Linux and Wayland

Under X11, ssr works like on Windows and macOS, with nothing to set up. Under Wayland it takes a dedicated path, because Wayland does not let an ordinary application watch the clicks and keys of other windows or capture them freely.

	X11	Wayland
Clicks and keys	`device_query`	`evdev`, reading `/dev/input` (needs the `udev` rule)
Screenshots	`xcap`, active window	`xdg-desktop-portal` + PipeWire, window or screen chosen by you

The Wayland path is picked when XDG_SESSION_TYPE is wayland or WAYLAND_DISPLAY is set. The portal is used on every Wayland desktop: xcap's own Wayland support only works on wlroots compositors, not on GNOME or KDE.

1. Allow reading input devices

The evdev backend reads /dev/input. To give access without adding your user to the input group, install the udev rule shipped in the repository:

git clone https://github.com/Le-Syl21/support-step-recorder.git
cd support-step-recorder
sudo ./packaging/install-linux.sh

Without git, fetch the two files into the same folder and run the script from there:

curl -fLO https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Le-Syl21/support-step-recorder/main/packaging/install-linux.sh
curl -fLO https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Le-Syl21/support-step-recorder/main/packaging/60-ssr-input.rules
sudo bash install-linux.sh

The script:

installs /etc/udev/rules.d/60-ssr-input.rules, which contains a single rule: KERNEL=="event*", SUBSYSTEM=="input", TAG+="uaccess". It gives the user of the active session read access to input devices;
removes an older 99-ssr-input.rules if present;
reloads the udev rules and applies them to input devices right away.

If capture does not work straight away, log out and back in.

The 60- prefix matters: the uaccess tag has to be set before systemd's 73-seat-late.rules, which applies the access rights only to devices already tagged. A rule numbered 99 comes too late and has no effect.

Security: this rule lets applications run by the active user read keyboard and mouse input. That is the trade-off for a PSR-style recorder under Wayland. Screen capture still goes through the portal and its consent dialog.

Without the rule (or membership of the input group), Start fails: the status bar reports that no readable /dev/input device was found.

To uninstall:

sudo rm /etc/udev/rules.d/60-ssr-input.rules
sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
sudo udevadm trigger --subsystem-match=input

2. Accept the screen sharing request

When you click Start, your desktop (GNOME, KDE, wlroots…) shows its screen sharing dialog. Pick one window or one screen: every screenshot of the session comes from it, mouse pointer included.

ssr keeps the token returned by the portal in ~/.local/state/ssr/screencast.token (or $XDG_STATE_HOME/ssr/screencast.token), so later recordings do not ask again. If the portal is not available, ssr falls back to xcap.

What changes under Wayland

The screenshot is the latest image of the shared window or screen. Window captures are trimmed of the black borders some compositors add around them.
The click position is not known: no red ring on the screenshots, and no coordinates in steps.json.
The title and application of the window are not exposed; the step list shows Window: unknown (not exposed under Wayland).
Left, right and middle mouse buttons are recorded.

Building on Linux

The Wayland capture path needs the PipeWire headers and clang (for bindgen). On Debian or Ubuntu:

sudo apt install libpipewire-0.3-dev libspa-0.2-dev clang

See install with Cargo for the full list used by the release workflow.