GIMP AppImage (continuous integration)

[Carmelo_DrRaw]

Hi! I’m having some fun with .AppImage packages, and I’ve recently prepared one for the git version of BABL/GEGL/GIMP.

You can consider AppImages the equivalent of DMG packages under OSX: self-contained packages that should run on most Linux systems without the need to install additional dependencies. Everything is contained in the AppImage.

If you are running linux and you want to contribute with some testing, here are the steps to follow:

• get the .AppImage file from here.
• make it executable with chmod u+x
• run the .AppImage file from the terminal, like any other application

What is already included in this test version:

• BABL/GEGL/GIMP from git
• G’MIC plug-in version 1.7.5
• all standard mypaint brushes
• PhotoFlow plug-ins for RAW processing and non-destructive editing
• Resynthesizer plug-in for content-aware healing
• Liquid rescale plug-in for feature-preserving image scaling

There is also a thread in the gimp-developer mailing list where people have started to give (mostly positive) feedback and confirm that Gimp is running fine from this appimage. However, the more testing under various Linux distributions, the better…

Thanks in advance.

[paperdigits (Mica)]

Fantastic; I’ll be playing with this on the weekend!

[rich2005]

A quick check and it works: Kubuntu 16.04

screenshot: http://imgur.com/a/Ra1AN

The Gimp profile location is a bit strange:
/home/your-id/.config/config/2.9/
rather than
/home/your-id/.config/GIMP/2.9/

It will migrate all your Gimp 2.8 profile over which might / might-not be a great thing. Disable your 2.8 profile for a clean installation.

It would be nice if the gmic for Gimp 2.9 was included rather than the standard version. Does work however if you install in the gimp profile.

MyPaint brushes included - nice. Which I remember as mising from the Ubuntu Gimp 2.9 ppa installation.

[Carmelo_DrRaw]

@rich2005 Thanks for checking!

@rich2005

It would be nice if the gmic for Gimp 2.9 was included rather than the standard version. Does work however if you install in the gimp profile.

What do you mean exactly? The gmic plug-in which is included in the appimage is compiled against gimp 2.9 (or at least it should be…). What is the “standard version” for you?

As for the plug-in directory, I agree that it looks weird… anyway, the plug-ins that you have in your .config folder might not be binary-compatible with the gimp executable in the appimage, due to different versions of BABL/GEGL and/or GIMP itself. That is one of the weak points that I still have to understand.

[rich2005]

What do you mean exactly? The gmic plug-in which is included in the appimage is compiled against gimp 2.9 (or at least it should be…). What is the “standard version” for you?

You are correct, That came with the "migrate all from ~/.gimp-2.8/ before I cleaned it out. My mistake but something to look out for.

As for the plug-in directory, I agree that it looks weird… anyway, the plug-ins that you have in your .config folder might not be binary-compatible with the gimp executable in the appimage, due to different versions of BABL/GEGL and/or GIMP itself. That is one of the weak points that I still have to understand.

As long as users understand where everything is.
I now have my regular Gimp 2.8 profile, a 2.9.3 appimage profile (.config/GIMP) and now a 2.9.5 appimage profile (.config/config) Something will have to go.

Still recommend this for linux users as an easy way to get familiar with Gimp 2.9 working in parallel with a regular Gimp 2.8

[Fotonut]

Great start @Carmelo_DrRaw!

Very easy to install.

My only comments so far (after a very brief look), would be:

• Suggest users make executable and change permissions by right-clicking over the appimage and clicking on the req settings there. For a lot of non-geeks, suggesting to change permissions using the command line would just freak them out and they would go no further.

• Change the name somehow so it shows up in the system menu as something other than “GNU Image Manipulation Program”, to help users define which version they are using.

• It seems to take longer to load the various components on start to otto’s version. Not a biggie, but noticable.

When I take some more shots (hard drive was cleared off and backed up to make more room), I’ll give it a proper whirl.

Until then, I think you’re onto a real winner!

You have just given me an awesome reason for me to pick up my camera again and head out!

[paperdigits (Mica)]

In my (limited) experience with AppImages, they seem to be a bit slower to launch than if they were installed by your system’s package manager.

[Fotonut]

I think what really excites me about this is, once I get the hang of PhF, this hopefully will be a one-stop shop for all my photography needs.

