ubuntu xenial and flatpak

[rich2005]

Some notes and observations for ubuntu users, in particular 'buntu 16.04 'xenial'

Installing flatpak (All done in a Kubuntu 16.04 VM)

add a flatpak ppa, update and install

Code:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:alexlarsson/flatpak
sudo apt update
sudo apt install flatpak

also might be needed is:

Code:

flatpak remote-add --from gnome https://sdk.gnome.org/gnome.flatpakrepo

Once that is done, look at https://www.gimp.org/downloads/ for some directions on installing the gimp flatpak. This works, it does ask for confirmations / root password when appropriate.

Code:

flatpak install https://flathub.org/repo/appstream/org.gimp.GIMP.flatpakref

Takes a little while but when finished open a terminal and execute the command flatpak run org.gimp.GIMP

and Gimp should start as: screenshot https://i.imgur.com/NdAGX4I.jpg

You do not want to be using a terminal all the time. There is a launcher org.gimp.GIMP.desktop in
/var/lib/flatpak/app/org.gimp.GIMP/current/active/files/share/applications
I could not get that to work for me, so used the stanza from it, to make a new launcher.

Code:

/usr/bin/flatpak run --branch=stable --arch=x86_64 --command=gimp-2.10 --file-forwarding org.gimp.GIMP @@u %U @@

Do not ask me why, but it works.

The Gimp profile and some peculiarities

Looking in Edit -> Preferences -> Folders -> Plug-ins for example, the paths Gimp starts with: 



However, Gimp also creates a more regular Gimp profile ~/.config/GIMP/2.10 and seems to prefer that. You will need to add that to the various resources paths.

My advice, neither are convenient. If you mess with Gimp resources a lot, make your own folders somewhere in your home partition and add to the Gimp paths. As this example, changed the theme, icons, added some folders in home.



What works (and does not work)
I think many scripts and plugins will work out of the box. I tried resynthesizer and heal selection - all working. As an example, another compiled plugin, guillotine-into-layers then a script grid-of-guides and Ofnuts bend path python plugin.



What does not work (easily)
I was disappointed when my FFT plugin failed. That needs libfftw3.so.3 files. Another was the g'mic plugin, not even the QT version but GTK.

This involves a bit of gentle hacking, very tedious to track down dependencies and then you will need to put them as root in:
/var/lib/flatpak/runtime/org.gnome.Platform/x86_64/3.28/some-long-string/files/lib
Nothing like making it easy for the poor user Another peculiarity, all the files there are rwxr-xr-x (chmod 755)

Did I get gimp-g'mic working? Most of it.



If you have tried out the Gimp flatpak, and have any tweaks and hacks, please post a follow up with your experiences.