FF54 on Linux screenshot issue

[Eli the Bearded]

I don't know when it started, but it used to be the case that I could
take a full screen screenshot with xwd on Linux and capture the contents
of a web page and pop-ups like tooltips. (Capturing per-window with xwd
does not show the tooltips.) But recently, I've noticed that "xwd -root"
can no longer capture the content of Firefox windows. The rest of the
screen is proplerly captured, but the content of the Firefox window is a
large black rectangle.

I've seen this behavior with Ubunut 16.04 and Firefox 54. xwd continues
to work with other programs, just Firefox seems to have the issue.

On-topic questions for this group: What has Firefox done to thwart
screenshots? (Is it deliberate, or some sort of side-effect of how it
renders?) What can I do?

And related off-topic questions: Are there Xwindow configurations I can
make to ensure capturability? Alternative screenshot tools that capture
the whole screen?

I rather like that xwd writes to stdout by default, and I use that
property for some automated crop-before-saving workflows, but I can
easily change that if needed. I do not rely on other metadata xwd saves,
like window title, and will not care if I lose that.

Elijah
------
xwd: the "X Window Dump" tool, which has been around longer than Netscape

[Good Guy]

On 11/07/2017 19:58, Eli the Bearded wrote:

I don't know when it started, but it used to be the case that I could
take a full screen screenshot with xwd on Linux and capture the contents
of a web page and pop-ups like tooltips. (Capturing per-window with xwd
does not show the tooltips.) But recently, I've noticed that "xwd -root"
can no longer capture the content of Firefox windows. The rest of the
screen is proplerly captured, but the content of the Firefox window is a
large black rectangle.

I suspect you are more likely to get a solution if you asked in some Linux newsgroup.  Most of us here are windows users and the best people to help you out are people who have Linux on their machine and they can try it out quickly before posting a reply.

--

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[WaltS48]

On 7/11/17 2:58 PM, Eli the Bearded wrote:
> I don't know when it started, but it used to be the case that I could
> take a full screen screenshot with xwd on Linux and capture the contents
> of a web page and pop-ups like tooltips. (Capturing per-window with xwd
> does not show the tooltips.) But recently, I've noticed that "xwd -root"
> can no longer capture the content of Firefox windows. The rest of the
> screen is proplerly captured, but the content of the Firefox window is a
> large black rectangle.
>
> I've seen this behavior with Ubunut 16.04 and Firefox 54. xwd continues
> to work with other programs, just Firefox seems to have the issue.
>
> On-topic questions for this group: What has Firefox done to thwart
> screenshots? (Is it deliberate, or some sort of side-effect of how it
> renders?) What can I do?

Never heard of, or used xwd.

Don't know if they have done anything to thwart screenshots.

There is a Screenshot tool in Firefox Developer Tools.

You probably will have to enable it by opening the Developer Tools from
the Menu Bar (may also be in the Menu Button by default) or use
Ctrl+Shift+I, then open the Toolbox Options by clicking the Gear icon on
the toolbar. Enable "Take a screenshot of the entire page" under the
Available Toolbox Buttons menu.

In a future version (maybe Version 56) there will be a Screenshot
feature <https://screenshots.firefox.com/>


<snip OT stuff>

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Ubuntu 16.04LTS - Unity Desktop

[Eli the Bearded]

In mozilla.support.firefox, WaltS48 <thali...@REMOVEaol.com> wrote:
> On 7/11/17 2:58 PM, Eli the Bearded wrote:
>> On-topic questions for this group: What has Firefox done to thwart
>> screenshots? (Is it deliberate, or some sort of side-effect of how it
>> renders?) What can I do?
> Never heard of, or used xwd.

Initial release: 1985 (so says its wikipedia page). And if you have X11
installed, chances are you have it installed now.

> Don't know if they have done anything to thwart screenshots.
>
> There is a Screenshot tool in Firefox Developer Tools.

I have, on rare occasions, used the Firefox command line screen shot
tool, which has the handy feature being able to capturing all of a page,
even the parts off-screen. I do not believe that it captures tooltips
and open dropdown menus, however, which is my use-case for the root
window capture.

Please do correct me if I'm wrong.

> Ubuntu 16.04LTS - Unity Desktop

That should have xwd installed. Consult your local man page and learn
about the basic utilities.

Elijah
------
was using xwd before Linux existed

[Dave Royal]

On Tue, 11 Jul 2017 13:58:47 -0500, Eli the Bearded wrote:

> I don't know when it started, but it used to be the case that I could
> take a full screen screenshot with xwd on Linux and capture the contents
> of a web page and pop-ups like tooltips. (Capturing per-window with xwd
> does not show the tooltips.) But recently, I've noticed that "xwd -root"
> can no longer capture the content of Firefox windows. The rest of the
> screen is proplerly captured, but the content of the Firefox window is a
> large black rectangle.
>

I'd not heard of xwd either, but here on OpenSUSE/xfce 'xwd -root > file'
will capture an entire screen comprising the Fx window and the terminal
that I run it from. The result is viewable in gimp.

Maybe your graphics card/driver?

I normally use the default screenshot program xfce4-screenshooter. By
specifying a delay it will capture a tooltip under the cursor.
--
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[Eli the Bearded]

In mozilla.support.firefox, Dave Royal <da...@dave123royal.com> wrote:
> On Tue, 11 Jul 2017 13:58:47 -0500, Eli the Bearded wrote:
>> I don't know when it started, but it used to be the case that I could
>> take a full screen screenshot with xwd on Linux and capture the contents
>> of a web page and pop-ups like tooltips. (Capturing per-window with xwd
>> does not show the tooltips.) But recently, I've noticed that "xwd -root"
>> can no longer capture the content of Firefox windows. The rest of the
>> screen is proplerly captured, but the content of the Firefox window is a
>> large black rectangle.

> Maybe your graphics card/driver?

I don't know, I was suspecting that it was something about how Firefox
chooses to interact with the graphics "card", but I haven't figured out
what it is exactly.

I did find an alternative that works, so I'll post here for anyone else
who has the problem:

Old:

sleep $time; xwd -root | tooltoread-xwd-on-stdin

New:
sleep $time; import -window root ppm:- | tooltoread-ppm-on-stdin

(PPM is a much nicer format than xwd, so the format change is a plus.)

Elijah
------
PPM was designed to be easy for software to generate or read