Taking screenshots of an area doesn't work via keyboard shortcut

[silviucc]

I'm trying to create a custom keyboard shortcut that invokes mate-screenshot with the option to select only an area of the screen. This should mean invoking the command with the -a or --area switch but it only works in a terminal. If I try to create the keyboard shortcut it always takes a screenshot of the whole screen. Does not allow me to select any area.

The workaround was to use the -i option which allows me to select what I want to do, but still, it looks like a bug.

Using Mate 1.6 on Manjaro 64bit.

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[flexiondotorg]

I've just tested this on an up to date Arch Linux install and mate-screenshot -a works as it should. Are you using the MATE packages repository?

• http://wiki.mate-desktop.org/archlinux_custom_repo

Bring you system up to date and test again please.

[infirit]

I have this as well on Gentoo. gnome-screenshot also appears to suffer from this. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-utils/+bug/549935

[silviucc]

MATE on Manjaro is pulled directly from the repo indicated on the page you linked to, so I'm up to date and I can still reproduce the bug :/

[nivoc]

have the bug too - mate 1.8

[N0rbert]

I can reproduce the bug in Ubuntu 12.04.5 with MATE PPAs - the mate-screenshot version is from package mate-utils 1.8.0+dfsg1-4~ppa1~precise1.
mate-screenshot -a works as expected from terminal, but does not work if I set custom shortcut (Ctrl+PrintScreen) to that command.
When launched from terminal mate-screenshot -a makes screenshot with light-blue selection rectangle. It is incorrect.

It seems that the shortcut problem is caused by wrong focus. I can't determine how to get expected behaviour.

The custom shortcut (Alt+PrintScreen) for screenshot of a window (with mate-screenshot -w) works as expected, but sometimes takes screenshot of "Save Screenshot" window (I can open another issue for this).

[monsta]

Does it still happen in 1.10?

[martin-bts]

@monsta: yes, it does

Package: mate-utils
Version: 1.10.3-1

in Ubuntu Wily

[martin-bts]

It's a timing issue!
I created a /usr/local/bin/mate-screenshot which looks like this:

#!/bin/bash
sleep 1
exec /usr/bin/mate-screenshot $@

If I point my shortcut towards this script instead of the binary, it works. Notice that I still provide the -a parameter as part of the shortcut definition.

[monsta]

Ok, confirmed. Interesting that a panel launcher with mate-screenshot -a works just fine.

[augnustin]

Thanks @martin-bts for workaround. Works very well, even with sleep 0.1, which feels like nothing.

A fix would be great though!

[monsta]

We'll try to fix it of course, I just can't make any promises about the date... our team is quite small and our issues list is growing every day. Pull requests with fixes are welcome, as usual.

[augnustin]

I guess, no criticism in my comment of course.

I wish I could help, but C kind of scares me...

Any tip on where to look at in the code? I checked https://github.com/mate-desktop/mate-utils/blob/master/mate-screenshot/src/mate-screenshot.c but it is such a long file I got easily lost.

Finally, if this is a fork from gnome-screenshot, does the fix needs to be accepted in both repositories to be released?

[monsta]

I'm not sure where to look yet... and maybe it's already fixed in gnome, not sure about this as well.

[davidforgianni]

I installed krita and shutter first. Then to Shutter preferences>Actions: open with Krita (for editing). Then set the dconf keybinding-command to 'shutter -s'. Works pretty good, although i would like to not have the Shutter application window open after capturing, just open in Krita. If i find how to do that I will update this post, I hope this helps, thank you!

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports; sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install krita

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:shutter/ppasudo add-apt-repository ppa:shutter/ppa; sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install shutter

[huangjj27]

Nowaday the bug still exists with mate-utils 1.12 on ubuntu-mate 16.04. Please fix it soon!

[RadW2020]

Still happening.

[N0rbert]

I reported this to launchpad as bug 1615748 on Ubuntu 16.04.

[bitshark]

This continues to happen on Void Linux latest with Mate 1.14.1. Interestingly, it also happens (identical problem) with gnome-screenshot.

Keyboard shortcuts to either 'mate-screenshot --interactive' or 'mate-screenshot --window' work fine, but mate-screenshot --area does not work.

[bitshark]

I just did some analysis of the problem -- here's what I found.

• I was able to use the workaround (wrapper script with a sleep call) suggested by martin-bts. I created the following script, and called this script instead of calling mate-screenshot from the keyboard shortcut.

I noticed that the timing issue is subtle... If I sleep for 30ms prior to calling mate-screenshot, the command will not work. If I sleep for 40ms prior to calling mate-screenshot, the command WILL work.

