After update to Ubuntu 26.04 LTS, GIMP hangs when started

frisbie · June 14, 2026, 10:33pm

Ubuntu Version: 26.04 LTS
Desktop Environment: GNOME
Application involved: GNU Image Manipulation Program version 3.2.2

Problem Description:

After update to Ubuntu 26.04 LTS from 24.04 LTS, GIMP hangs when started via the
graphical interface. It hangs during Initialization at “Babl Fishes”.
The spash message screen eventually (about a minute) disappears.
Under the previous version(s) I never had any such problems.
I have not found any mention of this problem in any forum.
(Please be gentle, I am a newcomer to this forum. I’m elderly and certainly not a Linux expert.)

If I start gimp from a command prompt, these are the messages:

alan@Slop:~$ gimp
set device ‘Wayland Pointer’ to mode: disabled
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gimp/3.0/plug-ins/script-fu/script-fu: fatal error: GIMP crashed
(script-fu:157292): LibGimp-WARNING **: 14:16:47.729: script-fu: gimp_flush(): error: Broken pipe
Segmentation fault (core dumped) gimp
alan@Slop:~$

If started using sudo at a command prompt, GIMP works normally,
but the exported files are now owned by root:root, and I have
to use chown to set them to my account ownership. The command
prompt messages when starting GIMP with sudo are:

alan@Slop:~$ sudo gimp
[sudo: authenticate] Password:
set device ‘xwayland-relative-pointer:16’ to mode: disabled
set device ‘Virtual core XTEST pointer’ to mode: disabled
set device ‘xwayland-pointer:16’ to mode: disabled
set device ‘xwayland-pointer-gestures:16’ to mode: disabled
alan@Slop:~$

There is an obvious difference here, but I don’t know how to interpret what I am seeing, nor have any idea what to do to solve this problem. I would appreciate any help you can give me.

ericmarceau · June 15, 2026, 2:50am

I may be misinterpreting that, but it might be an indicator that GIMP doesn’t work properly under a “pure Wayland” configuration, and you may need to configure the “X on Wayland” modules so that the X-Window elements of GIMP can still function properly. Having said that, the message could also be an indication of a bug relating to the handling of your mouse, by Wayland, again because of GIMP code that might not have been properly handled. I am not an expert on that, since I have stayed away from any Wayland until it all gets sorted out.

I use GIMP myself, but rate myself as beginner, less knowledgable than a novice.

However, with an IT career under my belt (now retired), and reviewing the man page, I offer these recommendations:

Never use sudo for End-User tools, like GIMP; that can permanently “screw-up” your ability to use it as a regular user, forcing repair work of the system before re-trying as a regular User.
…
Since you have used sudo, if you don’t have special configuration customization, I recommend purging the contents of ~/.config/GIMP before your next attempt as a regular User. GIMP should re-create what it needs at your first session start.
Immediately after performing that cleanup, try the following at the command line to see if it can provide any additional messages on your startup terminal:

gimp  --verbose  --console-messages  --debug-handlers  --stack-trace-mode always

If what is reported on the terminal, when you encounter your previous issue, does not give you any more useful or expanded hints, you will need to scan the syslog for any messaging related to GIMP. For that, you need to use one of the following commands:

sudo  grep -i gimp  /var/log/syslog

or

sudo  journalctl | grep -i gimp

I hope those help you with getting more hints that the “experts” can give you specific guidance for.

To connect with GIMP-specific forums, you have these two options:

tea-for-one · June 15, 2026, 8:36am

Try fixing (regenerating) the font cache

Open a terminal and enter

fc-cache -f -v

peterwhite23 · June 15, 2026, 9:08am

I would also purge any leftovers in $HOME/.cache/gimp/ (technically, it’s ${XDG_CACHE_HOME:-$HOME/.cache}/gimp/, if one has customized the cache location):

rm -r ${XDG_CACHE_HOME:-$HOME/.cache}/gimp/

It might also help to purge gimp entirely to then reinstall it afresh, because you did a premature release upgrade on the LTS path, which is still not officially open; perhaps something didn’t get migrated properly — there was a major version change from 2.10 to 3.2:

sudo apt purge gimp && sudo apt install gimp

That will destroy any system-wide configuration changes of yours, so you should make a backup of those too, if you want to keep them.

