Samuel Onoja
42c3b290dd
The top-bar recorder previously saved a full monitor without sound. It now lets you select a region within one monitor and choose system audio, microphone audio, or both. Audio remains off by default, and recordings with audio are saved as VP8/Opus WebM files. The portal still controls screen access and cancellation; stopping from the bar or ending the video stream finishes the recording, including its audio tracks. Region selection accounts for fractional display scales and negative monitor coordinates. The picker keeps its action buttons visible while the display list and recording options scroll together. The picker, dependency lists, and recording documentation now explain the available choices and the slurp and audio requirements. Routine pushes and pull requests no longer start CI runners. Workspace checks and website deployment are manual, while release checks run when requested manually, through a version tag, or through a PR labeled `release`. Publishing still requires a pushed version tag. This also fixes release asset checksums by normalizing RPM filenames before generating the checksum file. Validated locally with a release build, portal and shell recorder tests, formatting, Clippy, actionlint, packaging tests, and mocked publishing checks. Media tests encoded and decoded cropped video with audio, checked that video termination finishes live audio, and exercised system, microphone, and combined capture against a private PipeWire-Pulse server. Mixed recordings must contain both fixture frequencies, with negative controls for either missing source. The picker was also checked on 800 × 600 and 800 × 400 desktops and opened in a live nested window.
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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
- Click the recording icon.
- Choose a display and an audio source: Off, System sound, Microphone, or Both. Audio is off by default; the other choices use your default output or input device from audio settings.
- Click Record to capture the whole display. For part of it, turn on Select a region, click Select region, then drag a rectangle inside the chosen display. Press Escape to cancel selection.
- Click the stop square to finish.
The recorder saves WebM files with VP8 video and, when selected, Opus audio under
Ferese in your XDG Videos folder, then shows the path in a notification. Region
recordings cover a rectangle within one display; they cannot span displays.
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.
Region selection needs slurp; audio recording needs PipeWire-Pulse or PulseAudio
and the GStreamer PulseAudio and Opus plugins. With audio set to Off, the recorder
does not open an audio device. For distribution package names,
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_DESKTOPincludesFerese. - Check that
FERESE_ENABLE_SCREENCOPYwas not set to0before 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.