[user@dolphin ~]$ cat /usr/local/bin/my-screenshot 
#!/bin/bash
sleep 0.04  # this works... 40ms is long enough
#0.01 - no  # this does not, 10ms is not long enough
#0.03 - no  # this does not work, 30ms is not long enough
#0.04 - yes # etc
#0.05 - yes
/usr/bin/mate-screenshot --area

• Strace indicates differences between working and non-working mate-screenshot call. I was curious as to what was going on with this, so I conducted an strace of the process call (mate-screenshot --area) under a condition where the screenshot --area call succeeded (sleep 40ms) vs where it failed (sleep 10ms).

What I found were the following differences:

• The success vs failed runs resulted in mate-screenshot reading and writing different bytes to seperate two files
• One of these files is ~/.Xauthority (fd = 4) in the strace.
• The other file is ~/.config/dconf/user (fd = 7) in the strace.
• The straces themselves had differences in two sections (see below), but were otherwise identical.

I'm not that familiar with dconf so I can't really take this further, but I hope this helps resolve the problem.

This screenshot shows that the fd=4 file descriptor is ~/.Xauthority

This screenshot shows the first difference between the straces, in regard to read/write of both ~/.Xauthority and ~/.config/dconf/user

This is the second difference between the straces. They are identical besides what is displayed in these images.

I also did a diff of the ~/.config/dconf/user file under both success and failure conditions (since mate-screenshot is read/writing this file). I found some differences , but I don't know how to interpret them and whether they are material.

First difference between working ~/.config/dconf/user and non-working

Second difference between working ~/.config/dconf/user and non-working

Anyway I hope this helps. In the meantime, you can use the workaround detailed above and create a wrapper script that sleeps for 50 to 100ms prior to calling mate-screenshot --area

[ghost]

Still an issue in Mate Desktop Environment 1.16 on Ubuntu Mate 16.10, but @martin-bts' solution is a good workaround.

[N0rbert]

Got this bug again on fresh installation of Ubuntu MATE 16.04.3 LTS.
I reported this bug 1615748 on Launchpad previously, now I linking it here.
What is interesting: if I add -i to mate-screenshot -a it works as expected (but opens interactive window).

[raveit65]

Surprise surprise.
With 1.18.2 (un patched) in fedora25/26 and using mod4 + a i have to press the a several times than it works with 'mate-screenshot -a' :-)
.... mod4= super key

[raveit65]

It works also if i hold the a key a bit longer, but than it is possible that abrt (bug reporting tool) pops up and i have a stacktrace.
But the stacktrace starts with malloc.c and nvidia.
So this isn't helpful.

[andreamoro]

I've been reading tons of post complaining about this all over the places. I'm a newbie myself on linux mint, but I've seen few hack suggesting a delay in the command line, so I thought .... and what if I hold the print screen for a bit longer?
Here it goes ... on linux mint 18.3 this seems enough to activate the arrow cursor to grab your area.

[grants]

The print screen key always bind to "Print Whole Screen", I even can't find where to change it... Anyone give me some hints, thx.

[augnustin]

You need to edit your shortcuts in your preferences.

[14v]

1. Tired of default shift-printscreen behaviour with mate-screenshot --area --interactive popup. Developers please take a look at Xfce's screenhot app which simply starts with selecting area after shift-printscreen
2. I can see no mapping for shift-printscreen in settings but it works by default!
   
   They are shown in CCSM but still work when disabled!
   

Any comments?

[14v]

Flameshot seems to be good alternative for taking area screenshots. Available in the repo. I did sudo apt install flameshot dconf-editor. Then I replaced /org/mate/marco/keybinding-commands/command-2 value with flameshot gui in dconf.

[jeffmcneill]

No need for an extra file, just add a custom shortcut in keyboard shortcuts, found in control center:

/bin/sh -c 'sleep .1;mate-screenshot -a'

[N0rbert]

Still happens on MATE 1.26 in Ubuntu MATE 21.10. Downstream bug report is at https://pad.lv/1615748 for 5 years (OMG!).
Fix is possible by adding sleep 0.1 as was suggested above:

cat <<EOF | dconf load /
[org/mate/desktop/keybindings/custom0]
action="/bin/sh -c 'sleep .1;mate-screenshot -a'"
binding='<Shift><Mod4>Print'
name='MATE Screenshot of area non-interactively'
EOF

Hope this bug will not happen in Ubuntu MATE 22.04 LTS.

[kkonevets]

No need for an extra file, just add a custom shortcut in keyboard shortcuts, found in control center:

/bin/sh -c 'sleep .1;mate-screenshot -a'

@jeffmcneill That's the best solution, thanks!

[coldReactive]

Still exists to this day, and using the sleep method does nothing:

MATEScreenshot_CannotCopy.mp4

For this, I am instead using mate-screenshot -c as I need to copy it to the clipboard. It was working fine hours ago, but now it won't. If I copy to clipboard via the dialogue box with just mate-screenshot it copies fine. However, as you can see from the included video, the command DOES try to work, so it is trying to take a screenshot.