Video Screen Capture Tools for Linux

Screen capture software for Linux (Debian/Ubuntu/Mint) that records a selected region, window, or the entire desktop along with system audio (and optionally microphone) into a standard video file (MP4, MKV, WebM, etc.). Many of these tools also support live streaming, but the primary focus here is local recording of short-to-medium-length clips. All listed programs should be open-source, and available through the official repositories or simple .deb installation.

• OBS Studio: Professional-grade open-source tool for screen recording and streaming, supports region capture, audio mixing, and plugins; available in Ubuntu/Mint repos via sudo apt install obs-studio.
• SimpleScreenRecorder: Lightweight app for easy rectangle or full-screen recording with audio; low CPU usage and pause/resume features; in repos via sudo apt install simplescreenrecorder.
• Kazam: Simple GUI for quick full-screen or area captures with audio; minimal interface, auto-hides during recording; in repos via sudo apt install kazam.
• VokoscreenNG: Feature-rich recorder with annotations, webcam overlay, and multi-monitor support; cross-platform and actively maintained; in repos via sudo apt install vokoscreen-ng.
• Green Recorder: Supports GIF/video output, area selection, and hardware acceleration; good for low-resource systems; available via PPA or .deb for Debian-based distros.
• RecordMyDesktop: Basic CLI/GUI tool for Ogg/MP4 captures with audio; reliable for simple sessions; in repos via sudo apt install recordmydesktop.
• Peek: Focused on creating animated GIFs from screen regions; lightweight and easy for short clips; in repos via sudo apt install peek.
• Istanbul: Session recorder for Ogg Theora videos with audio; supports pausing and basic editing; in repos via sudo apt install istanbul.

Built In Screen Record (very basic)

Linux Mint with the Cinnamon desktop does have a built-in screen recorder, and it is based on the same GNOME technology used in the GNOME desktop environment.

You can start and stop recording using the Ctrl + Alt + Shift + R keyboard shortcut. A red dot appears in the system tray to indicate recording is active. The video is saved in the horrible and useless WebM format (typically as cinnamon-date.webm in your home directory) and does not include audio by default.

It's considered basic—limited to full-screen recording across all monitors (I found this to be false) with no audio or quality settings. In a test I found it only captured from the primary monitor on a two monitor setup and generated a file: cinnamon-2025-10-02T220720-0600.webm in the path of ~/Videos and it can be converted easily with ffmpeg

ffmpeg -i cinnamon-2025-10-02T220720-0600.webm -c:v copy -c:a copy cinnamon-2025-10-02T220720-0600.mp4

The built-in screen recorder available in the GNOME desktop environment is mentioned in Discussion. It works much the same way but has been updated to allow for capture in other formats besides horrible WebM.

SimpleScreenRecorder

Installation

sudo apt install simplescreenrecorder

Record a screen rectangle (no black bars)

1. Launch SimpleScreenRecorder
2. Choose “Record a rectangle” → click and drag to select the video area
3. Enable “Record audio” → Backend: PulseAudio → Source: Monitor of your output
4. Click “Start recording”
5. Press Ctrl+C in the terminal or click “Save recording” when done

Capabilities

Rectangle/window/full-screen recording, built-in H.264/AV1/VP9 encoding, separate cursor options, live preview, low CPU usage, Pause/Resume, hotkeys.

OBS Studio

Installation

sudo apt install obs-studio

Record a screen rectangle (no black bars)

1. Open OBS → Scene → Sources → + → Screen Capture (XSHM)
2. Select display → crop to desired area (Alt-drag edges)
3. Right-click the source → Transform → Edit Transform → Bounding Box Type: “Scale to inner bounds”
4. Sources → + → Audio Output Capture → select PulseAudio output
5. Bottom-right → Start Recording (default hotkey Ctrl+Alt+R)

You can set the Base Canvas resolution (in Settings → Video) to match athe crop size upfront to avoid black bars.

Capabilities

Professional-grade recording & streaming, multi-source scenes, filters, transitions, virtual camera, plugins, advanced audio mixer, NVENC/AMF/VAAPI hardware encoding, studio mode.