diff --git a/src/wl.rs b/src/wl.rs
index 413a4e4..e780fc1 100644
--- a/src/wl.rs
+++ b/src/wl.rs
@@ -168,15 +168,52 @@ pub fn available() -> bool {
 }
 
 /// A file only we can see, gone from the folder already (for shared memory and keymaps).
+/// Its memory is really there before the compositor gets it: the compositor writes screen
+/// pixels straight into it, and if the space ran out half-way the compositor would be the one
+/// to crash (SIGBUS: a full /run/user once took a whole Hyprland desktop down this way).
+/// So it lives in memory of its own (memfd), not in the runtime folder, and with no room the
+/// screenshot just fails here.
 fn scratch_file(len: u64) -> std::io::Result<std::fs::File> {
-    let dir = std::env::var_os("XDG_RUNTIME_DIR").map(std::path::PathBuf::from).unwrap_or_else(std::env::temp_dir);
-    let path = dir.join(format!("anybot-wl-{}-{}", std::process::id(), crate::model::now_ms()));
-    let f = std::fs::OpenOptions::new().read(true).write(true).create_new(true).open(&path)?;
-    let _ = std::fs::remove_file(&path);
-    f.set_len(len)?;
+    use std::os::fd::FromRawFd as _;
+    let fd = unsafe { libc::memfd_create(c"anybot-wl".as_ptr(), libc::MFD_CLOEXEC) };
+    let f = if fd >= 0 {
+        unsafe { std::fs::File::from_raw_fd(fd) }
+    } else {
+        let dir = std::env::var_os("XDG_RUNTIME_DIR").map(std::path::PathBuf::from).unwrap_or_else(std::env::temp_dir);
+        let path = dir.join(format!("anybot-wl-{}-{}", std::process::id(), crate::model::now_ms()));
+        let f = std::fs::OpenOptions::new().read(true).write(true).create_new(true).open(&path)?;
+        let _ = std::fs::remove_file(&path);
+        f
+    };
+    if len > 0 {
+        reserve(&f, len)?;
+    }
     Ok(f)
 }
 
+/// Make every page of the file real now (not a promise the compositor finds broken later).
+fn reserve(f: &std::fs::File, len: u64) -> std::io::Result<()> {
+    use std::os::fd::AsRawFd as _;
+    let r = unsafe { libc::posix_fallocate(f.as_raw_fd(), 0, len as libc::off_t) };
+    if r == 0 {
+        return Ok(());
+    }
+    if r != libc::EOPNOTSUPP && r != libc::EINVAL {
+        return Err(std::io::Error::from_raw_os_error(r));
+    }
+    // A file system without fallocate: write the zeros ourselves.
+    f.set_len(0)?;
+    let mut w = f;
+    let zeros = vec![0u8; 1 << 20];
+    let mut left = len;
+    while left > 0 {
+        let n = left.min(zeros.len() as u64) as usize;
+        w.write_all(&zeros[..n])?;
+        left -= n as u64;
+    }
+    Ok(())
+}
+
 /// The keymap text: one key per keysym we use; the first four are the modifiers.
 pub fn keymap_text(keys: &[u32]) -> String {
     let mut s = String::from("xkb_keymap {\nxkb_keycodes \"anybot\" {\n  minimum = 8;\n");
@@ -614,4 +651,19 @@ mod tests {
         let px = to_rgba(&[1, 2, 3, 0], wl_shm::Format::Abgr8888, 1, 1, 4, false).unwrap();
         assert_eq!(px.get_pixel(0, 0).0, [1, 2, 3, 255]);
     }
+
+    /// The screenshot buffer is real memory before the compositor writes into it, and not a
+    /// file in the runtime folder (a full /run/user must not crash the desktop).
+    #[test]
+    fn screenshot_buffer_is_allocated_up_front() {
+        use std::os::fd::AsRawFd as _;
+        let len = 3 * 1024 * 1024 + 17;
+        let f = scratch_file(len).unwrap();
+        assert_eq!(f.metadata().unwrap().len(), len);
+        let mut st: libc::stat = unsafe { std::mem::zeroed() };
+        assert_eq!(unsafe { libc::fstat(f.as_raw_fd(), &mut st) }, 0);
+        assert!(st.st_blocks as u64 * 512 >= len, "pages not reserved: {} blocks", st.st_blocks);
+        let link = std::fs::read_link(format!("/proc/self/fd/{}", f.as_raw_fd())).unwrap();
+        assert!(link.to_string_lossy().starts_with("/memfd:"), "{link:?}");
+    }
 }