Cool Blog: Record a Desktop Video on SLED

Novell Cool Solutions: Tip
By Ted Haeger

Digg This - Slashdot This Posted: 2 Mar 2007

Ted Haeger's Blog: Record a Desktop Video on SLED

After posting a couple videos from my SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 system, some network admins have asked me to share how I record these. One said that he sees practical use in creating how-to videos for his end users. So here is how I set up my SLED10 system for capturing my desktop as a video file.

The Short Version:

• Use RecordMyDesktop.
  - (Um...That's it. You don?t need to read the rest.)

The Detailed Version Install:

Install

1. Make sure you have the following packages to your SLED10 machine: gcc, make, ogg, libogg-devel, libtheora-devel, libvorbis-devel, alsa-devel, jack-devel.
   • If you find that I omitted any packages, please let me know which I need to add to the list.
2. Download the latest version of RecordMyDesktop and gtk-RecordMyDesktop from the RecordMyDesktop project site. (These will be source code tarballs that you must build and install onto your machine.)
3. Put the two source packages in a folder and extract them.
4. Open a Terminal window and change to the newly-extracted RecordMyDesktop source folder.
5. As a regular user, use the command "./configure ?prefix=/usr" to configure the build environment. If the configure errors out, it?s likely because of a missing package. Add the missing package and its "-devel" accompaniment.)
6. Now use the "make" command to build the package.
7. Finally, use the command "sudo make install" to install the software. This will prompt you for the root user?s name.
8. Repeat the same steps for the gtk-RecordMyDesktop source folder.

Launch

1. Use Alt-F2 to start a Run Application window.
2. Type "gtk-recordMyDesktop" on the command line and hit enter.
3. Start recording!

Use

• Watch the how-to video.

A Few Best Practices Suggestions

• I recommend creating a special user account for recording videos. It will help you to ensure that you always have an uncluttered desktop with a consistent background for your videos.
• Use a simple wallpaper or background color so that viewers are not distracted from the subject of your video.
• Turn of your instant messenger. It really blows a video to have "yt?" pop up.
• If you have other suggestions for me to include, please post a comment.

• Read more of Ted's Blogs here.

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