For some reason all the linux screen capture utilities are misbehaving for me at the moment, so let’s do like the title suggests and

Record your desktop using avconv right from x11grab

Let’s try this manually:

avconv -video_size 1920x1080 -framerate 30 -f x11grab -i :0.0 /tmp/scrap.mp4

that assumes your monitor is at 1080p, but it will take a 1080p movie of your desktop as you view it. ctrl-C to kill it when you are done.

to simplify this I wrote the following script, that will automatically determine your resolution using xrandr, place the movie in a unique temporary directory, and append a line in a file for easy playing afterwards

joshuacox.github.io/scrapture

there is also a companion script that will kill the first one, careful it indiscriminately interrupts all avconv processes running under your user

Let’s see it in action:

( while the embedded iframe is still acting up I thought I’d include the link ) Youtube link