Not possible to take screenshot under Wayland

[KhazAkar]

What did you do?

I've tried to make screenshot using Pillow on Wayland compositor, such as GNOME running in Wayland mode

What did you expect to happen?

Screenshot of full display

What actually happened?

Traceback (most recent call last):
  Python Shell, prompt 2, line 1
    # Used internally for debug sandbox under external interpreter
  File "/home/khazakar/Project/Test/test_venv/lib/python3.8/site-packages/PIL/ImageGrab.py", line 68, in grab
    size, data = Image.core.grabscreen_x11(xdisplay)
builtins.OSError: X get_image failed: error 8 (73, 0, 1315)

What are your OS, Python and Pillow versions?

• OS: Ubuntu 20.04, GNOME Wayland
• Python: 3.8.10
• Pillow: 9.1.0

from PIL import ImageGrab
ImageGrab.grab()

Is there wayland support on roadmap anytime soon?

[nulano]

Is there wayland support on roadmap anytime soon?

AFAIK no one is working on this, contributions are welcome.

From https://stackoverflow.com/q/72216896/1648883, it sounds like gnome-screenshot is one of few utilities that can take a screenshot on Wayland. From a cursory look, https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-screenshot/-/blob/master/src/screenshot-backend-shell.c appears to be the implementation.

[radarhere]

I don't suppose it would be sufficient to just check for gnome-screenshot and call that, in the same way that ImageGrab calls screencapture on macOS?

[KhazAkar]

Not so much, since you can don't have GNOME stack running and all and you have more than 1 wayland-enabled DE :)

[nulano]

From https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26446802, it sounds like there is no standard way to take a screenshot on Wayland. gnome-screenshot uses a gnome-specific extension to Wayland, other implementations work differently.

[radarhere]

Googling, it seems Wayland considers it a security feature to prevent screenshots.

@KhazAkar there doesn't seem to be any way to achieve what you are after.

[KhazAkar]

Depends. Somehow tools like gnome-screenshot works, right? I think they use some sort of portal or interface to contact the underlying compositor and grab needed data.

[radarhere]

https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/7lb5l7/new_screenshot_alternative_for_wayland/

It has been almost a decade, why does Wayland not have a protocol definition for screenshots?
...
Because security

It could be done by using compositor-specific tools like gnome-screenshot, but I thought you were looking for a generic solution.

[radarhere]

I've created PR #6361 to use gnome-screenshot.

[hugovk]

@KhazAkar Please can you test #6361 and let us know if it works for you?

[radarhere]

PR #6361 has been merged, and there has been a lack of response here about that.

Any thoughts of further improvement can be continued in #6392