Changes in 2024 for Ubuntu

[Tas_mania]

The Register has reported changes in the 2024 Ubuntu LTS system.

There will be a 'Core Desktop' and an 'Ubuntu Core' edition with a totally locked admin file system. I'm confused already, I hope they come-up with different names?

Quote:it's entirely built with a single packaging system: Ubuntu's Snap.

My experience is Snap is slower to load on older systems. Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu but does not use Snap. Which direction will they go?

[nelo]

It also says:

Quote:Core Desktop is not the next version of Ubuntu itself.

So, no problem at the moment for all the *buntu based distros.

[Tas_mania]

Hi nelo, I'm learning about Ubuntu snaps to at least find out how they are made. So far they look a lot like appimages because they are compressed. As far as I can find python2 has never been done in a Gimp Snap.

[Tas_mania]

I made a surprising discovery.

In a devel system I installed Gimp snap (Gimp 2.10.34.)
I added some plug-ins but it has no python 2.7 or python console.

However when I did a file search for 'python 2.7' I got all of this:

   

It already has all of python 2.7 but none of it works. 405 is the current Gimp snap version.

[PixLab]

(11-11-2023, 09:50 PM)Tas_mania Wrote: I made a surprising discovery.

In a devel system I installed Gimp snap (Gimp 2.10.34.)
I added some plug-ins but it has no python 2.7 or python console.

However when I did a file search for 'python 2.7' I got all of this:

It already has all of python 2.7 but none of it works. 405 is the current Gimp snap version.

Wow... that's a good start

For the python script to work with GIMP 2.10, I needed to install also those (as far as I recall > if I recall correctly):

• libcairo2_1.16.0-4ubuntu1_amd64.deb
  
• libffi6_3.2.1-8_amd64.deb
  
• python-cairo_1.16.2-2ubuntu2_amd64.deb
  
• python-gobject-2_2.28.6-12ubuntu3_amd64.deb
  
• python-gtk2_2.24.0-6_amd64.deb
  

If they are not in the snap maybe that's why python plug-ins are not working?
Hopping that could help you.

[Tas_mania]

Thanks Patrice for the info. 
To see the files in /snap/gimp/405/ you have to start the Gimp snap once in the current session and it loads files out of the compressed snap file into that directory. If you don't start Gimp they are not there.

What I'm thinking is canonical has made a secure version of appimage that updates apps automatically. Snap is actually fast contrary to what I thought because it's a compressed file. The snap making is automated and they are full of bloat and because they probably don't use Gimp they don't know that stuff doesn't work. I found you can unpack snaps, edit them and repack them. But they need some kind of authorization from the archbishops at canonical. I tried to make it comical (that's a pun)

[rich2005]

@ everyone

I suppose the Gimp 2.10.36 comes straight from debian/'buntu packages where there is no gimp-python packages. You will find in the Panda Jim PPA that while ubuntu 20.04 has a gimp-python package nothing for later releases. The 20.04 PPA gimp-python package is a bit of a monster but typically an older version contains these:
gimpcolor.so gimpenums.py _gimpenums.so gimpfu.py gimpplugin.py gimpshelf.py gimp.so gimpthumb.so gimpui.py _gimpui.so pygimp-logo.png Are they there in the SNAP ?

As I understand it, a snap is sandboxed much the same as an flatpak but there are options for a bit more flexibility, printing maybe.

It seems every new 'buntu release is more difficult to customise. I have a kubuntu 20.04 which contains stuff that I can not get working on kubuntu 22.04 (Gimp XSane plugin for heavens sake, although xscanimage works ) an old AutoPano (xpano not quite as good) ... and more. 20.04 is still not end-of-life for ubuntu security updates so I am keeping it going. I have just about got 22.04 where I like it and now a new version on the horizon. I can not win.

[programmer_ceds]

(11-12-2023, 08:35 AM)rich2005 Wrote: I have just about got 22.04 where I like it and now a new version on the horizon. I can not win.

Aren't the new versions described in the article only intended for IoT devices and not for general usage (laptop, PC) and therefore nothing to worry about.

[rich2005]

(11-12-2023, 10:53 AM)programmer_ceds Wrote:

(11-12-2023, 08:35 AM)rich2005 Wrote: I have just about got 22.04 where I like it and now a new version on the horizon. I can not win.

Aren't the new versions described in the article only intended for IoT devices and not for general usage (laptop, PC) and therefore nothing to worry about.

I think that is the case, the next LTS will be 24.04 much like previous releases but are not they increasingly using their snap spin-off applications such as firefox.  All more work for the user to setup as they wish.

edit: Just been reading this about snap https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/10/s...untu_tools Still not convinced.

[Tas_mania]

I hacked the latest Gimp snap and I have python plug-ins working but no console.

   

For anyone interested -
Copied the snap file into a user folder. You can also download it with
snap download gimp
sudo chown -R user:user ./gimp_405.snap
sudo unsquashfs ././gimp_405.snap
Now you can freely edit files under ./squashfs-root
repack with      
snap pack ./squashfs-root ./
this puts a new snap in the same folder. because it's unsigned it can only be installed with the 'dangerous' flag.
sudo snap install --dangerous ./gimp_2.10.34_amd64.snap
Message - It appears that you are using GIMP for the first time.  GIMP will now create a folder named ~/snap/gimp/x1/.config/GIMP/2.10' and copy some files to it.
putting plugin-ins here helped me see error messages with
gimp --verbose
sudo snap remove gimp

Thoughts
Ubuntu are using appimages built with the old RockRidge file system to construct new OS's. I think this upends the Unix file structure by creating little unix file systems inside other unix file systems. The Gimp snap is well over 1.2 gb in size. Why does it have to contain so many system files? Script-based packaging can make huge files because all the files have dependencies. Eventually Ubuntu snaps will be dependent on other snaps or each snap will carry most of the system files.
I think the word 'snap' is actually 'secure appimage'. Possibly Ubuntu is trying to be faster than MXLinux which is pretty fast : wonder what Debian makes of all this