GIMP 3.2.x not recognizing rawtherapee plugin

[cjsmall]

I've used Gimp 2.10 and 3.0.8 and both have recognized the rawtherapee plug-in.  However, neither version 3.2.0 or 3.2.2 recognize it, although the proper files seem to be there.

I installed the extracted AppImage for all 3.x versions.  Here is a find search in 3.0.8 and 3.2.2 directories:

3.0.8:
49-> ffind file-rawtherapee
./usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gimp/3.0/plug-ins/file-rawtherapee
./usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gimp/3.0/plug-ins/file-rawtherapee/file-rawtherapee

3.2.2:
75-> ffind file-rawtherapee
./usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gimp/3.0/plug-ins/file-rawtherapee
./usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gimp/3.0/plug-ins/file-rawtherapee/file-rawtherapee

So the plugin is there.  From withing the respective programs I open:

Preferences -> Image Import & Export: Plug-In

3.0.8:
${gimp_plug_in_dir}/plug-ins/file-darktable/file-darktaple
${gimp_plug_in_dir}/plug-ins/file-raw-placeholderr/file-raw-placeholder
${gimp_plug_in_dir}/plug-ins/file-raw-rawtherapee/file-rawtherapee

3.2.2:
${gimp_plug_in_dir}/plug-ins/file-darktable/file-darktaple
${gimp_plug_in_dir}/plug-ins/file-raw-placeholderr/file-raw-placeholder

So the plug-in isn't listed.  However, I see no way to manually add a new plug-in to the list.  I never manually added it to other versions of GIMP, it just worked.

Any suggestions as to how I get this listed, and why the 3.2 series isn't loading this or picking it up from the previous 3.0.8 configuration?

Thanks.

[sallyanne]

You need to add the path of Raw therapee to your preference folders.
The folders are at the bottom of the preference list.
After opening it go to Plugins. Add a folder. (on the top left should be a folder icon with a +, then add a file - when a window pops up go to Windows:C then programs then add the Raw Therapee folder.
This is in Windows 10 - I just tried it with 3.2  I hadn't opened any Raws with the new gimp yet, but had RT on my system.

[rich2005]

@cjsmall  This using a Mint 22 VM / Rawtherapee (RT) 5.10 (installed from repo)

It does not surprise me that the 3.2 appimage does not find the RT installation. An appimage is to a certain extent sandboxed.  The appimage will contain the two RAW plugins There is nothing that you can add if RT is not compatible.

   

You can run an appimage with the --verbose switch in a terminal and you can see the Gimp side is loaded.  As you found it does not show in Edit -> Preferences.

Depending on your linux - you might get a Gimp 3.2 from a PPA and that might work.  (..but not an Xubuntu 22.04 you were using in an earlier post.)

Same as your findings, a regular Gimp 3.0.6 (from PPA) install, works ok,  although seems painfully slow ransferring back to Gimp.

[rich2005]

@cjsmall

Fired up #1 laptop, Mint 22.3 / Gimp 3.2 (PPA) and RawTherapee 5.12 (PPA) and that is working fine.

[cjsmall]

I should have mentioned that I'm on Xubuntu 24.04.4.
All the AppImage Files are directly downloaded from the official GIMP website.

RawTherapee is version 5.10 installed from the standard package library and the binary is
/bin/rawtherapee.

When I look at the Preferences -> Folders -> Plug-ins page, both 3.0.8 and 3.2.2 both show the same relative plug-ins paths:

3.0.8
/u/jeff/.config/GIMP/3.0/plug-ins
/usr/local/bin/GIMP-3.0.8/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gimp/3.0/plug-ins

3.2.2
/u/jeff/.config/GIMP/3.2/plug-ins
/usr/local/bin/GIMP-3.2.2/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gimp/3.0/plug-ins

The plug-ins directory under .config is the same for 3.0 and 3.2.
The plug-ins directory under GIMP-3.0.8 and GIMP-3.2.2 both contain the same file-rawtherapee sub-directories.


For 3.2.2 I did try adding the explicit plug-ins folder directory:

/usr/local/bin/GIMP-3.2.2/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gimp/3.0/plug-ins/file-rawtherapee

And restarted GIMP.

However, this failed to load and display the entry:

${gimp_plug_in_dir}/plug-ins/file-raw-rawtherapee/file-rawtherapee

under Preferences -> Image Import & Export -> Raw Image Importer as it does for 3.0.8.

I looked at the respective files under ~/.config/GIMP/3.x and saw that there was an entry for:

(import-raw-plug-in "${gimp_plug_in_dir}/plug-ins/file-rawtherapee/file-rawtherapee")

in the 3.0 gimprc file which was missing from that under 3.2 so I copied it over. However, every time GIMP 3.2.2 starts, it overwrites this file with some default config (as noted below).

As rich2005 suggested, I started GIMP 3.2.2 with the --verbose switch and examined the output. Here are the lines related to rawtherapee:

Parsing '/u/jeff/.config/GIMP/3.2/pluginrc'
Querying plug-in: '/usr/local/bin/GIMP-3.2.2/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gimp/3.0/plug-ins/file-rawtherapee/file-rawtherapee'
Querying plug-in: '/usr/local/bin/GIMP-3.2.2/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gimp/3.0/plug-ins/file-another-rawtherapee/file-another-rawtherapee'
...
Initializing plug-in: '/usr/local/bin/GIMP-3.2.2/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gimp/3.0/plug-ins/file-rawtherapee/file-rawtherapee'
Initializing plug-in: '/usr/local/bin/GIMP-3.2.2/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gimp/3.0/plug-ins/file-another-rawtherapee/file-another-rawtherapee'
Writing '/u/jeff/.config/GIMP/3.2/pluginrc'

So what's up? It seems to see the rawtherapee plugin and initializes it, but then nothing when the program starts. The binary file-rawtherapee is identical under both 3.08 and 3.22.

I'm really puzzled by this one.

[rich2005]

Best guess, if you are using the appimage, not going to work, the appimage is sandboxed and does not find the RT installation.

[rich2005]

Well, I can get Gimp 3.2 and RT work together but....

I do dabble with appimages and have a "home-made" Gimp 3.2 appimage based on kubuntu 24.04   A bit of a monster, never got around to really thinning it down.  I can take the RT appimage from their site and merge it with my gimp appimage. That works, everything in the same "wrapper".

   

edit: just repacked that and the appimage file runs to 335 MB

Only for info: Not going to work with the gimp.org appimage which, while it is a wonderful piece of work, is based on a Debian "bookworm" and not compatible with very much apart from some plugins.

[GarzaW]

It looks like the issue is definitely with the AppImage architecture. As the admin pointed out, AppImages are somewhat sandboxed, so GIMP probably just can't see your system-wide RawTherapee installation even though the plugin itself is trying to initialize. Since the official GIMP AppImage is built on Debian Bookworm, it often runs into these kinds of compatibility snags with external binaries on other distros like your Xubuntu 24.04 setup.