after all those years we finally have NATIVE SCREENSHOTS :)

EDIT: this method still requires SSH access as you have to create a 'dev-mode' folder on your internal disk to activate this option (see post below). But once this is set up you can set your screenshots to go to an external disk, so potentially this could still work even if you subsequently go back to a non-hacked version.

I know it might be irrelevant as most of the folks are using ffmpeg nowadays, but after all those years, I've finally found the "four finger salute" that lets you do screenshots without any hacking .
It seems that when you press all four pad banks together, your MPC will make a screenshot that will land in:
/media/az01-internal-sd/MPC Documents/Screenshots/CAPTURE_date.png
Problem is that files in this location are not visible via browser and the location itself is not accessible without tedious connecting via SSH and navigating to it but... if you do the "four finger salute" while holding shift, your MPC will let you choose the default save destination which essentially gives you native screenshots of your MPC.

that's a really nice discovery!

I can't get this to work, MPC One running latest 2.12.1. I have 2.11.x on my MPC Live, not working on that either.

So just hold down bank A, B, C and D simultaneously? Or hold down SHIFT and A, B, C, D for location select?

that's correct ABCD for default path, shift+ ABCD for location select - works fine over here. I'm running on 2.12.1 without any changes.

Sh*** I've messed up
It looks like I had "dev-mode" directory leftover that wasn't overwritten by vanilla firmware after updating, without this directory it doesn't seems to work
That doesn't make this solution a "native screenshot" as it require you to have SSH enabled anyway
I'll edit the main post in a minute - sry Andy.
If you want to continue with this method regardless, just create an empty "dev-mode" directory in the root of "az01-internal".
sry again, it's just me being stupid

EDIT:
too much time passed already and I can't edit it anymore - just drop a line at the beginning of the post when you have a minute as it's a bit misleading now.

Nice, the dev-mode folder fixes it. And setting an alternate location seems to be remembered for all subsequent screenshots, even after a reboot.

Have to be 'snappy' with the button presses otherwise you get 'BANK x' flashing up on screen just as the screenshot is taken.

Maybe once the dev-mode folder is there it stays there, so perhaps no need for SSH once that's set up with shots stored on an external disk, although there's no way of knowing that the screenshots were successful until you access the drive outside the MPC as the browser hides images from view.

Nice find!

MPC-Tutor wrote:Nice, the dev-mode folder fixes it. And setting an alternate location seems to be remembered for all subsequent screenshots, even after a reboot.

yup, path is saved in mpc.settings file under <VALUE name="ImageCapture.SavePath" val=' ' />

You frickin beauty! very nice find! kudos.

Ultros wrote:You frickin beauty! very nice find! kudos.

but wait... there's more

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWQdPvtbNOg?si=NSlL_QgYhsppMc9y

dustyslices wrote:

Ultros wrote:You frickin beauty! very nice find! kudos.

but wait... there's more

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWQdPvtbNOg?si=NSlL_QgYhsppMc9y

The trick shown on that video is: somewhere on a disk you CAN see and access, and that the MPC can access as well. And this works without needing SSH access. BUT that media better not be in, say, ExFAT, which can't store symlinks.

it is:


not sure if MPC system can see exFAT partitions at all as it mostly runs on ext4 and fat32 - will have to investigate that.
Anyway I can upload such symlink somewhere later on, so you don't have to deal with it.

ExFAT should work on the internal SSD, as long as you format it in a specific way. viewtopic.php?p=1828379#p1828379

If links cannot be stored on a file system, then links cannot be stored on the file system even if downloaded from somewhere. A link is a special directory entry, and some file systems do not have a way to express a link.

I use the ext4 file extension for my memory cards, usb, ssd etc (with journaling disabled that part is important if you value its health). then you can symlink and set things with permissions.

No need to symlink though, iirc you can modify the "favorites" links from the file browser to excape the brick walled area within the mpc.settings file to point to anywhere on the machine.

One of mpc's biggest faults security-wise is that it runs as root. there is no regular user group everything runs with root permissions. Not very good practice even for a single application type linux... its better to jail the user to its own group and working directory.

Because of Akai's online "services", you don't want to connect it to the internet anyway, so problem solved.

HouseWithoutMouse wrote:If links cannot be stored on a file system, then links cannot be stored on the file system even if downloaded from somewhere. A link is a special directory entry, and some file systems do not have a way to express a link.

Yeah, I'm well aware of that, it's just my brain sometimes shoot first and ask questions afterwards

Ultros wrote: No need to symlink though, iirc you can modify the "favorites" links from the file browser to excape the brick walled area within the mpc.settings file to point to anywhere on the machine.

and in order to gain access to mpc.settings, one must... (*cues Jeopardy music)