gnome-screenshot produces black screenshot with only the mouse pointer visible

I am having the same issue too. When will this be fixed? I wanted to make some stills for a video and now it is impossible. It is only a matter of time before somebody brings this up in the ubuntu forums and everywhere else. I'll also be making a video to compliment this issue too. Not sure if it's apparent in Linux Mint 13 since it's based on ubuntu 12.04 LTS.

Some more info:

- right now I get the desktop background+mouse pointer, even though there are open windows, and the dock is missing...
- 3d acceleration is activated in virtualbox and I am running unity3d. I have not tested deactivating either.

I found some references that 3d acceleration might indeed be a problem when taking screenshots in virtualbox. I do not know if this is a problem with virtualbox or ubuntu, however. It should "just work", however...

https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=32801
http://www.upubuntu.com/2012/03/take-and-edit-screenshots-with.html

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

melchiaros (melchiaros) wrote in a merged bug:

I have just retested with unity 2d and deactivated 3d support in virtualbox.
The screenshot works normal in this configuration (Virtualbox4.1.12 on Ubuntu12.04 64bit host).

PS: I fixed a typo in the text to make it clearer.

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

same thing with recordmydesktop

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

There's a workaround available until it has been fixed: Enable the Compiz Screenshot Plugin in the compiz settings manager ("ccsm", installed by compizconfig-settings-manager)

Still present in Ubuntu 12.10 with Unity3d and VirtualBox 4.2.6.

I get the same problem in Saucy. In my case, all black: no cursor

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

Same problem with shutter in ubuntu 13.04 (x86_64)

same problem

Same on 13.04 with screenshot, shutter, and record-my-desktop. KDE is unaffected of course....

I had this issue in 12.04 also. Why is this not fixed yet?

Using 12.04 (unity)
uname -a: Linux xxxx 3.8.0-39-generic #57~precise1-Ubuntu SMP Tue Apr 1 20:04:50 UTC 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
lsb_release: LSB Version: core-2.0-amd64:core-2.0-noarch:core-3.0-amd64:core-3.0-noarch:core-3.1-amd64:core-3.1-noarch:core-3.2-amd64:core-3.2-noarch:core-4.0-amd64:core-4.0-noarch:cxx-3.0-amd64:cxx-3.0-noarch:cxx-3.1-amd64:cxx-3.1-noarch:cxx-3.2-amd64:cxx-3.2-noarch:cxx-4.0-amd64:cxx-4.0-noarch:desktop-3.1-amd64:desktop-3.1-noarch:desktop-3.2-amd64:desktop-3.2-noarch:desktop-4.0-amd64:desktop-4.0-noarch:graphics-2.0-amd64:graphics-2.0-noarch:graphics-3.0-amd64:graphics-3.0-noarch:graphics-3.1-amd64:graphics-3.1-noarch:graphics-3.2-amd64:graphics-3.2-noarch:graphics-4.0-amd64:graphics-4.0-noarch:multimedia-3.2-amd64:multimedia-3.2-noarch:multimedia-4.0-amd64:multimedia-4.0-noarch:printing-3.2-amd64:printing-3.2-noarch:printing-4.0-amd64:printing-4.0-noarch:qt4-3.1-amd64:qt4-3.1-noarch
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS
Release: 12.04
Codename: precise

unity --version: unity 5.20.0

I have virtualbox-3.4 installed, but I cannot take a screenshot in the HOST (my bug is not with the guest) with gnome-screenshot even without running virtualbox GUI or any virtualbox guest sessions.

The compiz screenshot utility under extras works but is inconvenient

Same issue here but with LinuxMint 17.1 running on VirtualBox 4.3.28 r100309 running on a WIn7 host. 3D acceleration enabled; screenshot works correctly when disabling 3D acceleration.

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug. We have tried to recreate this on the latest release of Ubuntu and cannot reproduce it. This bug is being marked as Invalid. If you believe the problem to still exist in the latest version of Ubuntu please comment on why that is the case and change the bug status to NEW.

This is to confirm that the issue is still present with Ubuntu 16.04 as guest inside VirtualBox 5.0.14.

Disabling 3D acceleration from the VM settings is still an effective workaround.

Also with Virtualbox 5.1.6 with Ubuntu 16.04 as guest.
https://s10.postimg.org/tc5zjxb7t/Screenshot_from_2016_09_12_18_12_53.png

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.