To be able to download one appimage that has three apps built in (Gimp, PhF, Gmic) to cover a decent percentage of photography needs under FOSS… Well! It’ll be so much easier to explain the benefits of FOSS to a PS/LR obsessed photo community!

The benefits to new users as well, not having to download and try multiple programs… In essence, a one-stop shop.

No disrespect to the developers of other software, your programs really are awesome. I’ve used them and loved them, BUT… all your needs, working together in one appimage? Simply awesome!

[Marci]

Hi all!
This Appimage looks promising. I would like to test it, but I don’t want to register or sing up in dropbox or any other google related service. Is there any other way of getting the file?
Thanks anyway.
Marci

[Fotonut]

Yes @Marci, I just clicked under the nag sign in screen. I had to choose the ‘download directly’ option.

Hope that helps!

@Carmelo_DrRaw, slightly OT, but still relevant, is PhF cross platform? IE, does it work with OSX and Windows as well, or just Linux? Following on from that, if it is cross platform, and depending of this appimage’s success, could this be rolled out cross platform too?

Cheers.

[Marci]

Wow! That’s efficiency and speed!
I hadn’t seen the last line in the tiny screen of my netbook.
I’ve already downloaded it.
Thanks; I’m looking forward to testing it.
Bye

[paperdigits (Mica)]

The Dropbox non-registered download is intentionally difficult, it took me several tries to figure it out as well!

[Carmelo_DrRaw]

@Marci the drop box hosting is only temporary, for testing the experimental version. Once it will be decently reliable (maybe it is already?) it will be hosted in Partha’s website, and maybe elsewhere as well

@Fotonut PhF is cross platform. Similar all-in-one packages with gimp+gmic+PhF are already provided by Partha for windows and osx. They additionally contain the Nik plugins for gimp, which don’t run under Linux. So at the end we will have all-in-one packages for all platforms hosted in the same place… the way it should be for non-geeks

[Carmelo_DrRaw]

@paperdigits

In my (limited) experience with AppImages, they seem to be a bit slower to launch than if they were installed by your system’s package manager.

I think this an unavoidable price to pay… as far as i understand it, the appimage is a compressed disk image. Each time it is launched the system needs to uncompressed the image and mount it via a loop back device. It’s like running an application under osx always from the DMG. Maybe there is/will be a way to copy the appimage to an “Applications” folder under Linux, but I would not bother with that for the moment…

[Mondayman]

First of all, great work.
It looks and feels much much nicer now!!!

Maybe it is my pc (Ubuntu 16.04), but I cant size Gimp properly, or even at all.
It is only hide or full screen, as in the picture to see. But fullscreen is the wrong word, because some of the lower half is missing. I cant choose any color or delete a layer.

I looked in the git master branch but couldnt find the errors there.

Any suggestions what I am doing wrong?

[rich2005]

As I mentioned earlier, the first run of the appimage will create a Gimp profile for itself in ~/.config/config and then copy over all of your existing Gimp 2.8 profile. Probably odd size and layout comes from there.

If you temporarily disable (rename) the Gimp 2.8 profile you get a clean Gimp 2.9.5 profile which looks like this.

[Album] imgur.com

800 pix high, just about fits on a regular (768) laptop display.

Otherwise, the appimage is the same as any other Gimp, go to Edit → Preferences → Window Management and reset to default.

[Album] imgur.com

[Fotonut]

I’ve noticed, even with PhF installed independantly, Darktable launches whenever you try to open a RAW file in this version of Gimp. Anyone else have this prob? I would have thought PhF would have launched instead, or am I missing something?

[Carmelo_DrRaw]

I will try to reproduce that, and let you know.

[paperdigits (Mica)]

Indeed, I think a little slowness when starting is the expectation. Krita is like this too. I don’t mind, I still remember wait up to several minutes for an application to load and launch!

[Carmelo_DrRaw]

@paperdigits @Fotonut @rich2005 @Mondayman @Marci Do you think it would make sense and/or be better to have the appimage configuration in a configuration directory different from the default $HOME/.config/GIMP/2.9?

For example $HOME/.config/GIMP-AppImage/2.9

There is currently a bug in the way the configuration directory is searched, but while I fix the bug I would like to see if a separate directory would be better…