Record a Linux Desktop

There are many tools that can record linux desktops and convert them into screen casting or videos. The quickest and easiest tool to use is called “recordmydesktop”. To get it installed download the application and configure, make, and make install

./configure
make
make install

One may encounter the following error

error: X11/extensions/shmstr.h: No such file or directory

This may happen if you are missing the x11 extensions. Install these for your distribution, for centos you will want to install the “xextproto” package. If this is not available for whatever reason try downloading an rpm from an rpm distribution site, then installing it.

Once the application is complete you can easily record your desktop just by typing the command “recordmydesktop”. Data will be compressed and saved to a ogv file. If you are using gtk as your desktop environment you can also download and install “gtk-recordmydesktop”.

If this tool fails one can always use xvidcap.

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