New version of Kazam Screencaster was just released. Please note that this an unstable release and you can expect trouble. You can report bugs to Launchpad and you can personally unleash your wrath in #kazam on irc.freenode.net. :)
Rundown of changes:
Few other additional features:
- Added parameter –nosound to disable Pulse Audio and sound detection.
- Added parameter –test to generate a test video signal instead of capturing screen.
- Basic Pulse Audio check added if there are no PA libs, sound will be disabled.
- GtkBuilder UI (again), replaced GtkCheckBox with GtkSwitch.
- Removed Global Menu and replaced About option with a button (Contribution by Georgi).
- Blinking indicator icon.
- Added ‘Cancel coundown’ option to the indicator menu.
- Speed optimizations for VP8 and H264.
- Changed H264 container from Matroska to MP4.
- Added streaming options to H264.
- … perhaps there are more.
You can get Kazam at the usual location on Launchpad.
I’ve been working on Kazam Screencaster. One of the features which disappeared when I made transition from Gtk2 to Gtk3 are global hotkeys (shortcuts). In previous version there were implemented with a little help of python-keybinder.
Python-keybinder still didn’t receive an upgrade, so I was forced to seek another way. After some googling I figured that Xlib provides everything I need. Awesome!
Not really. I made a working python example and when I transfered the code to Kazam everything blew up. It is not really smart to mix Xlib and Gtk. I started digging again. So, keybinder used Gdk for capturing all those keys.
I can do that! Right? Well, I can’t really. Gdk_window_add_filter() wasn’t included in Gnome introspection for some reason. Why? So far nobody knows.
Until I figure this out and get someone to do some work on introspection, Kazam will be left without global shortcuts. I hope this time will be measured in days, not weeks. :)
When? Saturday, 3rd of March 2012 at 0800 UTC – Ubuntu Global Jam
Call for testing and an open season for bug hunt. We will be hunting bugs in Kazam Screencaster and Gwibber Microblogging client. To help with the testing you will need the latest version of Ubuntu 12.04 – Precise Pangolin with Gwibber 3.4 (3.3.90) and Kazam 1.0.4 (1.0.4.1 NCC-1701E) installed. Gwibber testing will be exclusive to Precise Pangolin, Kazam testing will also cover Oneiric Ocelot. You will have to manually install Kazam by running the following command:
$ sudo apt-get install kazam
Instructions for Gwibber manual tests are available here. Instructions for Kazam will hopefully be published by tomorrow.
Everyone who would like to participate in this testing event is welcome to join #gwibber and #kazam on irc.freenode.net where event will be coordinated. For questions, contact BigWhale.
Bugs are reported in Launchpad, https://bugs.launchpad.net/kazam and https://bugs.launchpad.net/gwibber.
Many thanks to Kiberpipa, they provided us with a place to stay and their infrastructure. Slovenian LoCo Team will be live streaming the whole event and we will have a Google Hangout setup so anyone can join.
Good hunting and keep in mind that we are also accepting new feature requests. :)
UPDATE: Kazam was accepted to Ubuntu Universe. If you are running Precise Pangolin, the use of PPA is unnecessary. Current version number had to be changed to 1.0.4, because of Ubuntu requirements. If you had 1.2.x version installed, simply remove it and reinstall.
Kazam Screencaster reached certain maturity and I am happy to announce a stable 1.20 release. Codenamed as NCC-1701D it hit PPA repositories just yesterday.
For Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot and Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin you can use a stable PPA repository:
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kazam-team/stable-series
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install kazam
Ubuntu packages were also tested on Linux Mint and you shouldn’t have any problems running Kazam on Linux Mint 12. I also tested Kazam on Fedora 16, everything should work as expected, but you will have to solve all the dependencies by yourself, because I cannot provide a working RPM package.
All of the issues reported so far were fixed. A short list of smaller new things that were added:
- region size is now displayed in the region window,
- screen resolution change is detected and video source selector is now updated accordingly,
- debug option –debug was added it should be used when reporting bugs, expect a lot of debug output,
- countdown window and about dialog box made prettier,
- App indicator menu and Gtk Status Icon were slightly changed,
- various changes in packaging, some RPM info added to setup.py
For the end, the latest screen shot from Precise Pangolin and a rumor that Kazam was uploaded to Ubuntu Universe repository and is waiting for review.
Kazam Screencaster 1.2.0
Please report all the bugs, wishes, suggestions, and feature requests on Launchpad.
Custom region recording.
Kazam 0.91-ubuntu5 and ubuntu6 for Oneiric Ocelot and Precise Pangolin packages are available. Source code is acab be found in the standard place on Launchpad. This is the last planned release before 0.92 which will be a week before Precise Pangoling Feature Freeze. Right now there are no immediate plans for adding new features before 1.0 release. Kazam release will coincide with Precise Pangolin release. So, a quick rundown of new feature in this release:
- Gtk3 port is finally complete.
- Appindicator will now fall back to Gtk.StatusIcon.
- It is now possible to record custom screen region.
- Recording frame rate is now a customizable option from 1 to 60 frames per second.
- If not needed or wanted, mouse cursor can be turned of in the recording.
You can get the packages from the unstable ppa. And please, do report those bugs you find. :)
