Solved GIMP - Some GMIC filters don't work

[lymphor]

Hello everybody

I'm using GIMP 2.10.30 on Ubuntu 22.04. I recently also installed GMIC 3.2.6 from here: https://gmic.eu/download.html (I downloaded the stable version and copied it in both folders of plug-ins of GIMP).
My problem is that when I try to use certain filters, like Brushify for instance, I get an error message like this one:

*** Error in ./fx_brushify/*local/brushify/*local/*substitute/max_wh/_minmax_whds/ * Item substitution '{ mw = w; mh = h; md = d; ms = (...)s#k); ); ([mw,mh,md,ms])[0,2]}': Unrecognized function call 'repeat( l,k, mw = max(mw,w#k); mh = max(mh,h#k); md = max(m(...)' in expression '...repeat( l,k, mw = max(mw,w#k); mh = max(mh,h#k); md = max(m(...)...'.

I tried to google the issue but found nothing useful. Could you please help me out? Maybe I didn't install GMIC properly?

Thanks in advance to all those that will help!

 

[z7vl7abxc]

i don't use either gimp or gmic (in case this doesn't help), but found this in the faq's here: https://github.com/GreycLab/gmic-community/wiki/FAQ#plugin-installation

To install the G'MIC plug-in for GIMP, you have to copy all the downloaded files and sub-folder into the plug-in folder of your GIMP installation

This is usually located at:

on Unix: '$HOME/.gimp-2.x/plug-ins/' (for local installation), or 'usr/lib/gimp/2.0/plug-ins/' (for global installation).

 

[lymphor]

Hello and thank you for your reply!
I already copied the GMIC files and sub-folder into the plug-ins folders mentioned in GIMP (Edit --> Preferences --> Folders --> Plug-ins):
/home/myusername/snap/gimp/393/.config/GIMP/2.10/plug-ins
/usr/lib/gimp/2.0/plug-ins

I've also been looking for the folder '$HOME/.gimp-2.x/plug-ins/' mentioned in the FAQ but it looks like it doesn't exist in my PC :/

 

[z7vl7abxc]

you are welcome. i am sorry to hear that didn't help. i haven't used snaps much either so i wasn't thinking about that possibility.

i did notice when looking at the gmic downloads page that you linked that there was a flatpak version of it:

• Flatpak:
  $ flatpak install flathub org.gimp.GIMP.Plugin.GMic

i have an ubuntu 22.04 virtual machine set up and was able to install flatpak following these instructions: https://flathub.org/setup/Ubuntu

after that i was able to install gimp from here: https://flathub.org/apps/org.gimp.GIMP

then i ran the flatpak install command above to install the gmic plugin. the versions look similar to what you were trying to use:

flatpak list
Name                                       Application ID                           Version      Branch           Installation
Mesa                                       org.freedesktop.Platform.GL.default      23.1.1       22.08            system
Mesa (Extra)                               org.freedesktop.Platform.GL.default      23.1.1       22.08-extra      system
openh264                                   org.freedesktop.Platform.openh264        2.1.0        2.2.0            system
GNU Image Manipulation Program             org.gimp.GIMP                            2.10.34      stable           system
G'MIC                                      org.gimp.GIMP.Plugin.GMic                3.2.6        2-40             system
GNOME Application Platform version 43      org.gnome.Platform                                    43               system
Yaru Gtk Theme                             org.gtk.Gtk3theme.Yaru                                3.22             system

flatpaks can take up a bit more room than regular apt packages. the above all took about 1 GB of hard drive space.

i can see G-MIC-Qt listed in gimp's filters, but since i don't know how to use gimp can't really test any further than that.

 

[JasKinasis]

you are welcome. i am sorry to hear that didn't help. i haven't used snaps much either so i wasn't thinking about that possibility.

i did notice when looking at the gmic downloads page that you linked that there was a flatpak version of it:


i have an ubuntu 22.04 virtual machine set up and was able to install flatpak following these instructions: https://flathub.org/setup/Ubuntu

after that i was able to install gimp from here: https://flathub.org/apps/org.gimp.GIMP

then i ran the flatpak install command above to install the gmic plugin. the versions look similar to what you were trying to use:

flatpak list
Name                                       Application ID                           Version      Branch           Installation
Mesa                                       org.freedesktop.Platform.GL.default      23.1.1       22.08            system
Mesa (Extra)                               org.freedesktop.Platform.GL.default      23.1.1       22.08-extra      system
openh264                                   org.freedesktop.Platform.openh264        2.1.0        2.2.0            system
GNU Image Manipulation Program             org.gimp.GIMP                            2.10.34      stable           system
G'MIC                                      org.gimp.GIMP.Plugin.GMic                3.2.6        2-40             system
GNOME Application Platform version 43      org.gnome.Platform                                    43               system
Yaru Gtk Theme                             org.gtk.Gtk3theme.Yaru                                3.22             system

flatpaks can take up a bit more room than regular apt packages. the above all took about 1 GB of hard drive space.

i can see G-MIC-Qt listed in gimp's filters, but since i don't know how to use gimp can't really test any further than that.

