Scribus 1.5.7 cannot 'see installed GIMP 2.10.28 Mint 20.2 Cinnamon

[LateJunction]

When I attempt to edit an image in Scribus 1.5.7 I get the error message "The program gimp is missing or failed to open". The installed, and working, version of GIMP on my Mint 20.2 Cinnamon PC is 2.10.28. I should add that GIMP is a flatpak version as that is the only option available from the GIMP website (attempting to compile from source is a waste of time, for me; the version of GIMP in the Mint repositories, available via Synaptic, is too old).

I guess is that Flatpak has installed GIMP  in a place which Scribus does not check. Can I adjust this from within Scribus?

[Nermander]

Just go to Preferences->External tools and set the path to the GIMP executable (you can browse to it using the Change button).

[LateJunction]

Just go to Preferences->External tools and set the path to the GIMP executable (you can browse to it using the Change button).

Thanks for this:seems very straightforward - I had misunderstood what the Change button meant. Sadly. my attempts to locate the installed flatpak version of GIMP fail. Yes, Flatpak tells me explicitly that it is in /var/lib/flatpak/app/org.gimp.GIMP/X86-64/stable/'a very long string of numbers', to which I can readily browse in Scribus. But having done so, Scribus decides that the program  is to be found at "/run/user/1000/doc/f8272052/gimp" and, not surprisingly, tells me that the program is missing or failed to open. That's nothing like the location I browsed to.

How do I fix that ?

[Nermander]

Look at where the shortcut you use start GIMP points.

I have never heard of flatpaks before, but a quick googling indicates the command should be something like

Code Select Expand

flatpak run org.gimp.GIMP

[LateJunction]

Look at where the shortcut you use start GIMP points.

I have never heard of flatpaks before, but a quick googling indicates the command should be something like

Code Select Expand

flatpak run org.gimp.GIMP

Thank for your continued help. I usually start any flatpak application from the Cinnamon menu, i.e. as a GUI application rather than using the command line (simply because, at my advanced age, I have time left only for using my PC to do work, not for trying to become an expert in how it works). The start menu icon for GIMP gives no information (that I can find) that shows what the invocation string is. However, searching among the flatpak help system I was able to confirm your suggestion about the required command string. And indeed this works when entered from the command line. But entering this string ("flatpak run .org.gimp.GIMP") in Scribus preferences takes me directly back to where I started this forum Post: error message "The program flatpak run org.gimp.GIMP is missing or failed to open".

Well, which is it ? If it is missing why not tell the user from which location it is missing? If it failed to open why not tell the user the reason code, given by the kernel, for this failure to open? The location question is made a great deal more complex by trying to definitively locate the GIMP executable. So far I have tried the following locations within my 'out of the box' Cinnamon install:

