ScreenKast on Fedora Core 5
Printer friendly: http://www2.maxsworld.org/howtos/screenkast.html
By: Max Hetrick
Last updated: 08-23-2006
System:
Fedora Core 5
ScreenKast 0.1.1
libinstrudeo 0.1.1
References:
Source:
- ScreenKast: http://sourceforge.net/projects/screenkast
- libinstrudeo: http://sourceforge.net/projects/libinstrudeo
- Captorials.com: http://www.captorials.com/
RPMs:
- http://rpm.pbone.net/
Packages/Dependencies:
Yes, there’s a list… This will cover installation of everything you need.
1) Installation of FC5:
I would recommend setting up a separate instance of FC5 either on a new machine or a new VMware host. There are a few packages that we’re going to install that I wouldn’t trust on a production box…just my opinion anyways. Proceed as you wish. With that said, I’m assuming that you are going to install FC5 from scratch. For this setup, I chose the defaults except I didn’t install the Office and Productivity suite, instead I chose the Software Development suite. This will benefit you with many libraries that are needed in the end. Keep in mind that you may trim down the FC5 installation by a lot, if you want to spend the time to determine dependencies of the ScreenKast and libinstrudeo packages against everything else installed. Here’s an install screenshot:
2) Downloads:
Now the fun of gathering up all the packages begins…I can’t say for sure this list of URLs will remain relatively accurate or not. As of now, this list will get you everything you need to install it.
Not in Yum repo:
- ScreenKast: ftp://ftp.pbone.net/mirror/ftp.sourceforge.net/pub/sourceforge/s/sc/screenkast/screenKast-0.1-1.i386.rpm
- libinstrudeo: ftp://ftp.pbone.net/mirror/ftp.sourceforge.net/pub/sourceforge/l/li/libinstrudeo/libinstrudeo-0.1-1.i386.rpm
- libdc1394_control: ftp://ftp.pbone.net/mirror/atrpms.net/fc5-i386/atrpms/stable/libdc1394_control13-1.1.0-5.rhfc5.at.i386.rpm
- gsm: ftp://ftp.pbone.net/mirror/ftp.freshrpms.net/pub/freshrpms/fedora/linux/5/gsm/gsm-1.0.10-6.fc5.i386.rpm
- ftplib3: ftp://ftp.pbone.net/mirror/ftp.sourceforge.net/pub/sourceforge/l/li/libinstrudeo/ftplib3-3.1_1-7.i386.rpm
Installable through Yum:
- libxml++
- kdelibs
- nas
- vnc-server — Should already be installed.
I could list the dependencies here for the library files required, but I’m sure you don’t care…I don’t either. Let’s install everything. Download everything I have listed above and put them wherever.
3) Installation of ScreenKast and Dependencies:
[root@screenkast ~]# cd wherever [root@screenkast ~]# rpm -ivh *.rpm [root@screenkast ~]# yum install libxml++ kdelibs nas
4) Configuration:
a) libssl module
For whatver reason, the installed version of openssl is openssl-0.9.8a-5.2 and ScreenKast refers to it differently than what the installed library file points to. You’ll have to make a symlink pointing to /lib/libssl.so.0.9.8. I’m sure the path is somewhere in a configuration file, but I’m too lazy to figure out where it is, so I just made a symlink and it worked.
[root@screenkast ~]# ln -s /lib/libssl.so.0.9.8a /lib/libssl.so.0.9.8
b) VNC Server
Next you’ll need to configure vncserver to give you a prettier desktop environment than what the default is. You can leave it the default way if you’d like, but it looks ugly in my opinion. Configure it to see the desktop you log in with. Remember, you can set this up as either root, or as the username on your machine. I prefer the username I’m logging in with on the machine. You can completely customize your vnc session with the use of various window managers and settings. Consult the vnc docs if you’re looking to get crazy with setting up sessions, because what I’m showing you is basic.
Next, set up a password for VNC to use.
[root@screenkast ~]# su - your_user_name [your_user_name@screenkast~]# vncpasswd Password: Verify:
Test out firing up the server. Make sure you run this from a non-user account, meaning the your_user_name account you have specified in the other vncserver files. You can specify whatever screen resolution that you prefer, as well; 800×600 makes it nice looking.
[your_user_name@screenkast ~]# vncserver -geometry 800×600 :1 New ‘your_machine:1 (your_user_name)’ desktop is your_machine:1 Starting applications specified in /home/your_user_name/.vnc/xstartup Log file is /home/your_user_name/.vnc/your_machine:1.log
Last thing to do is to now add the parameters for a pretty desktop environment upon sign-in. It’s just a matter of uncommenting two lines, saving the file, and that’s it. After doing so make sure you restart your vnc instance.
[your_user_name@screenkast~ ]# vim ~/.vnc/xstartup # Uncomment the following two lines for normal desktop: unset SESSION_MANAGER exec /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc [your_user_name@screenkast ~]# vncserver -kill :1 [your_user_name@screenkast~]# vncserver -geometry 800×600 :1
c) ScreenKast
Now that everything is installed, it’s time to fire up ScreenKast. You can easily create a launcher link on your desktop if you prefer not running it from the terminal. Start up ScreenKast.
[your_user_name@screenkast ~]# /usr/bin/screenkast
4) Using ScreenKast
To start a new session click File - New or Ctrl+N. You’ll be presented with a password screen. Enter the password you set up earlier for vnc. This will open up a new 800×600 desktop setting which acts as your recording session. Go ahead and do whatever it is that you need to do. When you’re finished just close the window. Depending on how long the recording session was, it might take a few minutes to import the file over into the editor. Once imported, you can play through the recording, add comments in the form of two-dimensional and three-dimensional text balloons and buttons. To do so:
Click Play to get to wherever you need to be in the recording, then hit Pause when you want to add something. Click Edit - addComment - 2D/3D. You’ll get a new window with which you can move around. Double click it to enter text. Right click and do a properties on it to edit the color schemes, and to also edit the layout. That’s about all there is to it!
Once you’re finished you can export your file by clicking File - Export…. You have the following choices: flv, avi, mpg, asf, raw MPEG4, QuickTime, mp4, MPEG1, Flash, and VCD (for DVDs). Pretty slick! Click whichever format you’d like and go grab a beer, because depending on how long your session is, it might take awhile to complete.
