ffmpeg is not recording environment X in Ubuntu

[Alex Rocha]

Binary package hint: ffmpeg

Hi,

ffmpeg is not recording environment X in Ubuntu 6.06 Dapper Drake. I tried to record with the command and receive the following output:

Command:
$ ffmpeg - vcodec mpeg4 - b 1000 - r 10 - g 300 - vd x11:0,0 - s 1024x768 ~/file.avi

Output:
ffmpeg version CVS, build 3276800, Copyright (c) 2000-2004 Fabrice Bellard
  configuration: --extra-cflags=-fomit-frame-pointer -DRUNTIME_CPUDETECT --build i486-linux-gnu --enable-gpl --enable-pp --enable-zlib --enable-vorbis --enable-libogg --enable-theora --enable-a52 --enable-dts --enable-dc1394 --enable-libgsm --disable-debug --prefix=/usr
  built on Nov 24 2005 10:19:02, gcc: 4.0.3 20051121 (prerelease) (Ubuntu 4.0.2-4ubuntu3)
x11:0,0: No such file or directory
Could not find video grab device

ffmpeg of the repository (Universe) is not qualified to record this?

The parameters are not listed in the output (configuration):
-- extra-ldflags=-L/usr/X11R6/lib -- enable-x11grab

[Paul Dufresne (paulduf)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. You reported this bug a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering is this still an issue for you? Can you try with latest Ubuntu release? Thanks in advance.

[Niklas Klein (kleinernik)]

Hi,

i have tested with the latest source for hardy cvs20070307-5ubuntu4 and it is still an issue for me. I have also tested when i set --extra-ldflags=-L/usr/X11R6/lib and --enable-x11grab and compile, this does not help with the current release, there are reports, that this flags worked with older versions.

[Paul Dufresne (paulduf)]

I am just a bug triager, and I don't really use ffmpeg (I did some long time ago to convert, but really not much).
I have tried: ffmpeg -f x11grab -i :0.0 /tmp/out.mpg
but I get: Unknown input or output format: x11grab

But I have found this link:
http://www.pittle.org/weblog/ffmpeg-has-x11grab-x11-grab-built-in_77.html where it says that:
I figured out sometime now that, ffmpeg has included x11grab (x11-grab) patch, so there’s no need to the Screencasting solution that we came with anymore.

And the patch is there:
http://ffmpeg.mplayerhq.hu/ffmpeg-export-snapshot.tar.bz2

Still trying to figure out why it is an external patch, from where it came, etc.

[Alex Rocha (alexrocha)]

Hey,

Now I am not using the ffmpeg, but i used the HowTo below and worked in Dapper, see:

http://ubuntu.wordpress.com/2006/06/08/how-to-create-a-screencast-in-
ubuntu/ (English)

http://alexrocha.wordpress.com/2006/09/04/1-2-3-gravando/ (Brazilian
Portuguese)

I have not done tests with the Gutsy using this tutorial.

[Paul Dufresne (paulduf)]

I just found: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ffmpeg but this is more about how to re-compile yourself than fixing this bug.

[Paul Dufresne (paulduf)]

Here is an old patch
http://lecoindespotes.free.fr/ubuntu/screencast/ffmpeg-0.4.9-p20051216.diff

[Paul Dufresne (paulduf)]

Summarising info from duplicate bug #154793 here:

First we need to add --enable-x11grab to configuration options.
But even after that 'ffmpeg -f x11grab -s cif -i :0.0 /tmp/out.mpg' still report:
Unknown input or output format: x11grab

There is an old Dapper tutorial on how to compile with a patch at:
http://ubuntu.wordpress.com/2006/06/08/how-to-create-a-screencast-in-ubuntu/
but I believe the site from which it gets don't work any more, but I THINK this is the same from previous comment.

[Paul Dufresne (paulduf)]

Confirming this bug.

[Tarnay Kálmán (tarnay-kalman)]

Confirming this bug.
(running Gutsy)

[Stefan (mad-kow)]

Confirming this bug in Hardy.

[Luca Ferroni (liuck)]

Confirming in Hardy too

[Reinhard Tartler (siretart)]

fixed in intrepid.

you can find backport packages in the motumedia PPA for hardy!

[Odin Hørthe Omdal (velmont)]

But!

The bug is back in Karmic!

[Paul Gevers (paul-climbing)]

Odin Hørthe Omdal wrote:
> The bug is back in Karmic!

@Odin Hørthe Omdal: could you please open a new bug (and mention this
bug number probably). You should give us some more information, such as
the exact command you used and all the output of ffmpeg. It also helps a
lot to specify which version of ffmpeg you are using.

In Ubuntu the preferred way of opening a new bug is by running the
"""ubuntu-bug ffmpeg""" command. It will gather all the relevant
information about your system, than it redirects to your browser and
allows you to explain the bug.

Thanks.
Paul