/var/lib/flatpak/app/org.gimp.GIMP/X86-64/stable/303711bf7f4af1bb74fdd6425db6899663c94a833d9d40511fc4c1d470ac04c0/files/bin/gimp-2.10
/var/lib/flatpak/app/org.gimp.GIMP/X86-64/stable/303711bf7f4af1bb74fdd6425db6899663c94a833d9d40511fc4c1d470ac04c0/files/bin/gimp
/var/lib/flatpak/app/org.gimp.GIMP/X86-64/stable/303711bf7f4af1bb74fdd6425db6899663c94a833d9d40511fc4c1d470ac04c0/files/lib/   about 5 possible paths from here
/var/lib/flatpak/app/org.gimp.GIMP/X86-64/stable/303711bf7f4af1bb74fdd6425db6899663c94a833d9d40511fc4c1d470ac04c0/files/share/   about 5 possible paths from here
/var/lib/flatpak/app/org.gimp.GIMP/X86-64/stable/303711bf7f4af1bb74fdd6425db6899663c94a833d9d40511fc4c1d470ac04c0/export/bin/org,gimp.GIMP
/var/lib/flatpak/app/org.gimp.GIMP/x86_64/stable/303711bf7f4af1bb74fdd6425db6899663c94a833d9d40511fc4c1d470ac04c0/export/share/applications/GNU Image Manipulation Program
/var/lib/flatpak/app/org.gimp.GIMP/x86_64/stable/active/export/bin/org.gimp.GIMP
/var/lib/flatpak/app/org.gimp.GIMP/x86_64/stable/active/export/share/applications/GNU Image Manipulation Program
/var/lib/flatpak/app/org.gimp.GIMP/x86_64/stable/active/files/bin/gimp-2.10
/var/lib/flatpak/app/org.gimp.GIMP/x86_64/stable/active/files/bin/gimp
/var/lib/flatpak/app/org.gimp.GIMP/x86_64/stable/active/files/lib about 5 possible paths from here
/var/lib/flatpak/app/org.gimp.GIMP/x86_64/stable/active/files/share about 5 possible paths from here
/var/lib/flatpak/app/org.gimp.GIMP/X86-64/current/303711bf7f4af1bb74fdd6425db6899663c94a833d9d40511fc4c1d470ac04c0/files/bin/gimp-2.10
/var/lib/flatpak/app/org.gimp.GIMP/X86-64/current/303711bf7f4af1bb74fdd6425db6899663c94a833d9d40511fc4c1d470ac04c0/files/bin/gimp
/var/lib/flatpak/app/org.gimp.GIMP/X86-64/current/303711bf7f4af1bb74fdd6425db6899663c94a833d9d40511fc4c1d470ac04c0/files/lib/   about 5 possible paths from here
/var/lib/flatpak/app/org.gimp.GIMP/X86-64/current/303711bf7f4af1bb74fdd6425db6899663c94a833d9d40511fc4c1d470ac04c0/files/share/   about 5 possible paths from here
/var/lib/flatpak/app/org.gimp.GIMP/X86-64/current/303711bf7f4af1bb74fdd6425db6899663c94a833d9d40511fc4c1d470ac04c0/export/bin/org,gimp.GIMP
/var/lib/flatpak/app/org.gimp.GIMP/x86_64/current/303711bf7f4af1bb74fdd6425db6899663c94a833d9d40511fc4c1d470ac04c0/export/share/applications/GNU Image Manipulation Program
/var/lib/flatpak/app/org.gimp.GIMP/x86_64/current/active/export/bin/org.gimp.GIMP
/var/lib/flatpak/app/org.gimp.GIMP/x86_64/current/active/export/share/applications/GNU Image Manipulation Program
/var/lib/flatpak/app/org.gimp.GIMP/x86_64/current/active/files/bin/gimp-2.10
/var/lib/flatpak/app/org.gimp.GIMP/x86_64/current/active/files/bin/gimp
/var/lib/flatpak/app/org.gimp.GIMP/x86_64/current/active/files/lib about 5 possible paths from here
/var/lib/flatpak/app/org.gimp.GIMP/x86_64/current/active/files/share about 5 possible paths from here

Then there is the tree like structure starting from /usr/lib  and /usr/share. I've run out of time to test these.

None of those locations tested to so far are valid, and this has taken many hours of work, leading me to conclude that it is not possible to invoke Gimp 2.10.28 (flatpak - the only available version now) from Scribus 2.5.7 . This seems like a defect - which is surprising to me given that both of these applications have existed for many years (admittedly, not in Flatpak form). The quicker, but much less efficient, way to solve this problem  is to temporarily stop work in Scribus, start GIMP and do the editing there, save the edited image file, then reload it into Scribus - then repeat as often as necessary to get the image adjusted as needed. Not very user friendly, is it?

[Nermander]

Thank for your continued help. I usually start any flatpak application from the Cinnamon menu, i.e. as a GUI application rather than using the command line (simply because, at my advanced age, I have time left only for using my PC to do work, not for trying to become an expert in how it works). The start menu icon for GIMP gives no information (that I can find) that shows what the invocation string is.

It should, because it is just a shortcut to the command.

You probably need to use the full path to flatpak. Issue the command "which flatpak" from the comment line to see the full path.

When you run a command from the command line the set PATH will be searched, but when running from Scribus the PATH is likely not set so you must use the full path to the command.