One thing everybody seems to have forgotten here is - some of Ubuntu’s apt packages are actually meta-packages which actually install snap packages nowadays - NOT traditional Debian packages.

Remember they started doing that a couple of releases ago?! They changed a number of their traditional Debian packages to be meta-packages that install snaps? And guess what? One of those packages is Gimp!

So, the fact that Gimp is a snap package in Ubuntu almost certainly has some bearing in all of this. I wouldn’t be surprised if this GMic problem/bug is related to that fact!

I’m on Debian (where all packages are traditional Debian packages and using snaps is entirely optional) and I have no problems whatsoever running Gimp or GMIC.

On Debian, I was an early adopter of Canonicals snapcraft. But when I realised how terrible it was - I quickly abandoned it and vowed never to use it again. It was a similar story for flatpak.

If there’s no Debian package for something I need, I’ll install from source nowadays.
Worst case scenario, I’ll use an appimage.
But snapcraft/snaps and flatpak are huge nopes for me!

 

[KGIII]

So, the fact that Gimp is a snap package in Ubuntu almost certainly has some bearing in all of this. I wouldn’t be surprised if this GMic problem/bug is related to that fact!

You're probably correct - and I'm an Ubuntu kinda guy.

Just make sure the permissions suit and you can eliminate that as a problem. It's in the documentation.

https://snapcraft.io/docs/interface-management

(I realize nobody wants to read the manual.)

 

[lymphor]

Hi, thank you very much for your replies and explanations
What I get from the discussion is that flatpack is not a viable solution and that most probably my issue comes from the fact that Gimp is a snap package in Ubuntu. So is there any solution?
I'm currently having to use Gimp on Windows in order to access all the Gmic filters, but I would like to become less and less dependant on Windows.
Thank you again for your help!

 

[lymphor]

PS: as a workaround I also tried to use Krita, because I've read that this software comes with Gmic preinstalled. Well, it was not my case, no Gmic present on my Krita installation

 

[lymphor]

Just make sure the permissions suit and you can eliminate that as a problem.

I opened "Ubuntu Software", went to Gimp and verified that all the permissions are ON.

 

[KGIII]

I opened "Ubuntu Software", went to Gimp and verified that all the permissions are ON.

I'd probably report it as a bug at this point.

ReportingBugs - Community Help Wiki

It's a bit of a process to report bugs, but it's worth doing. Most of the time, setting the permissions mean the application works properly. So, it could be a bug that has nothing to do with snaps. If nobody else reports it, nobody will know to fix it.

 

[lymphor]

Hi, I finally found some time to report the bug, but when I run the command ubuntu-bug gimp I got the following error message:

The problem cannot be reported:
gimp is provided by a snap published by snapcrafters. Contact them via https://github.com/snapcrafters/gimp/issues for help.

 

[lymphor]

Ok, I managed to report the bug on snapcrafters website: https://github.com/snapcrafters/gimp/issues/237
Fingers crossed for a good resolution!
Thank you all for your help!

 

[MikeWalsh]

I have to agree with @JasKinasis above. I too have no time for Snaps or FlatPaks, and much prefer putting my own packages/workarounds together.

For the past few years I've been using G.I.M.P AppImages from here:-

Releases · aferrero2707/gimp-appimage

Contribute to aferrero2707/gimp-appimage development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

aferrero has built these AppImages to include a whole bunch of plugins, including G'Mic (well, you get the choice.....with OR without plugins). If you extract the AppImage and have a wee squizz inside, you'll see it comes with all these:-

.....although, strangely - despite it having been around since 2011 - "Brushify" is one of the very few G'Mic filters that isn't present!

This is 2.10.25. aferrero seems to have lost interest after this point, but I don't mind that; these things WILL run absolutely anywhere.....literally. Which shows they've been properly constructed, and have everything they need to run. And I don't mind a build that's a few point releases behind; I'm not that fanatical about "MUST have the very newest version all the time". I don't get THAT 'excited' over new features! Unlike a browser, where's it's critical, a graphics app very rarely presents a security risk of any kind; if it does what I want, that's good enough for me.

Anyway; with Puppy's unique run model, it gives us the freedom to do a lot of stuff others wouldn't dare to.


Mike.

 

[lymphor]

Hello everybody, just wanted to let you know that the problem got fixed with the latest updates of both GIMP and GMIC
Now I have another problem, but I'll open a different topic about it.
Thank you again for your help!