FYI, those are just fancy ways of doing this :

journalctl --grep gimp

(no sudo)

Everything goes through the journal first, so legacy locations like /var/log/syslog are just that, legacy.

tea-for-one · June 15, 2026, 9:39am

Gimp 3.2 did not crash, for me, directly after a fresh install of Ubuntu 26.04 (Wayland only) in April 2026.

I hadn’t used it for approx 10 days, but it crashed yesterday 14 June 2026 with the same description as the OP. Some package update triggered the crash and regeneration of the font cache fixed it.

peterwhite23 · June 15, 2026, 10:36am

IOW:

rm -r ${XDG_CACHE_HOME:-$HOME/.cache}/fontconfig

?

frisbie · June 15, 2026, 4:05pm

Sadly, none of the suggestions so far have fixed the problem.
I will post the details when I get home this afternoon.
Thanks to everyone who is helping me with this, I really appreciate it.

frisbie · June 16, 2026, 3:21am

It’s a bit later than I promised but here is what I have done so far.

As peterwhite23 suggested, purged the gimp and font cache:
rm -r .cache/gimp/
rm -r .cache/fontconfig

As tea-for-one suggested, fixed/regenerated the font cache:
fc-cache -f -v

All this succeeded with no error messages.

Then I purged gimp and reinstalled it:
sudo apt purge gimp && sudo apt install gimp

Because there might be a clue here I’ll include the terminal log:

====================== Start log of removing & reinstalling gimp ==============

alan@Slop:~$ sudo apt purge gimp && sudo apt install gimp
[sudo: authenticate] Password:
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
dkms gir1.2-gimp-3.0 libccolamd3 libclutter-gst-3.0-0 libfuse2t64 libglx-mesa0:i386 liblapack3 libvulkan1:i386 screen-resolution-extra
endeavour graphviz libcdt6 libclutter-gtk-1.0-0 libgegl-0.4-0t64 libglx0:i386 libmng2 libxcb-glx0:i386
endeavour-common gstreamer1.0-clutter-3.0 libcfitsio10t64 libcogl-common libgegl-common libgvc7 libmypaint-1.5-1 libxdot4
gimp-data libamd3 libcgraph8 libcogl-pango20 libgfortran5 libgvplugin-gd8 libmypaint-common mesa-vulkan-drivers:i386
gir1.2-babl-0.1 libbabl-0.1-0 libcholmod5 libcogl-path20 libgimp-3.0-0 libgvplugin-pango8 libnvidia-egl-wayland1 nvidia-prime
gir1.2-gegl-0.4 libcamd3 libclutter-1.0-0 libcogl20 libgl1:i386 libgvpr2 libpathplan4 nvidia-settings
gir1.2-gexiv2-0.10 libcanberra-gtk3-0t64 libclutter-1.0-common libdisplay-info3:i386 libgl1-mesa-dri:i386 libiw30t64 libumfpack6 pkg-config
Use ‘sudo apt autoremove’ to remove them.

REMOVING:
gimp*

Summary:
Upgrading: 0, Installing: 0, Removing: 1, Not Upgrading: 12
Freed space: 33.7 MB

Continue? [Y/n] Y
(Reading database… 285142 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing gimp (3.2.2-1)…
dpkg: warning: while removing gimp, directory ‘/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gimp/3.0/plug-ins/python-console’ not empty so not removed
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.28-1build1)…
Processing triggers for gnome-menus (3.38.1-1ubuntu1)…
Processing triggers for man-db (2.13.1-1build1)…
Processing triggers for bamfdaemon (0.5.6+22.04.20220217-0ubuntu6)…
Rebuilding /usr/share/applications/bamf-2.index…
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
dkms libcanberra-gtk3-0t64 libclutter-gtk-1.0-0 libcogl20 libgl1-mesa-dri:i386 libnvidia-egl-wayland1 nvidia-prime
endeavour libclutter-1.0-0 libcogl-common libdisplay-info3:i386 libglx-mesa0:i386 libvulkan1:i386 nvidia-settings
endeavour-common libclutter-1.0-common libcogl-pango20 libfuse2t64 libglx0:i386 libxcb-glx0:i386 pkg-config
gstreamer1.0-clutter-3.0 libclutter-gst-3.0-0 libcogl-path20 libgl1:i386 libiw30t64 mesa-vulkan-drivers:i386 screen-resolution-extra
Use ‘sudo apt autoremove’ to remove them.

