gnome-shell : skype screen sharing problem , windows disappear, panel disappears

[suliman saadi]

when screen sharing full desktop in skype with gnome shell the following happens:
1- all windows diappear
2- the top panel disappear
3- notification area disappears
4- mouse left click don't do anything
5- right click, does work and brings the window clicked on to appear.
6- user shared the desktop with, see just wallpaper like me.

the problem occure also when using gtk recordmydesktop. and not occurring when using ffmpeg from terminal.

info:

suliman@suliman:~$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 11.10
Release: 11.10

apt-cache policy skype
skype:
  Installed: 2.2.0.35-0oneiric2
  Candidate: 2.2.0.35-0oneiric2
  Version table:
 *** 2.2.0.35-0oneiric2 0
        500 http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ oneiric/partner i386 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
---
ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu3
Architecture: i386
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Release i386 (20111012)
Package: skype 2.2.0.35-0oneiric2
PackageArchitecture: i386
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-12.20-generic 3.0.4
Tags: oneiric
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-12-generic i686
UnreportableReason: This is not a genuine Ubuntu package
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
UserGroups: adm admin cdrom dialout lpadmin plugdev sambashare

[suliman saadi (sulimansaadi)]

please tell me if you need further info. and sorry if this is not the right place for this bug.

[Gianfranco Costamagna (costamagnagianfranco)]

@suliman does this bug appears only when skype is started or not?

and please run apport-collect 879895 from a terminal.

[suliman saadi (sulimansaadi)]

apport information

[suliman saadi (sulimansaadi)]

the bug is there, everytime i try to share my screen. with skype. sharing screen with google plus, works fine, and no problem there

[Gianfranco Costamagna (costamagnagianfranco)]

could you please try with unity? I'm not experiencing this bug,

Maybe wiping out your skype config directory could fix the problem (rm -Rf ./.Skype)

(Don't forget to backup your data)

[suliman saadi (sulimansaadi)]

i confirm. with unity no such problem. i will try the skype config solution and will report the results here soon.
p.s it may be caused by a gnome shell extension that affects this?

[Gianfranco Costamagna (costamagnagianfranco)]

The bug seems to be to gnome not to skype

[suliman saadi (sulimansaadi)]

important update: the problem also appear, when using gtk record my desktop. the top panel disappears and all windows. the only thing that remains is the notification area at bottom right.
when using ffmpeg from the command line to record the desktop, no such problem occure.

[suliman saadi (sulimansaadi)]

important update 2: i figured that the problem is solved with gtk recordmydesktop, by unticking the option to outline the screen capture area. which means if there is no outlining around the desktop (red border). the panel doesn't hide.

it might be the case of skype, since it draws a boarder around the screen when sharing full desktop. how can i disable that? and if it is the problem then what causes that behaviour?

[tiritchi (tiritchi)]

hello, i have the same problem with skype and earcandy. this issue appear just when these apps are launched.

at the moment I start one, my screen become crazy. it's very unpleasant because gnome shell is very handy and skype too but they don't want to work together.

 i'm running a fresh installation of Ubuntu 11.10x64 with ATI HD3400 graphic card ( very big sh*t to set it up , A BIG thanks to ATI ) on laptop.

 If i can give you more informations to help you to solve this issue, just ask me.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[tiritchi (tiritchi)]

in fact it's not exactly what happen, when i say crazy i mean that my screen display some kind of shuffle colors and so it is unreadable, the bug what is mentioned upper happens for me when i launch firefox but not evrytime, one more time it is a shuffled issue. thanks ( and sorry if i have done some english mistake)

[Rakesh Iyer (rakesh289)]

i am having the same problem when i start screen sharing in skype all the windows disappear and i can see only the background wallpaper with a red outline around it.

when i press the windows key i can see the Activities Overview but when i select a window it doesn't show up just the background wallpaper is visible.

i dont know if its related but when i disable "let file manager handle desktop" in gnome-tweak-tool and try taking screenshot the image shows only the wallpaper.

i am a newbie to linux and i want to help with whatever info you need with this bug.

[Fernando (fdvj)]

Hi. Im having the same issue here. Im running Ubuntu 11.10 x64 ...installed GNOME 3. Same problem:

when screensharing, full screen, all windows go away (like if I was sent to another workspace). Only background shows, no windows, no gnome, no nothing. No keyboards work, super key does nothing. I have to ask the other side to close the call so I can stop and go back to a working gnome. However, if I use screensharing with only one portion of the screen, it shows, however not without issues:
1- I cannot resize the portion shown.

I think this is an issue with gnome 3. I tried screensharing as well with Team Viewer and the other couldn't see my window at all. However I can see theirs.

[netman74501 (netman74501)]

I too suffer from this exact bug. All I can see is a red border and the background when trying to use Skype's full screen capture. The other end just sees my background.

Another problem I have that is directly related is that the red border isn't actually bound to what the other end sees. What I mean by this is that I can choose to do the selection but, upon starting the screen capture, the screen shown on the other end is always a portion of the top left of my screen. It doesn't matter what I have outlined with the red border selection, the top left of my screen is always shown. I cannot get it to change. I've tried moving my selection and resizing it. Nothing works.

[netman74501 (netman74501)]

Also noticed that the mouse is a black square on the other end when it is showing a portion of my screen.

[Dustin Williams (noaddress)]

I'd like to report that I also have this issue. Running Ubuntu 11.10 x86 with Gnome 3 on an nVidia 9600M GT, when I use the "Share Full Screen" option in Skype all GUI's disappear from my screen. The only way for me to recover is to either track down the exact location of the "Stop Screen Sharing" option or close Skype all together. Again, this issue does not happen with Unity.

[Bala Krish (hackin9u)]

This bug also affects me.

[Camille Acey (joyousnew)]

I am having the same problem. This is only since the most recent update with the HUD display (which I HATE).

Also "share selection" works to a point, but if I move and resize the box too much, Skype crashes. Please help!

[Camille Acey (joyousnew)]

So, funny thing. I just sat down with two computers (my ubuntu 12.04 and my husband's windows 7 netbook) and conducted a few screensharing skype calls. For some reason the only way I can execute an action is if my husband typed a short message to me in Skype. So for example I'd click CTRL + TAB and nothing would happen. Then my husband would write "ok" in the skype chat window and as soon as I received that message the CTRL+TAB command would go through.

The best I can figure is that the only way my machine can "refresh" is by receiving these outside pings. It doesn't matter what it is. Just as long as it comes. So basically I can type a command into terminal and press enter. I won't see the command and it won't execute until I tell the person on the other side of the line to send me something in the chat window. Then the command is executed and their screen refreshes.

[borninbronx (daniele-segato)]

This has been fixed upstream (gnome-shell) for next version (>3.4):

https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=677657

[dino99 (9d9)]

EOL reached for that serie https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases