gnome-screenshot cant access gnome shell's screenshot and there's no X11 to fall back on

[Jeff Lane ]

I've recently moved to a 25.10 system which is based on wayland and running Gnome.

I've used gnome-screenshot for years for easy capturing of screenshots for work and personal needs. Installed it today on my new 25.10 system and found that it no longer works (though is available for 25.10).

Launching it is fine, but as soon as you click the "Take Screenshot" button, the app closes because it has no facility to actually take the screen shot. The only real error noted in syslog is this:

2026-01-09T23:09:23.673471+00:00 rocinante gnome-screenshot[1556702]: Unable to select area using GNOME Shell's builtin screenshot interface, resorting to fallback X11.

which is pretty self-explanatory :D

the builtin has no easy means of launching (*my keyboard does not have a print-screen button) and isn't as featureful anyway.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 25.10
Package: gnome-screenshot 41.0-3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 6.17.0-8.8-generic 6.17.2
Uname: Linux 6.17.0-8-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.33.1-0ubuntu3
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: pass
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Fri Jan 9 18:09:57 2026
InstallationDate: Installed on 2025-12-12 (28 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 25.04 "Plucky Puffin" - Daily amd64 (20250306)
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 SHELL=/usr/bin/bash
 TERM=xterm-256color
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
SourcePackage: gnome-screenshot
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to questing on 2025-12-12 (28 days ago)

[Chris Guiver (guiverc)]

What you've filed as a bug I think is expected GNOME behavior

- https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/10/gnome-screenshot-app-no-longer-works-in-gnome-49
- https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/-/merge_requests/3760#note_2478308