Installing:
gimp

Suggested packages:
gimp-data-extras gimp-help-en | gimp-help

Summary:
Upgrading: 0, Installing: 1, Removing: 0, Not Upgrading: 12
Download size: 7,352 kB
Space needed: 33.7 MB / 73.4 GB available

Get:1 Index of /ubuntu resolute/universe amd64 gimp amd64 3.2.2-1 [7,352 kB]
Fetched 7,352 kB in 1s (6,631 kB/s)
Selecting previously unselected package gimp.
(Reading database… 284579 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack …/gimp_3.2.2-1_amd64.deb…
Unpacking gimp (3.2.2-1)…
Setting up gimp (3.2.2-1)…
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.28-1build1)…
Processing triggers for gnome-menus (3.38.1-1ubuntu1)…
Processing triggers for man-db (2.13.1-1build1)…
Processing triggers for bamfdaemon (0.5.6+22.04.20220217-0ubuntu6)…
Rebuilding /usr/share/applications/bamf-2.index…
alan@Slop:~$

====================== End log of removing & reinstalling gimp ==============

Although I did this all this morning, I just did it again to get a clean log.

Then I started gimp from the command line with all the switches suggested by ericmarceau:
gimp --verbose --console-messages --debug-handlers --stack-trace-mode always

================ Start log of starting gimp ==============
alan@Slop:~$ gimp --verbose --console-messages --debug-handlers --stack-trace-mode always
Parsing ‘/etc/gimp/3.0/gimprc’ for configuration data required during early initialization.
Parsing ‘/home/alan/.config/GIMP/3.2/gimprc’ for configuration data required during early initialization.
No language property found.
INIT: gimp_load_config
Parsing ‘/home/alan/.config/GIMP/3.2/unitrc’
Parsing ‘/etc/gimp/3.0/gimprc’
Parsing ‘/home/alan/.config/GIMP/3.2/gimprc’
Adding icon theme ‘Default’ (/usr/share/gimp/3.0/icons/Default)
Adding icon theme ‘Legacy’ (/usr/share/gimp/3.0/icons/Legacy)
Loading icon theme ‘Default’
Adding theme ‘Default’ (/usr/share/gimp/3.0/themes/Default)
Adding theme ‘System’ (/usr/share/gimp/3.0/themes/System)
Writing ‘/home/alan/.config/GIMP/3.2/theme.css’
Parsing ‘/home/alan/.config/GIMP/3.2/theme.css’
Trying splash ‘/home/alan/.config/GIMP/3.2/gimp-splash.png’ … failed
Trying splash ‘/usr/share/gimp/3.0/images/gimp-splash.png’ … OK
INIT: gimp_initialize
INIT: gimp_real_initialize
Parsing ‘/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gimp/3.0/interpreters/default.interp’
Parsing ‘/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gimp/3.0/environ/default.env’
INIT: gui_initialize_after_callback
INIT: gimp_restore
Parsing ‘/home/alan/.config/GIMP/3.2/parasiterc’
Loading ‘brush factory’ data
Loading /usr/share/gimp/3.0/brushes/Basic/1-pixel.vbr
Loading /usr/share/gimp/3.0/brushes/Basic/Block-01.vbr
Loading /usr/share/gimp/3.0/brushes/Basic/Block-02.vbr

