is now ...

Your guess is correct, I use for the pointer the 'redglass' theme .
Now I have switched the pointer theme to the standard (or default). Here
the results:

The first screenshot was obtained by dragging a tab in firefox to
another position,
again the cursor, though intact, is not the one that appears when doing
the manoeuvre,
I think this should be easy for you to reproduce.

The second screenshot corresponds to the one I sent you, here the cursor
is intact but not
the one I see (an up arrow touching a hyphen).

I hope this will help you in clarifying the issue.

Mario Kemper (Romario) wrote:
> Ok, I think the cursor is corrupted because you are using an alternative XCursor theme (I don't say it's not a bug). Try switching to the default cursor theme to see if this works.
> I'll see what I can do to get the alternative themes working...
>
> The preference issue:
> This is a known bug and it's already fixed in trunk (Shutter 0.80 will be released in the next days). You have to close Shutter via File->Quit to avoid loosing your preferences.
>
>

[Mario Kemper (Romario) (mario-kemper)]

> The first screenshot was obtained by dragging a tab in firefox to
> another position,
> again the cursor, though intact, is not the one that appears when doing
> the manoeuvre,
> I think this should be easy for you to reproduce.
>
> The second screenshot corresponds to the one I sent you, here the cursor
> is intact but not
> the one I see (an up arrow touching a hyphen).
>
> I hope this will help you in clarifying the issue.
>

Thank you very much for your efforts.

Here is the current status of my work during the last days:

1) Corrupted cursor when using other xcursor-themes than default:

-> Fixed in experimental branch (will be released with Shutter 0.80)

2) Showing standard cursor (left-ptr) instead of current cursor

-> Due to the fact that it is not possible to get the current cursor
with standard xlib or gtk libraries we have to use the XFixes extension
and there is no XFixes extension for perl currently...but...I've started
to implemented that extension in the last days.
The problem is that I need more time to finish it, so here is my
proposal:
After releasing 0.80 we will assign this problem/task to the next
milestone and ship it with the next release.
(Maybe we can split the existing milestone 0.85 to smaller ones to
release more often)

@Vadim, Louis: What do you think?

[Vadim Peretokin (vperetokin)]

I think it's fine to postpone that to 0.85. I understand that custom cursor
themes are more readily available on Linux, but tbh, I haven't seen that
many people to customize them as much as themes.

[louis (l-jean-richard)]

It's OK, thank you for the attention you gave to my submission.

Allow me a little comment. Often little details can make a considerable
difference when it comes to the quality of software.
I have discovered Shutter because other screenshot softwares I could
find for my linux box ignore this issue.
I remember only that snagIt that I used years ago on "windozes" handles
this correctly.
For now I have postponed the documentation of the manual where this
feature is required.

Feel free to involve me in the testing of this new future feature of
Shutter.
I plan to send you a user report on Shutter once I can install and test
the announced version 0.80.

Regards
Louis

Mario Kemper (Romario) wrote:
>> The first screenshot was obtained by dragging a tab in firefox to
>> another position,
>> again the cursor, though intact, is not the one that appears when doing
>> the manoeuvre,
>> I think this should be easy for you to reproduce.
>>
>> The second screenshot corresponds to the one I sent you, here the cursor
>> is intact but not
>> the one I see (an up arrow touching a hyphen).
>>
>> I hope this will help you in clarifying the issue.
>>
>>
>
> Thank you very much for your efforts.
>
> Here is the current status of my work during the last days:
>
> 1) Corrupted cursor when using other xcursor-themes than default:
>
> -> Fixed in experimental branch (will be released with Shutter 0.80)
>
> 2) Showing standard cursor (left-ptr) instead of current cursor
>
> -> Due to the fact that it is not possible to get the current cursor
> with standard xlib or gtk libraries we have to use the XFixes extension
> and there is no XFixes extension for perl currently...but...I've started
> to implemented that extension in the last days.
> The problem is that I need more time to finish it, so here is my
> proposal:
> After releasing 0.80 we will assign this problem/task to the next
> milestone and ship it with the next release.
> (Maybe we can split the existing milestone 0.85 to smaller ones to
> release more often)
>
> @Vadim, Louis: What do you think?
>
>
>
> ** Changed in: shutter
> Importance: Undecided => Medium
>
> ** Changed in: shutter
> Status: New => Confirmed
>
> ** Changed in: shutter
> Assignee: (unassigned) => Mario Kemper (Romario) (mario-kemper)
>
>

[Mario Kemper (Romario) (mario-kemper)]

> For now I have postponed the documentation of the manual where this
> feature is required.
>

GIMP's screenshot tool (since version 2.6.x) has this feature - see
attachment. Of course I don't want you to switch over from Shutter to
GIMP forever, but this is a chance to finish your manual ;-)

Btw, if this version of GIMP is not available for your current ubuntu
version take a look at getdeb.net for example:
http://www.getdeb.net/app/Gimp

> Feel free to involve me in the testing of this new future feature of
> Shutter.
> I plan to send you a user report on Shutter once I can install and test
> the announced version 0.80.

Thanks. I'll let you know...

[Mario Kemper (Romario) (mario-kemper)]

Sorry, but I am unable to make any progress here. I've already contacted Stephen McCamant (http://search.cpan.org/~smccam/) some weeks ago and asked for help but I didn't get any response. I'll have to push this bug away for an indefinite period of time.

[Mario Kemper (Romario) (mario-kemper)]

Hooray!! Thanks to Kevin Ryde for writing this module:
http://search.cpan.org/~kryde/X11-Protocol-Other-9/lib/X11/Protocol/Ext/XFIXES.pm

This bug is finally fixed now!

[harpreet bhatia (bluepicaso)]

not fixed, using version 0.88.1 on ubuntu 12.04

[kenden (kenden)]

Not fixed, using version 0.89 in Linux Mint 15 64b.

On a web page, when I hoover a link, the mouse cursor changes and a tooltip appears.
I can't take a screenshot of the cursor.

[kenden (kenden)]

But created from:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/shutter/+bug/388475
which is closed already

On a web page, when I hover the mouse cursor over a link, the mouse cursor changes to a little question mark and a tooltip appears.
I can't take a screenshot with that "question mark" cursor.

Repro steps:
- go to http://www.carpooling.co.uk/lifts_mod/create
-hover the mouse over the question mark next to Stay logged in
---> the cursor changes to a question mark with an arrow and a tooltip appears

It is not possible to take a screenshot of that "question mark with an arrow" cursor.