Hi everyone…
Recently I developed the need to record my desktop, and searching for a tool found, in the extra repository, this app, Kooha. It seems to be recent enough, lightweight, and have the features I need, but when I click the record button, I receive this error:
>kooha
2026-01-30T16:57:54.724183Z INFO kooha::application: Kooha (io.github.seadve.Kooha)
2026-01-30T16:57:54.724196Z INFO kooha::application: Version: 2.3.1 ()
2026-01-30T16:57:54.724198Z INFO kooha::application: Datadir: /usr/share/kooha
(kooha:22405): Adwaita-WARNING **: 13:57:54.841: Using GtkSettings:gtk-application-prefer-dark-theme with libadwaita is unsupported. Please use AdwStyleManager:color-scheme instead.
2026-01-30T16:58:09.190411Z ERROR kooha:: window: Failed to start recording
Caused by:
0: Failed to create session
1: Interaction was ended in some other way with response Variant { ptr: 0x5569fbd64690, type: VariantTy { inner: “a{sv}” }, value: “{‘session_handle’: <‘/org/freedesktop/portal/desktop/session/1_124/kooha_0’>}” }
I am using Plasma and X11 (I don’t know if any of this could be the issue).
Operating System: Manjaro Linux
KDE Plasma Version: 6.5.4
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.21.0
Qt Version: 6.10.1
Kernel Version: 6.18.4-1-MANJARO (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: X11
Processors: 12 × 12th Gen Intel® Core™ i5-1235U
Memory: 16 GiB of RAM (15,4 GiB usable)
Graphics Processor: Intel® Graphics
I didn’t try to install it from Flathub. I would prefer something on the Manjaro repositories if possible. Also accept recommendations for alternatives to this app. Maybe there are others better suited for Plasma. I understand that Spectacle video capture only works on Wayland, so it’s out. I don’t need something like OBS Studio, just a lightweight capture tool like this one.
Thanks in advance.
PS:
LT;DR As the guys below correctly put, the app turned out to be Wayland only, so my bad. If you are still in need of an X11 recording tool, you should check @qruq’s answer below for a useful approach with recordmydesktop.
Hmm… maybe it needs another dependency since it is a GTK-based app in a main QT environment.
In my Plasma setup, the only dependency pacman retrieved was gstreamer:
looking for conflicting packages...
Package (2) New Version Net Change Download Size
extra/gstreamer-vaapi 1.26.10-1 0,79 MiB 0,31 MiB
extra/kooha 2.3.1-1 2,49 MiB 0,83 MiB
Total Download Size: 1,14 MiB
Total Installed Size: 3,27 MiB
Even the optional recommendation was already installed.
Maybe it only works on Wayland? I just installed kooha on Plasma 6.5 Wayland and had no issues opening the app & recording a test video:
There were no error messages in the terminal I launched it from:
kooha
2026-01-30T19:36:20.367514Z INFO kooha::application: Kooha (io.github.seadve.Kooha)
2026-01-30T19:36:20.367527Z INFO kooha::application: Version: 2.3.1 ()
2026-01-30T19:36:20.367532Z INFO kooha::application: Datadir: /usr/share/kooha
(kooha:369045): Adwaita-WARNING **: 06:36:20.429: Using GtkSettings:gtk-application-prefer-dark-theme with libadwaita is unsupported. Please use AdwStyleManager:color-scheme instead.
So, try switching to a Plasma Wayland session & see if it works. I did notice on the Kooha GitHub Page that one of the runtime requirements is:
xdg-desktop-portal-(e.g., gtk, kde, wlr)
xdg-desktop-portal-wlr is the xdg-desktop-portal backend for wlroots, which is a Wayland compositor. So I am inclined to think that the kooha application might be built for a Wayland environment.
The --delay is so you will have enough time to switch from the Terminal to the browser, or whatever you are recording.
I found that I needed to convert the OGV file after, using ffmpeg, but that might be my system (very old), playback was like a “staccato” effect but after converting it usually was fine:
The -ss is the time to skip at the start and the -to is for how long to greb contents from the OGV file. In this case the values are in minutes:seconds. (I mainly grab news reports from my local news web page, since yt-dlp doesn’t work there.)
I suppose one could just as easily use kdenlive or something to convert, but this I never tried.