< Many lines skipped. Let me know if you want me to post them. >

Querying plug-in: ‘/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gimp/3.0/plug-ins/animation-play/animation-play’
Querying plug-in: ‘/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gimp/3.0/plug-ins/animation-optimize/animation-optimize’
Querying plug-in: ‘/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gimp/3.0/plug-ins/align-layers/align-layers’
Querying plug-in: ‘/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gimp/3.0/extensions/org.gimp.extension.goat-exercises/goat-exercise-py3.py’
Querying plug-in: ‘/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gimp/3.0/extensions/org.gimp.extension.goat-exercises/goat-exercise-vala’
Querying plug-in: ‘/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gimp/3.0/extensions/org.gimp.extension.goat-exercises/goat-exercise-c’
Initializing plug-in: ‘/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gimp/3.0/plug-ins/mail/mail’
Initializing plug-in: ‘/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gimp/3.0/plug-ins/file-rawtherapee/file-rawtherapee’
Initializing plug-in: ‘/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gimp/3.0/plug-ins/file-heif/file-heif’
Initializing plug-in: ‘/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gimp/3.0/plug-ins/file-darktable/file-darktable’
Initializing plug-in: ‘/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gimp/3.0/plug-ins/file-another-rawtherapee/file-another-rawtherapee’
Writing ‘/home/alan/.config/GIMP/3.2/pluginrc’
Starting extension: ‘extension-script-fu’
INIT: gui_restore_after_callback
Parsing ‘/home/alan/.config/GIMP/3.2/shortcutsrc’
Parsing ‘/home/alan/.config/GIMP/3.2/action-history’
Parsing ‘/home/alan/.config/GIMP/3.2/devicerc’
Parsing ‘/home/alan/.config/GIMP/3.2/controllerrc’
Loading menu ‘/usr/share/gimp/3.0/menus/image-menu.ui’ for /image-menubar
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gimp/3.0/plug-ins/script-fu/script-fu: fatal error: GIMP crashed

(script-fu:238390): LibGimp-WARNING **: 20:05:02.863: script-fu: gimp_flush(): error: Broken pipe
Segmentation fault (core dumped) gimp --verbose --console-messages --debug-handlers --stack-trace-mode always
alan@Slop:~$
================ End log of starting gimp ==============

Finally, here is the relevant part of syslog:

alan@Slop:~$ sudo grep -i gimp /var/log/syslog
2026-06-15T19:40:43.904245-07:00 Slop whoopsie-upload-all[233725]: INFO:root:/var/crash/_usr_bin_gimp-3.2.1000.crash already marked for upload, skipping
2026-06-15T19:40:43.945466-07:00 Slop whoopsie[233839]: [19:40:43] Found .crash corresponding to .upload (/var/crash/_usr_bin_gimp-3.2.1000.crash)
alan@Slop:~$

Actionparsnip · June 16, 2026, 8:58am

Could try resetting config to defaults and running it

# Rename your configuration directory to start fresh
mv ~/.config/GIMP/3.2 ~/.config/GIMP/3.2.bak

# If you have a cache folder for GIMP, clear it as well
mv ~/.cache/gimp ~/.cache/gimp.bak

Then launch the application as normal. Your settings will be lost and you will get settings as if you’d first ran it on the system but if it runs, then we know the config was the issue. You can easily rename back if nothing is gained.

If it does work then you can rebuild settings as you need

HTH

peterwhite23 · June 16, 2026, 1:49pm

Can you please edit your post and use pre-formatted text / code blocks for the console/log output? Use the </> button. It’s really hard to read and follow what’s going on in its current state.

frisbie · June 16, 2026, 5:14pm

Actionparsnip:

Could try resetting config to defaults and running it

# Rename your configuration directory to start fresh
mv ~/.config/GIMP/3.2 ~/.config/GIMP/3.2.bak

# If you have a cache folder for GIMP, clear it as well
mv ~/.cache/gimp ~/.cache/gimp.bak

Thanks for the suggestion but it did not change the behavior at all.

As ericmarceau suggested, I have also posted this problem to the gimp discord but all they have suggested so far is to contact Ubuntu.

I’m sorry about the formatting, I’m new to this forum and didn’t know how to properly do it.

Since the original has scrolled off my terminal window, I’ll just do everything again and try to post it properly.

alan@Slop:~$ 
alan@Slop:~$  rm -r .cache/gimp/
alan@Slop:~$  rm -r .cache/fontconfig
alan@Slop:~$  fc-cache -f -v
Font directories:
	/home/alan/.local/share/fonts
	/usr/share/ubuntu/fonts
	/usr/share/gnome/fonts
	/home/alan/.local/share/flatpak/exports/share/fonts
	/var/lib/flatpak/exports/share/fonts
	
