diff --git a/electron/native-bridge/capture/linuxNativeCaptureSession.test.ts b/electron/native-bridge/capture/linuxNativeCaptureSession.test.ts
index d450a8a87..03f3c55ab 100644
--- a/electron/native-bridge/capture/linuxNativeCaptureSession.test.ts
+++ b/electron/native-bridge/capture/linuxNativeCaptureSession.test.ts
@@ -295,4 +295,215 @@ describe("LinuxNativeCaptureSession", () => {
 
 		expect(session.grantedSourceKind).toBe("window");
 	});
+
+	/**
+	 * The latch `waitUntilSourceSelected` has and this one did not.
+	 *
+	 * `start-native-linux-recording` arms the helper and only THEN awaits this,
+	 * so `capture-started` can already have been read — the helper emits it as
+	 * soon as the first frame stages, and a stdout chunk carrying it is parsed
+	 * synchronously. Without a latch the answer is dropped on the floor and the
+	 * returned promise has nothing left to resolve it: the recording is running,
+	 * the file is filling, and the app waits for it forever.
+	 */
+	it("resolves the capture wait immediately once the first frame already landed", async () => {
+		const session = newSession(true);
+		await startReady(session);
+
+		session.arm();
+		helper.emitEvent({
+			event: "capture-started",
+			timestampMs: 1_200,
+			path: "/tmp/recording.mp4",
+			width: 800,
+			height: 600,
+			fps: 30,
+		});
+		await flushStdout();
+
+		// Callers must not have to race the event to observe it.
+		await expect(session.waitUntilCapturing()).resolves.toBeUndefined();
+	});
+
+	/**
+	 * The same loss through the ONE path that makes it more than theoretical:
+	 * both events in a single stdout chunk. `NdjsonLineReader` hands them to the
+	 * session back to back within one `data` callback, so no caller — however
+	 * promptly it awaits — can install its handler in between.
+	 */
+	it("resolves the capture wait when arming and the first frame share a stdout chunk", async () => {
+		const session = newSession(true);
+		await startReady(session);
+
+		session.arm();
+		helper.stdout.write(
+			`${JSON.stringify({
+				schemaVersion: 1,
+				event: "source-selected",
+				timestampMs: 1_100,
+				nodeId: 42,
+				sourceKind: "window",
+			})}\n${JSON.stringify({
+				schemaVersion: 1,
+				event: "capture-started",
+				timestampMs: 1_200,
+				path: "/tmp/recording.mp4",
+				width: 800,
+				height: 600,
+				fps: 30,
+			})}\n`,
+		);
+		await flushStdout();
+
+		await expect(session.waitUntilCapturing()).resolves.toBeUndefined();
+	});
+
+	/**
+	 * The latch must not swallow a failure that arrived first: a helper that died
+	 * before any frame has nothing to report, and the caller has to learn that
+	 * rather than be told the capture is running.
+	 */
+	it("still rejects the capture wait when the helper died before any frame", async () => {
+		const session = newSession(true);
+		await startReady(session);
+
+		session.arm();
+		helper.emit("exit", 1, null);
+		await flushStdout();
+
+		await expect(session.waitUntilCapturing()).rejects.toThrow();
+	});
+	/**
+	 * The latch is a shortcut past the WAIT, never past the liveness check. A
+	 * helper that died after its first frame has stopped recording, so a caller
+	 * arriving late must still be told — answering "capturing" from a latch set
+	 * before the crash would report a recording that is no longer running.
+	 */
+	it("rejects the capture wait when the helper died after its first frame", async () => {
+		const session = newSession(true);
+		await startReady(session);
+
+		session.arm();
+		helper.emitEvent({
+			event: "capture-started",
+			timestampMs: 1_200,
+			path: "/tmp/recording.mp4",
+			width: 800,
+			height: 600,
+			fps: 30,
+		});
+		await flushStdout();
+		helper.emit("exit", 1, null);
+		await flushStdout();
+
+		await expect(session.waitUntilCapturing()).rejects.toThrow();
+	});
+
+	/**
+	 * The same early answer on a session that was never deferred. Nothing about
+	 * the loss is specific to `deferStart`: the helper connects immediately, so
+	 * the first frame can land even sooner relative to the caller's `await`.
+	 */
+	it("resolves the capture wait on an undeferred session whose first frame already landed", async () => {
+		const session = newSession();
+		await startReady(session);
+
+		helper.emitEvent({
+			event: "capture-started",
+			timestampMs: 1_200,
+			path: "/tmp/recording.mp4",
+			width: 800,
+			height: 600,
+			fps: 30,
