On recent GNOME desktops such as Ubuntu and Fedora, press Print Screen, switch the capture bar to video and click the round capture button. For sound, a webcam bubble or an MP4, record in your browser right here instead.
Start a new scene from one source or combine screen and camera.
How you record the screen on Linux depends mostly on your desktop environment. GNOME, the default on Ubuntu and Fedora Workstation, has a recorder inside its screenshot tool. KDE Plasma has one in Spectacle. Dedicated apps such as OBS Studio and SimpleScreenRecorder add sound and more control. Whether your session runs Wayland or X11 matters too, because it changes how apps are allowed to see your screen.
Below you’ll find the GNOME recorder step by step, the main apps, what Wayland means for screen sharing, and how to record in a browser without installing a package.
Press Print Screen (PrtSc). A capture panel appears over your desktop, with its controls near the bottom of the screen.
In the capture panel, select the video camera icon to change from taking screenshots to recording the screen.
Drag a selection around the part you want, or switch to the screen option to capture a whole display.
Click the round capture button. While you record, a red indicator with a timer sits in the top bar.
Click the red indicator in the top bar to stop. The video lands in the Screencasts folder inside Videos in your home folder.
The GNOME tool is quick for a silent clip of part of the screen. It records the picture only, with no microphone or computer sound, and it has no webcam overlay, pause or trimming. If you need any of those, use one of the apps below or the browser recorder.
It arrived in GNOME 42, which shipped with Ubuntu 22.04 and Fedora 36. Older GNOME releases and desktops without a built-in recorder, such as Xfce, need a separate app.
Spectacle is the screenshot app on KDE Plasma, and recent versions can record the screen as well. Open it from the app launcher, pick a recording mode for the area you want, and start recording from there.
OBS Studio is a free, open-source app for recording and live streaming. It’s available as a Flatpak from Flathub and in many distributions’ repositories. You build a scene from sources, such as a screen capture, a webcam and audio inputs, and OBS records the result to a file. It can capture desktop audio and your microphone, and setting it up takes longer than the other options here.
On Wayland, add a Screen Capture (PipeWire) source. Your desktop then asks which screen or window OBS may use.
SimpleScreenRecorder is a lightweight recorder that walks you through a few pages of settings: the area to capture, the audio input and the output file, then a record button. It was written for X11, so it can’t capture a Wayland desktop properly. On an X11 session it’s quick and light on resources.
Many current distributions, including recent Ubuntu and Fedora releases, start a Wayland session by default. Wayland doesn’t let apps read the screen whenever they like. Instead, an app asks through the desktop portal (xdg-desktop-portal), your desktop shows a dialog where you choose a screen or window, and the picture reaches the app through PipeWire. X11 lets apps read the screen directly, which is why older recorders still expect it.
To check which one you’re running, type echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE in a terminal. It prints wayland or x11.
The online screen recorder on this page runs in Chrome, Edge, Chromium or Firefox on Linux, under Wayland or X11. On Wayland it goes through the same portal as native apps, so there’s nothing extra to configure. Beyond a plain capture, it gives you a webcam bubble, your microphone with noise suppression, a pen for drawing on the recording, pause and resume, and trimming. You download MP4 when your browser can record it, otherwise WebM, and the video stays in your browser rather than going to a server.
For sound, share a browser tab with Also share tab audio ticked in Chrome or Edge. Whole-screen system audio isn’t dependable in Linux browsers, so use OBS Studio when you need sound from a desktop app. The guide to screen recording with audio covers the details.
That usually means the portal is missing or not running. Check that xdg-desktop-portal and the backend for your desktop are installed, then log out and back in.
An X11-only recorder on a Wayland session tends to record black frames or nothing at all. Switch to a tool with PipeWire support. On releases that still offer an X11 session, you can also pick one from the login screen, often labelled “on Xorg”.
The GNOME recorder never captures audio, so use OBS Studio, SimpleScreenRecorder on X11, or a browser tab shared with its audio. In OBS, open Settings > Audio and check that Desktop Audio and the mic input point at the right devices.
Video recording in the screenshot tool needs GNOME 42 or later. Some desktops also map Print Screen to their own screenshot app, so look for a recording option there or use one of the apps above.
| Option | Install | Audio | Webcam | Wayland |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GNOME screenshot tool | Built in (GNOME 42+) | None | No | Yes |
| OBS Studio | Flatpak or distro package | Desktop audio and mic | Yes, as a source | Yes, via PipeWire |
| SimpleScreenRecorder | Distro package | Mic or desktop audio | No | No (X11 only) |
| recorder.video | None (website) | Mic plus tab audio | Bubble, side by side or stacked | Yes, via the portal |
Pick the GNOME tool when a short clip without sound is enough. OBS Studio suits recordings that need desktop app sound or several sources arranged by hand. The browser recorder fits when you want your face, your voice and a trimmed MP4 without installing anything.
On Ubuntu 22.04 and later, press Print Screen to open the screenshot tool, select the video camera icon, and click the capture button. When you’re finished, click the red timer in the top bar to end the recording.
No. The GNOME screencast tool saves video only. To include your voice or the sound from a browser tab, use recorder.video; for sound from desktop apps, use OBS Studio.
The recorder is probably trying to read the screen the X11 way, which Wayland doesn’t allow. Use a tool that captures through the desktop portal and PipeWire, such as OBS Studio, the GNOME screenshot tool or a browser.
Yes. It runs in Chrome, Edge, Chromium and Firefox on Linux, on Wayland or X11, with no package to install. Chrome and Edge also capture tab audio.
OBS Studio can, if you add a video capture device next to your screen source. In recorder.video your camera appears as a bubble as soon as you share the screen, and the Layout menu offers Split, Stacked and Presenter arrangements.
GNOME files them under Videos, in a subfolder called Screencasts. Scenes made with recorder.video stay inside the browser, and each one you download is saved wherever your browser puts downloads.
On an X11 session it works well and uses few resources. It doesn’t support Wayland, so on a default Ubuntu or Fedora install, OBS Studio or a browser recorder is more reliable.