My apologies if this has been covered or is documented - Please point me in the right direction if so.
I’m currently running GIMP 2.10.30 flatpak, installed per the GIMP site’s instructions on Xubuntu 18.04 (which will be upgraded Real Soon Now). My plug-ins folder list in Preferences includes /app/lib/gimp/2.0, /home/XXX/.config/GIMP/2.10/plug-ins and /home/XXX/.var/app/org.gimp.GIMP/config/GIMP/2.10/plug-ins, plus a couple of deeper folders appended to the above.
So it appears I have the standard / default and flatpak plugins paths, among others, right?
I saw something interesting (and confusing) while troubleshooting. I first zipped up and then moved (copied/deleted) the plugins from ~/.config/GIMP/2.10/plug-ins to ~/.var/app/org.gimp.GIMP/config/GIMP/2.10/plug-ins. I confirmed all were there, permissions correct, etc. I fired up GIMP and they weren’t there. In Preferences, when I open a file manager on the default folder I see the zip file only (as expected) but when I open it on the flatpak folder, I also see the zip file only, not the plugins which are there. And the file dialog shows the correct path. I don’t see any symlinks so I’m confused why GIMP thinks they’re missing.
But, if it works it works so the bigger question - What’s the standard / recommended place to put my configuration / plugins when running GIMP from flatpak?
This is IMO more than a little sub-optimal since so much manual effort is required to make the official installation work correctly. I don’t want to add to that effort.
The “recommended / proper” is the official place, ie ~/.var/app/org.gimp.GIMP/config/GIMP/2.10/plug-ins and your plugins should work there. I wonder what those “deeper” folders consist of ? If you put plugins in their own folder, make sure the folder name is the same as the plugin. Their own folder still not mandatory for Gimp 2.10 and of course, the plugin(s) are executable.
Not official, just my two-euro’s worth. Make your own convenient folder for resources and put your plugins/fonts/brushes there.
This setup where I added ~/gimp-files/plugins and popped in a compiled plugin and a python plugin (in its own folder)
I do this even with a regular Gimp install, can’t be bothered with those long paths.
Does that work, well those two do, but not all, there might be dependencies not available in the flatpak.
The ‘deeper’ folders were just a couple of subdirectories that were either appended by an installer or I added myself – I can’t recall. This OS / GIMP environment has been through several in-place upgrades and I’ve copied config files / directories along the way. It needs a clean wipe and start over, most likely. Ghosts from the past.
Here’s what’s there now:
The interesting thing remains that when I open a file manager on the .var line, it actually shows me the contents of the default .config/GIMP path, despite the dialog indicating it’s under ~/.var. I can make OS-level changes in ~/.config/GIMP/2.10 (add/remove test files, etc.) and I see them supposedly under the .var path. Apparently flatpak is aliasing something…?
I created a separate plugins directory (~/.config/GIMP.user/plug-ins) and moved all my plugins (only) to it. I then removed the .var/app/* and .config/GIMP/2.10/* lines from the plugins folder list. I also removed the two /app/* lines since those paths don’t exist.
After I removed the .config/GIMP/2.10/plug-ins path from the Plugins folder list (only, nowhere else), I lost document history and many native functions wouldn’t work. Duh… my bad. I didn’t think about native plugins being in there. Good thing I have a nightly backup of my $HOME…
Anyway it’s working now. Since I need to upgrade and clean up, I’ll wait to create a simpler, less legacy-ridden, folder structure after that’s done. Some plugins (GMIC, maybe?) install directly into ~/.config so it won’t be 100% consistent.
Some plugins (GMIC, maybe?) install directly into ~/.config so it won’t be 100% consistent…
Just a heads-up on that. As mentioned earlier, some plugins have dependencies that cannot be fullfilled with a flatpak installation. The gmic plugin is one, no QT5 libraries so it needs a ‘bespoke’ flatpak plugin
