feresaria/docs/screen-sharing.md

Screen sharing and recording

Share a monitor or window from a Wayland-compatible recording or conferencing app, or save a video using the top bar. Installation includes the portal and PipeWire dependencies.

Record from the top bar

1. Click the recording icon.
2. Select a monitor and click Share.
3. Click the stop square to finish.

The recorder saves VP8 WebM files under Ferese in your XDG Videos folder, then shows the path in a notification. The built-in recorder does not support audio or region recording; other recording apps can handle audio separately. If recording fails, a notification reports the error and any unfinished .webm.part file.

Start sharing

Select a Wayland screen-sharing source in your application. In Ferese's picker, choose a display or window and click Share. Nothing is selected initially. Apps requesting multiple sources can select up to eight.

A shared display includes everything visible on it, including notifications. Window sharing captures only the selected app's content and subsurfaces, even if the window is covered or on another workspace. It excludes separate popups and compositor decorations. The video size follows window resizes; closing the window ends sharing.

The picker follows your shell colors, font, corners, opacity, and blur.

Stop sharing

Click Stop sharing or close the sharing window. For the built-in recorder, use the stop button in the top bar. Sharing also ends when the app closes or Ferese locks. If you disconnect a shared monitor or change its capture size, its stream ends and you need to start sharing again.

Remember permissions

When an app requests saved display permissions, the picker offers Allow without asking, off by default. Approval lasts for the duration requested by the app. The portal manages stored permissions and revocation.

A different app, changed display, or changed cursor option needs approval again. Nested previews and displays without a reliable identity always ask. Window permissions are not saved. Stopping a stream does not erase a saved permission.

Requirements and limits

Install PipeWire, WirePlumber, xdg-desktop-portal, and xdg-desktop-portal-gtk. The built-in recorder also needs GStreamer's PipeWire, base, and good plugins; see the package lists.

The installer supplies Ferese's portal backend and selects it for screen sharing. Log into a new Ferese session after installation.

Streams run at up to 30 fps with hidden or embedded cursors. Frames are copied through CPU-accessible buffers. Large streams or several simultaneous streams can therefore use substantial CPU and memory bandwidth.

Troubleshooting

• Confirm PipeWire and WirePlumber are running.
• Confirm XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP includes Ferese.
• Check that FERESE_ENABLE_SCREENCOPY was not set to 0 before session startup.
• Check for portal overrides in ~/.config/xdg-desktop-portal/.

The installed preference is /usr/share/xdg-desktop-portal/ferese-portals.conf. Its ScreenCast entry should select Ferese:

[preferred]
default=gtk;
org.freedesktop.impl.portal.ScreenCast=ferese;

xdg-desktop-portal-ferese --sources lists displays on the current WAYLAND_DISPLAY without starting a stream. Nested previews do not replace the host desktop's portal environment. See Development for isolated sharing tests.