Hi bud!
Yes, it’s like you and @qruqs said… Seems to be Wayland only.
I get more warnings than you did in your test, but it works on Wayland in my system too.
❯ kooha
2026-02-02T16:02:35.717402Z INFO kooha::application: Kooha (io.github.seadve.Kooha)
2026-02-02T16:02:35.717415Z INFO kooha::application: Version: 2.3.1 ()
2026-02-02T16:02:35.717417Z INFO kooha::application: Datadir: /usr/share/kooha
(kooha:17134): Adwaita-WARNING **: 13:02:35.922: Using GtkSettings:gtk-application-prefer-dark-theme with libadwaita is unsupported. Please use AdwStyleManager:color-scheme instead.
MESA-INTEL: warning: ../mesa-25.3.4/src/intel/vulkan/anv_formats.c:993: FINISHME: support more multi-planar formats with DRM modifiers
MESA-INTEL: warning: ../mesa-25.3.4/src/intel/vulkan/anv_formats.c:959: FINISHME: support YUV colorspace with DRM format modifiers
2026-02-02T16:04:14.669513Z WARN kooha::area_selector: Received warning message on bus: Warning { structure: Some(GstMessageWarning { gerror: (GError) ((GError*) 0x7f9068816f40), debug: (gchararray) "../gstreamer/subprojects/gstreamer/libs/gst/base/gstbasesink.c(3146): gst_base_sink_is_too_late (): /GstPipeline:pipeline1/GstGLSinkBin:glsinkbin1/GstGtk4PaintableSink:sink:\nThere may be a timestamping problem, or this computer is too slow." }), source: Some((Object { inner: TypedObjectRef { inner: 0x560cfc3bed70, type: GstGtk4PaintableSink } }, "sink")), error: Error { domain: gst-core-error-quark, code: 13, message: "A lot of buffers are being dropped." }, debug: Some("../gstreamer/subprojects/gstreamer/libs/gst/base/gstbasesink.c(3146): gst_base_sink_is_too_late (): /GstPipeline:pipeline1/GstGLSinkBin:glsinkbin1/GstGtk4PaintableSink:sink:\nThere may be a timestamping problem, or this computer is too slow."), details: None }
2026-02-02T16:04:25.053697Z WARN kooha::pipeline: Scale factors of horizontal and vertical are unequal scale_factor_h=2.5779569149017334 scale_factor_v=2.575000047683716
I found this reference on some page that classifies it as Wayland and X11 compatible, and then, in the whole GitHub page, it never once states something as “Wayland only,” not even in the troubleshooting checklist. I saw the xdg-desktop-portal-wlr reference in the troubleshooting, but I was so convinced that it worked in both that I thought that was for Wayland compatibility; it never occurred to me that it was exclusivity.
I have nothing against Wayland but I am restricted to X11 at the moment since my external monitor (Dell U2711) doesn’t get full 2k resolution on Wayland via HDMI but I can make it work on X11 with a configuration file. This is another subject entirely, but I wanted to give you guys some context!
Thank you for taking time out of your day to test it and answer this!
You know, I did see some of these recording command line tools, and in most cases I would prefer some shell utility over a GUI app but in this particular case I need to record regions on my screen that are not going to be always the same, so it was “easier” to rely on some mouse interface to select the region I needed visually.
With the command lines you have provided me, I think I have more than enough to give recordmydesktop a try. I can’t think of one right now, but I am sure I can get the visual coordinates relatively easily with another tool and then feed it to a script.
Thanks for your time and for sharing your experience even now that you are not using X11 anymore!
I am going to mark @scotty65’s post as a solution, but I am going to edit my original post and mention your answer. Anyone who comes across this post will undoubtedly find it helpful, just as I do.
But AFAICT it doesn’t record audio, that’s why I had to find something else (currently Kooha). Recording a news segment is pretty useless without the audio, even if they subtitle them. Plus, I don’t think it works on X11 either, at least not well enough to be of any use; at least not for me (when I ran X11). I could grab still images, to some extent, but not video.
@nervocalm The command was courtesy of my tricks directory of things (text files) I’ve saved over the years. I wouldn’t have remembered it otherwise.
The ffmpeg stuff I’ve done so often it is just there, in human RAM. 8)