< Many log lines deleted. >

/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ubuntu: skipping, looped directory detected
/usr/share/fonts/type1/gsfonts: skipping, looped directory detected
/usr/share/fonts/type1/urw-base35: skipping, looped directory detected
/usr/share/fonts/X11/encodings/large: skipping, looped directory detected
/var/cache/fontconfig: not cleaning unwritable cache directory
/home/alan/.cache/fontconfig: cleaning cache directory
/home/alan/.fontconfig: cleaning cache directory
fc-cache: succeeded
alan@Slop:~$ 
alan@Slop:~$ 
alan@Slop:~$ 
alan@Slop:~$ 
alan@Slop:~$  sudo apt purge gimp && sudo apt install gimp
[sudo: authenticate] Password:           
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  dkms                gstreamer1.0-clutter-3.0  libcholmod5            libdisplay-info3:i386  libglx0:i386        libmypaint-common         nvidia-settings
  endeavour           libamd3                   libclutter-1.0-0       libfuse2t64            libgvc7             libnvidia-egl-wayland1    pkg-config
  endeavour-common    libbabl-0.1-0             libclutter-1.0-common  libgegl-0.4-0t64       libgvplugin-gd8     libpathplan4              screen-resolution-extra
  gimp-data           libcamd3                  libclutter-gst-3.0-0   libgegl-common         libgvplugin-pango8  libumfpack6
  gir1.2-babl-0.1     libcanberra-gtk3-0t64     libclutter-gtk-1.0-0   libgfortran5           libgvpr2            libvulkan1:i386
  gir1.2-gegl-0.4     libccolamd3               libcogl-common         libgimp-3.0-0          libiw30t64          libxcb-glx0:i386
  gir1.2-gexiv2-0.10  libcdt6                   libcogl-pango20        libgl1:i386            liblapack3          libxdot4
  gir1.2-gimp-3.0     libcfitsio10t64           libcogl-path20         libgl1-mesa-dri:i386   libmng2             mesa-vulkan-drivers:i386
  graphviz            libcgraph8                libcogl20              libglx-mesa0:i386      libmypaint-1.5-1    nvidia-prime
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them.

REMOVING:
  gimp*

Summary:
  Upgrading: 0, Installing: 0, Removing: 1, Not Upgrading: 1
  Freed space: 33.7 MB

Continue? [Y/n] Y
(Reading database… 285142 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing gimp (3.2.2-1)…
dpkg: warning: while removing gimp, directory '/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gimp/3.0/plug-ins/python-console' not empty so not removed
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.28-1build1)…
Processing triggers for gnome-menus (3.38.1-1ubuntu1)…
Processing triggers for man-db (2.13.1-1build1)…
Processing triggers for bamfdaemon (0.5.6+22.04.20220217-0ubuntu6)…
Rebuilding /usr/share/applications/bamf-2.index...
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  dkms                      libcanberra-gtk3-0t64  libclutter-gtk-1.0-0  libcogl20              libgl1-mesa-dri:i386  libnvidia-egl-wayland1    nvidia-prime
  endeavour                 libclutter-1.0-0       libcogl-common        libdisplay-info3:i386  libglx-mesa0:i386     libvulkan1:i386           nvidia-settings
  endeavour-common          libclutter-1.0-common  libcogl-pango20       libfuse2t64            libglx0:i386          libxcb-glx0:i386          pkg-config
  gstreamer1.0-clutter-3.0  libclutter-gst-3.0-0   libcogl-path20        libgl1:i386            libiw30t64            mesa-vulkan-drivers:i386  screen-resolution-extra
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them.

Installing:
  gimp

Suggested packages:
  gimp-data-extras  gimp-help-en  | gimp-help

Summary:
  Upgrading: 0, Installing: 1, Removing: 0, Not Upgrading: 1
  Download size: 7,352 kB
  Space needed: 33.7 MB / 73.4 GB available

Get:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu resolute/universe amd64 gimp amd64 3.2.2-1 [7,352 kB]
Fetched 7,352 kB in 1s (6,443 kB/s)
Selecting previously unselected package gimp.
(Reading database… 284579 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack …/gimp_3.2.2-1_amd64.deb…
Unpacking gimp (3.2.2-1)…
Setting up gimp (3.2.2-1)…
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.28-1build1)…
Processing triggers for gnome-menus (3.38.1-1ubuntu1)…
Processing triggers for man-db (2.13.1-1build1)…
Processing triggers for bamfdaemon (0.5.6+22.04.20220217-0ubuntu6)…
Rebuilding /usr/share/applications/bamf-2.index...
alan@Slop:~$ 
alan@Slop:~$ 


