Photogimp Won't Start With Newest Gimp Update (Linux Mint)

[romeroFan6268]

Hi! I wanted to let you know that Photogimp will not work with the new version, Gimp 3.2. I think there may be some compatibility issues. Anyway, the program won't start... :(

I did realize that if I follow all the Photogimp instructions, uninstall Gimp and then install Gimp again, THEN it works! However, this is unintuitive. Not only that, I have to rename it and change the icon to Photogimp's by default (since the name GIMP and its icon remain unchanged). Plus, I'm not sure everyone wants go through this process. Downloading Photogimp and replacing the .config and .local files for Linux Mint should be enough.

Could you please fix this?

[eberhardweber]

Hi! I wanted to let you know that Photogimp will not work with the new version, Gimp 3.2. I think there may be some compatibility issues. Anyway, the program won't start... :(

I did realize that if I follow all the Photogimp instructions, uninstall Gimp and then install Gimp again, THEN it works! However, this is unintuitive. Not only that, I have to rename it and change the icon to Photogimp's by default (since the name GIMP and its icon remain unchanged). Plus, I'm not sure everyone wants go through this process. Downloading Photogimp and replacing the .config and .local files for Linux Mint should be enough.

Could you please fix this?

Reinstalling was enough to get my flatpak of GIMP to launch, too, after it was updated to 3.2.

[lerajes]

I don't know if its compatibility or a path issue - on Mint 22.3 trying to start photoGIMP via the app menu or an applet shortcut does nothing but going into the Software Manager and finding GIMP 3.2 itself (I installed via flatpak) allows you to launch GIMP and therefore photoGIMP.

[Universelord]

the reason why this is not working is because gimp 3.0 was updated to gimp 3.2 and with it the command for running gimp is also changed
old Exec=/usr/bin/flatpak run --branch=stable --arch=x86_64 --command=gimp-3.0 --file-forwarding org.gimp.GIMP @@u %U @@

proper command Exec=/usr/bin/flatpak run --branch=stable --arch=x86_64 --command=gimp-3.2 --file-forwarding org.gimp.GIMP @@u %U @@
this is in the line 141 of ~/.local/share/applications/org.gimp.GIMP.desktop

the fix is to replace the old command with the one that i have provided and that should work for now i think

the main reason this occurs is because the photogimp config also adds custom branding in the .desktop file and the file is not update after the flatpak version is updated

tldr: the command the runs gimp in the .desktop file is not compatible with gimp 3.2

[lerajes]

Thanks @Universelord - that definitely fixed the issue for me.

[Universelord]

always happy to help

[Icaro2003]

the reason why this is not working is because gimp 3.0 was updated to gimp 3.2 and with it the command for running gimp is also changed old Exec=/usr/bin/flatpak run --branch=stable --arch=x86_64 --command=gimp-3.0 --file-forwarding org.gimp.GIMP @@u %U @@

proper command Exec=/usr/bin/flatpak run --branch=stable --arch=x86_64 --command=gimp-3.2 --file-forwarding org.gimp.GIMP @@u %U @@ this is in the line 141 of ~/.local/share/applications/org.gimp.GIMP.desktop

the fix is to replace the old command with the one that i have provided and that should work for now i think

the main reason this occurs is because the photogimp config also adds custom branding in the .desktop file and the file is not update after the flatpak version is updated

tldr: the command the runs gimp in the .desktop file is not compatible with gimp 3.2

Run:

ls ~/.config/GIMP

If there are two folders:

~/.config/GIMP/
 ├── 3.0
 └── 3.2

Copy the configuration from 3.0 to 3.2:

cp -r ~/.config/GIMP/3.0/* ~/.config/GIMP/3.2/

Then open GIMP again.

[belthesar]

The GIMP Flatpak binary folder contains aliases that can be used in lieu of trying to keep the shortcut up to date with the latest version.