+		});
+		await flushStdout();
+
+		await expect(session.waitUntilCapturing()).resolves.toBeUndefined();
+	});
+
+	/**
+	 * Asking twice must answer twice. The handler clears `startedResolve` after
+	 * it fires, so a second caller has no event left to wake it — only the latch
+	 * can, and a running capture does not stop being running because someone
+	 * already asked about it.
+	 */
+	it("resolves a second capture wait after the first was answered by the event", async () => {
+		const session = newSession(true);
+		await startReady(session);
+
+		session.arm();
+		const first = session.waitUntilCapturing();
+		helper.emitEvent({
+			event: "capture-started",
+			timestampMs: 1_200,
+			path: "/tmp/recording.mp4",
+			width: 800,
+			height: 600,
+			fps: 30,
+		});
+		await flushStdout();
+		await first;
+
+		await expect(session.waitUntilCapturing()).resolves.toBeUndefined();
+	});
+
+	/**
+	 * A diagnostic that arrives after the first frame does not end the capture:
+	 * `error` records the cause and fails the picker wait, but the helper is
+	 * still alive and still encoding. The latch must answer for it.
+	 */
+	it("resolves the capture wait after a non-fatal error follows the first frame", async () => {
+		const session = newSession(true);
+		await startReady(session);
+
+		session.arm();
+		helper.emitEvent({
+			event: "capture-started",
+			timestampMs: 1_200,
+			path: "/tmp/recording.mp4",
+			width: 800,
+			height: 600,
+			fps: 30,
+		});
+		helper.emitEvent({
+			event: "error",
+			timestampMs: 1_300,
+			code: "audio-unavailable",
+			message: "the system audio node vanished",
+		});
+		await flushStdout();
+
+		await expect(session.waitUntilCapturing()).resolves.toBeUndefined();
+	});
+
+	/**
+	 * (control) The latch starts closed, so it must not answer for a capture
+	 * that has not started — the wait is still a wait. Passes on both arms by
+	 * construction; it controls against a latch initialised `true` or read
+	 * unconditionally, either of which would make the discriminating tests above
+	 * pass for the wrong reason.
+	 */
+	it("(control) leaves the capture wait pending until the first frame lands", async () => {
+		const session = newSession(true);
+		await startReady(session);
+
+		session.arm();
+		const pending = session.waitUntilCapturing();
+		const settled = Promise.race([
+			pending.then(() => "settled"),
+			new Promise((resolve) => setTimeout(() => resolve("pending"), 0)),
+		]);
+		expect(await settled).toBe("pending");
+
+		helper.emitEvent({
+			event: "capture-started",
+			timestampMs: 1_200,
+			path: "/tmp/recording.mp4",
+			width: 800,
+			height: 600,
+			fps: 30,
+		});
+		await flushStdout();
+		await expect(pending).resolves.toBeUndefined();
+	});
 });
diff --git a/electron/native-bridge/capture/linuxNativeCaptureSession.ts b/electron/native-bridge/capture/linuxNativeCaptureSession.ts
index f1582ee59..689097392 100644
--- a/electron/native-bridge/capture/linuxNativeCaptureSession.ts
+++ b/electron/native-bridge/capture/linuxNativeCaptureSession.ts
@@ -76,6 +76,7 @@ export class LinuxNativeCaptureSession {
 	private readyReject: ((error: Error) => void) | null = null;
 	private readyTimer: NodeJS.Timeout | null = null;
 
+	private capturing = false;
 	private startedResolve: (() => void) | null = null;
 	private startedReject: ((error: Error) => void) | null = null;
 
@@ -229,6 +230,13 @@ export class LinuxNativeCaptureSession {
 		if (!this.process) {
 			return Promise.reject(new Error("The Linux capture helper is not running."));
 		}
+		// Checked AFTER the liveness test, unlike the latch in
+		// [`waitUntilSourceSelected`]: a helper that died after its first frame
+		// has stopped recording, so reporting a running capture would be worse
+		// than the wait this latch exists to end.
+		if (this.capturing) {
+			return Promise.resolve();
+		}
 		return new Promise<void>((resolve, reject) => {
 			this.startedResolve = resolve;
 			this.startedReject = reject;
@@ -421,6 +429,7 @@ export class LinuxNativeCaptureSession {
 				// before the portal picker. The recording's zero is HERE, so the
 				// telemetry is re-based onto it and anything from during the
 				// picker is dropped rather than left pinned to the start.
+				this.capturing = true;
 				this.cursor.rebase(payload.timestampMs);
 				console.info(
 					"[capture-linux] capture started",