alan@Slop:~$  gimp --verbose --console-messages --debug-handlers --stack-trace-mode always
Parsing '/etc/gimp/3.0/gimprc' for configuration data required during early initialization.
Parsing '/home/alan/.config/GIMP/3.2/gimprc' for configuration data required during early initialization.
No language property found.
INIT: gimp_load_config
Parsing '/home/alan/.config/GIMP/3.2/unitrc'
Parsing '/etc/gimp/3.0/gimprc'
Parsing '/home/alan/.config/GIMP/3.2/gimprc'
Adding icon theme 'Default' (/usr/share/gimp/3.0/icons/Default)
Adding icon theme 'Legacy' (/usr/share/gimp/3.0/icons/Legacy)
Loading icon theme 'Default'
Adding theme 'Default' (/usr/share/gimp/3.0/themes/Default)
Adding theme 'System' (/usr/share/gimp/3.0/themes/System)
Writing '/home/alan/.config/GIMP/3.2/theme.css'
Parsing '/home/alan/.config/GIMP/3.2/theme.css'
Trying splash '/home/alan/.config/GIMP/3.2/gimp-splash.png' ... failed
Trying splash '/usr/share/gimp/3.0/images/gimp-splash.png' ... OK
INIT: gimp_initialize
INIT: gimp_real_initialize
Parsing '/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gimp/3.0/interpreters/default.interp'
Parsing '/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gimp/3.0/environ/default.env'
INIT: gui_initialize_after_callback
INIT: gimp_restore
Parsing '/home/alan/.config/GIMP/3.2/parasiterc'
Loading 'brush factory' data
  Loading /usr/share/gimp/3.0/brushes/Basic/1-pixel.vbr
  Loading /usr/share/gimp/3.0/brushes/Basic/Block-01.vbr

< Many similar lines deleted. >

  Loading /usr/share/gimp/3.0/brushes/Texture/Vegetation-01.gbr
  Loading /usr/share/gimp/3.0/brushes/Texture/Vegetation-02.gih
Loading 'dynamics factory' data
  Loading /usr/share/gimp/3.0/dynamics/Basic/Basic-Simple.gdyn
  Loading /usr/share/gimp/3.0/dynamics/Basic/Dynamics-Random.gdyn

< Many similar lines deleted. >

  Loading /usr/share/gimp/3.0/dynamics/Track-Direction.gdyn
  Loading /usr/share/gimp/3.0/dynamics/Velocity-Tapering.gdyn
Loading 'mypaint brush factory' data
Loading 'pattern factory' data
  Loading /usr/share/gimp/3.0/patterns/Animal/leather.pat
  Loading /usr/share/gimp/3.0/patterns/Animal/leopard.pat

< Many similar lines deleted. >

  Loading /usr/share/gimp/3.0/patterns/Wood/wood4.pat
  Loading /usr/share/gimp/3.0/patterns/Wood/wood5.pat
Loading 'palette factory' data
  Loading /usr/share/gimp/3.0/palettes/Bears.gpl
  Loading /usr/share/gimp/3.0/palettes/Bgold.gpl

< Many similar lines deleted. >

  Loading /usr/share/gimp/3.0/palettes/Warm_Colors.gpl
  Loading /usr/share/gimp/3.0/palettes/Web.gpl
Loading 'gradient factory' data
  Loading /usr/share/gimp/3.0/gradients/Abstract_1.ggr
  Loading /usr/share/gimp/3.0/gradients/Abstract_2.ggr

< Many similar lines deleted. >

  Loading /usr/share/gimp/3.0/gradients/gimp-obsolete-files/Romanian_flag.ggr
  Loading /usr/share/gimp/3.0/gradients/gimp-obsolete-files/Romanian_flag_smooth.ggr
Parsing '/home/alan/.config/GIMP/3.2/colorrc'
Loading 'font factory' data
Loading fonts
Loading 'tool preset factory' data
  Loading /usr/share/gimp/3.0/tool-presets/Crop/16_10.gtp
  Loading /usr/share/gimp/3.0/tool-presets/Crop/16_9.gtp
  