❯ pwd
/var/lib/flatpak/app/org.gimp.GIMP/x86_64/stable/active/files/bin
❯ ls -la
total 11624
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root     380 Dec 31  1969 .
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root     110 Mar 19 11:51 ..
-rwxr-xr-x 2 root root   14512 Dec 31  1969 dot
-rwxr-xr-x 2 root root   34992 Dec 31  1969 gegl
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root       8 Mar 19 11:51 gimp -> gimp-3.2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root       8 Mar 19 11:51 gimp-3 -> gimp-3.2
-rwxr-xr-x 2 root root 7936392 Dec 31  1969 gimp-3.2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      16 Mar 19 11:51 gimp-console -> gimp-console-3.2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      16 Mar 19 11:51 gimp-console-3 -> gimp-console-3.2
-rwxr-xr-x 2 root root 3808856 Dec 31  1969 gimp-console-3.2
-rwxr-xr-x 2 root root   18640 Dec 31  1969 gimp-script-fu-interpreter-3.0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      23 Mar 19 11:51 gimp-test-clipboard -> gimp-test-clipboard-3.2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      23 Mar 19 11:51 gimp-test-clipboard-3 -> gimp-test-clipboard-3.2
-rwxr-xr-x 2 root root   18720 Dec 31  1969 gimp-test-clipboard-3.2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      12 Mar 19 11:51 gimptool -> gimptool-3.2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      12 Mar 19 11:51 gimptool-3 -> gimptool-3.2
-rwxr-xr-x 2 root root   26888 Dec 31  1969 gimptool-3.2

I don't know if it's a violation of XDG Desktop Entry or Flatpak best practices to point to a symbolic link in lieu of the path to the binary, but it seems that PhotoGIMP has options to align compatibility with GIMP version by specifying the command as appropriate.
EG:

• Compatible with GIMP 3.2 -> Exec=/usr/bin/flatpak run ... --command=gimp-3.2 ...
• Compatible with GIMP 3.X -> Exec=/usr/bin/flatpak run ... --command=gimp-3 ...
• Compatible with GIMP X.Y -> Exec=/usr/bin/flatpak run ... --command=gimp ...

I'd advocate for using gimp-3 based on what I've observed thus far, but I defer to the project maintainer on this. That said, I think it's bad form and a maintenance nightmare to munge a package managed asset like this.

Flatpak may replace this icon at any time with a version update, undoing the work that's being done to modify the Desktop file, and doesn't have support for triggering external maintenance scripts on application update, which might have been used to apply the modified icon settings. In addition, while your configuration suite is certainly impressive, changing the branding of the Icon doesn't really feel necessary (you already have the modified splash screen) and could be seen as trying to advertise PhotoGIMP as a separate project based on GIMP, when it's a super cool opinionated config for GIMP that still depends on the hard work of the GIMP team.

You may not be aware of this, but there was a very old project in the mid-2000's called GIMPshop that was a fork of GIMP to make it look and feel much more like the Photoshop of that era, and had a lot of bad blood associated with it. While your changes are all config driven vs. needing to fork GIMP and cobble together a solution, you probably want to avoid repeating those mistakes and remain good neighbors with the project that underpins yours.

[romeroFan6268]

That said, the GIMP developers really need to change its default interface. It is the most unintuitive, clunky interface I have ever used in my entire life! Krita and Inkscape have a much better interface than GIMP's (and they're both free open source). Changing its look to be PhotoGimp's would be SO easy for the GIMP developers. I don't know why that haven't done this yet. Its default interface is NO GOOD! :(

[oxidworks]

The root cause is two things:

1. The .desktop file uses --command=gimp-3.0 which breaks when GIMP updates to 3.2+. As @belthesar pointed out, --command=gimp would be version-agnostic since Flatpak provides symlinks.

2. The config directory is hardcoded to ~/.config/GIMP/3.0/ but GIMP 3.2 expects ~/.config/GIMP/3.2/.

Both problems will come back with every minor version bump. I've put together an install script that detects the active GIMP version and handles both issues automatically - see #190.

[enjaume]

the reason why this is not working is because gimp 3.0 was updated to gimp 3.2 and with it the command for running gimp is also changed old Exec=/usr/bin/flatpak run --branch=stable --arch=x86_64 --command=gimp-3.0 --file-forwarding org.gimp.GIMP @@u %U @@

proper command Exec=/usr/bin/flatpak run --branch=stable --arch=x86_64 --command=gimp-3.2 --file-forwarding org.gimp.GIMP @@u %U @@ this is in the line 141 of ~/.local/share/applications/org.gimp.GIMP.desktop

the fix is to replace the old command with the one that i have provided and that should work for now i think

the main reason this occurs is because the photogimp config also adds custom branding in the .desktop file and the file is not update after the flatpak version is updated

tldr: the command the runs gimp in the .desktop file is not compatible with gimp 3.2

¡Muchas gracias!!
¡Ha funcionado!!!