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.

[rich2005]

update:

That went so well, I installed the flatpak in my regular Kubuntu 16.04 desktop. Having made a backup of the existing beforehand of course

If anybody wants to try the extra files, this zip 6.5 MB

updated this to include BIMP and nufraw - zip is now 10 MB I think that is enough for now

https://my.pcloud.com/publink/show?code=...CxYQKHuNEk

Contains a folder of the library files to go in as per the previous post.
and a folder with plugins.

the usual guarantee - there is none

[Ofnuts]

Followed your instructions to install 2.10 on my Kubuntu 16.04 and it worked OK. It seems to have reused the profile.

Still some problems, for instance:

Quote:/home/me/.var/app/org.gimp.GIMP/config/GIMP/2.10/plug-ins/fourier: error while loading shared libraries: libfftw3.so.3: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Will dig a bit more to see what I can hack to make that work better. Also wondering how I add compiled plugins.

[Ofnuts]

(04-29-2018, 07:23 PM)Ofnuts Wrote: Still some problems, for instance:

Quote:/home/me/.var/app/org.gimp.GIMP/config/GIMP/2.10/plug-ins/fourier: error while loading shared libraries: libfftw3.so.3: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory.

PS: Just noticed that you fixed the problem. However, flatpak works with "hard" links over an OSTree repository (through which updates are distributed), so your fix may prevent updates (or mask updates)...

[rich2005]

I am aware of that. The org.gnome.Platform/x86_64/3.28 runtime is somewhat lacking in support for Gimp.

Obviously, none of the lib files I slip into it overwrite existing files. No symbolic links all physical files.

It is hopefully a shortcut solution to get Gimp 2.10 into my Kubuntu 16.04 - I do not know your solution. I do run a VM with it installed, but a PITA to fire that up all the time.

At the moment, it is a method to extend the life of this Xenial installation. I come from PClinuxOS where for 6 years, updated frequently, but it was still PClinuxOS. No question of reinstalling the whole OS. Really annoyed if I have to reinstall a 'buntu version every six months.

So far I have that gmic-gtk, FFT and nufraw-gimp plugins working (edit: BIMP as well). Probably not going to be any more, QT might be a step too far

[Ofnuts]

These aren't "soft" links but "hard" links, so harder to check:


(where "inode" is what holds the file data). When you add a hard link that new link is just a new path/name to the data, and has exactly the same status as the initial path/name. You cannot tell afterwards which came first, and if you rm the initial name the data will still be available using the other name.

Yes, also a way to extend the life of my 16.04. for me. Rolling releases are fine in some cases, but can also break critical applications. Same as Firefox that updates and invalidates a bunch of plug-ins you depend on. There are people that need stability and this is what the LTS releases are for. In this case I think the Gimp devs have been a bit brutal in their requirement, you can't expect everyone to be on the latest releases.

(diagram above from here)

[nelo]

Thanks for showing how to use flatpaks. Never did that before.

What I'ld like to know: can you keep your old GIMP Version alongside the flatpak? Or is it deleted?

[rich2005]

(05-01-2018, 01:29 PM)nelo Wrote: Thanks for showing how to use flatpaks. Never did that before.

What I'ld like to know: can you keep your old GIMP Version alongside the flatpak? Or is it deleted?

You do keep everything in your linux installation that you already have.

The flatpak is essentially 'sandboxed' runs completely in its own space. Which can be a good thing or can be a disadvantage.

You can see from the previous post that while most third-party scripts and plugins will work there are some with missing dependencies. 

Example: I can use my wireless printer to print. The xsane plugin does not work, so I can not scan.

If you want to use Gimp 2.10 and keep your Gimp 2.8 it is worth a try.

[nelo]

Thanks for clarifying.
I'ld like to keep my 2.8.x GIMP as long as I'm not sure what works and what not in the 2.10 version.
Just to have a fallback ...

[mikelygee]

(04-30-2018, 07:34 AM)rich2005 Wrote: ...So far I have that gmic-gtk, FFT and nufraw-gimp plugins working (edit: BIMP as well). Probably not going to be any more, QT might be a step too far

Thanks for posting this. I tried to follow your instructions, but gmic still isn't working. I'm told:

/app/lib/gimp/2.0/plug-ins/gmic_gimp_gtk: error while loading shared libraries: libgegl-0.3.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Though the file is clearly there. Any suggestions?

I'd also like to get RAW import working, but GIMP isn't finding darktable or rawtherapee.

---

(05-01-2018, 09:27 PM)mikelygee Wrote: Thanks for posting this. I tried to follow your instructions, but gmic still isn't working. I'm told:

/app/lib/gimp/2.0/plug-ins/gmic_gimp_gtk: error while loading shared libraries: libgegl-0.3.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Got it working--I had put the files in the 'lib' directory for the application, instead of the runtime.