  < Many similar lines deleted. >
  
  Loading /usr/share/gimp/3.0/tool-presets/Sketch/Pencil-Soft.gtp
  Loading /usr/share/gimp/3.0/tool-presets/Sketch/Pencil.gtp
Parsing '/home/alan/.config/GIMP/3.2/templaterc'
Parsing '/home/alan/.config/GIMP/3.2/modulerc'
Loading module '/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gimp/3.0/modules/libcolor-selector-cmyk.so'
Unloading module '/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gimp/3.0/modules/libcolor-selector-cmyk.so'

< Many similar lines deleted. >

Loading module '/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gimp/3.0/modules/libdisplay-filter-high-contrast.so'
Unloading module '/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gimp/3.0/modules/libdisplay-filter-high-contrast.so'
INIT: gui_restore_callback
clipboard: writable pixbuf format: image/png
clipboard: writable pixbuf format: image/jxl

< Many similar lines deleted. >

clipboard: writable pixbuf format: image/jpeg
set device 'Wayland Pointer' to mode: disabled
Parsing '/home/alan/.config/GIMP/3.2/modifiersrc'
Parsing '/home/alan/.config/GIMP/3.2/sessionrc'

< Many similar lines deleted. >

Parsing '/home/alan/.config/GIMP/3.2/tool-options/gimp-gegl-tool'
Parsing '/home/alan/.config/GIMP/3.2/tool-options/gimp-operation-tool'
INIT: gimp_real_restore
Parsing '/home/alan/.config/GIMP/3.2/pluginrc'
Querying plug-in: '/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gimp/3.0/plug-ins/web-browser/web-browser'
Querying plug-in: '/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gimp/3.0/plug-ins/wavelet-decompose/wavelet-decompose'

< Many similar lines deleted. >

Querying plug-in: '/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gimp/3.0/extensions/org.gimp.extension.goat-exercises/goat-exercise-vala'
Querying plug-in: '/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gimp/3.0/extensions/org.gimp.extension.goat-exercises/goat-exercise-c'
Initializing plug-in: '/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gimp/3.0/plug-ins/mail/mail'
Initializing plug-in: '/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gimp/3.0/plug-ins/file-rawtherapee/file-rawtherapee'
Initializing plug-in: '/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gimp/3.0/plug-ins/file-heif/file-heif'
Initializing plug-in: '/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gimp/3.0/plug-ins/file-darktable/file-darktable'
Initializing plug-in: '/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gimp/3.0/plug-ins/file-another-rawtherapee/file-another-rawtherapee'
Writing '/home/alan/.config/GIMP/3.2/pluginrc'
Starting extension: 'extension-script-fu'
INIT: gui_restore_after_callback
Parsing '/home/alan/.config/GIMP/3.2/shortcutsrc'
Parsing '/home/alan/.config/GIMP/3.2/action-history'
Parsing '/home/alan/.config/GIMP/3.2/devicerc'
Parsing '/home/alan/.config/GIMP/3.2/controllerrc'
Loading menu '/usr/share/gimp/3.0/menus/image-menu.ui' for /image-menubar
< There was an approximately 50 second pause here. >
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gimp/3.0/plug-ins/script-fu/script-fu: fatal error: GIMP crashed
Segmentation fault         (core dumped) gimp --verbose --console-messages --debug-handlers --stack-trace-mode always
alan@Slop:~$ 


alan@Slop:~$ sudo  grep -i gimp  /var/log/syslog
[sudo: authenticate] Password:
< Unrelated log lines deleted. >
2026-06-16T09:43:28.060220-07:00 Slop whoopsie[60057]: [09:43:28] Found .crash corresponding to .upload (/var/crash/_usr_bin_gimp-3.2.1000.crash)
2026-06-16T09:43:28.177001-07:00 Slop whoopsie[60070]: [09:43:28] Found .crash corresponding to .upload (/var/crash/_usr_bin_gimp-3.2.1000.crash)
2026-06-16T09:43:54.117506-07:00 Slop whoopsie[60081]: [09:43:54] Found .crash corresponding to .upload (/var/crash/_usr_bin_gimp-3.2.1000.crash)
2026-06-16T09:43:54.919902-07:00 Slop whoopsie-upload-all[60080]: INFO:root:Collecting info for /var/crash/_usr_bin_gimp-3.2.1000.crash...
2026-06-16T09:44:08.584173-07:00 Slop whoopsie-upload-all[60080]: INFO:root:Marking /var/crash/_usr_bin_gimp-3.2.1000.crash for whoopsie upload
2026-06-16T09:44:08.595498-07:00 Slop whoopsie-upload-all[60080]: INFO:root:  missing (remaining: 20 s): /var/crash/_usr_bin_gimp-3.2.1000.uploaded
2026-06-16T09:44:08.619267-07:00 Slop whoopsie[60516]: [09:44:08] Found .crash corresponding to .upload (/var/crash/_usr_bin_gimp-3.2.1000.crash)
2026-06-16T09:44:08.619288-07:00 Slop whoopsie[60516]: [09:44:08] Parsing /var/crash/_usr_bin_gimp-3.2.1000.crash.
2026-06-16T09:44:09.059723-07:00 Slop whoopsie[60516]: [09:44:09] Uploading /var/crash/_usr_bin_gimp-3.2.1000.crash.
2026-06-16T09:44:18.597336-07:00 Slop whoopsie-upload-all[60080]: INFO:root:  missing (remaining: 10 s): /var/crash/_usr_bin_gimp-3.2.1000.uploaded
2026-06-16T09:44:28.597899-07:00 Slop whoopsie-upload-all[60080]: INFO:root:  missing (remaining: 0 s): /var/crash/_usr_bin_gimp-3.2.1000.uploaded
2026-06-16T09:44:41.588922-07:00 Slop whoopsie-upload-all[60549]: INFO:root:/var/crash/_usr_bin_gimp-3.2.1000.crash already marked for upload, skipping
2026-06-16T09:44:41.629113-07:00 Slop whoopsie[60552]: [09:44:41] Found .crash corresponding to .upload (/var/crash/_usr_bin_gimp-3.2.1000.crash)
alan@Slop:~$

peterwhite23 · June 16, 2026, 5:55pm

Maybe that was not quite the right command line, because it left the dependencies installed; my bad. Try purging everything related to GIMP:

sudo apt purge --autoremove gimp
sudo apt purge '?config-files'

That last command is to make extra sure there are no leftover system-wide config files.

I happened to spot a segmentation fault (core dumped), and the crash reports have already been uploaded according to your syslog search, so Canonical does already know that at least one instance of GIMP is crashing.

I do remember, however, that I had similar issues on my last release upgrade from 22.04 to 24.04 LTS — not with GIMP specifically, though. The ultimate cause were stale shared libraries in /usr/local, so, if you have any locally compiled libs, should possibly check if the linker picks them instead of the distro versions:

ldd $(which gimp)

peterwhite23 · June 17, 2026, 5:33am

Oh, I just remembered that there is also an official Snap from upstream. You could give that a try. It’s even more shinier than the DEB version by exactly .2 of a minor version.

frisbie · June 20, 2026, 10:28pm

Yay, it is working again, thanks to your help!

Per your suggestions, I performed the following:

alan@Slop:~$ sudo apt purge --autoremove gimp
alan@Slop:~$ sudo apt purge '?config-files'
alan@Slop:~$ sudo snap install gimp

The installed version is now 3.2.4.

Now, I can click on the gimp icon and it runs OK. I tested it by re-scaling a JPG, which is what I do a lot of. Now I just have to get it configured and figure out what has changed since the previous version.

The only oddity is that I can no longer start it from the command line, not that I ever do that in normal operation:

alan@Slop:~$ gimp 
bash: /usr/bin/gimp: No such file or directory 
alan@Slop:~$

This isn’t a real problem, but if someone could educate me on the reason for this, I would appreciate it.

Again, thanks to everyone who responded to this, even if the initial suggestions didn’t help. Your effort is very much appreciated.

ericmarceau · June 21, 2026, 3:15am

You will need to add /snap/bin to your PATH for the system to locate any SNAP-based command.

If you look at the properties for the “launcher” you use for GIMP, it likely shows the path to be

/snap/bin/gimp

peterwhite23 · June 21, 2026, 8:26am

Hmm, if all you do is scaling, you might also want to have a look at simpler solutions; I find GIMP quite a heavy gun for something that can be done by a simple shell command line like this:

convert <input> -geometry <size> <output>

The great benefit being that one can do that in batches.

All you need for that is:

sudo apt install graphicsmagick

or

sudo apt install imagemagick

I tend to prefer the former.

system · June 22, 2026, 2:27am

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