How to I revert back to an earlier version of Gimp -EXIF data problem with latest ver

[DuckHook]

If you are game for some complexity, you can always run older apps (or, at the other end of the scale, unstable bleeding edge development versions) by firing up a container and installing the app inside of that. Many use Docker. I use LXD. If interested in the latter, follow the instructions in my sig: Sandboxing Apps with LXD. The older GIMP version you want would be the default in an older Ubuntu version like 18.04.

ALERT: Winding road ahead.

I won't claim that containers are easy, but they are very versatile and don't drag in the bloat that any of the snap/flatpak/appimage technologies tend to do.

[jmichaels29]

To add to what @Dennis N said, to see all packages, you'd need three commands:

apt list --installed 'gimp*'  # Display all packages installed with DEB.
flatpak list | fgrep gimp     # Display all packages installed with flatpak.
snap list | fgrep gimp        # Display all packages installed with snap.

Alternatively, if you've followed the instructions that I referenced in my earlier post, you can just use Gnome Software Store to view all three types of packages.

michael@michael-HP-EliteDesk-800-G1-SFF:~$ apt list --installed 'gimp*'
Listing... Done
gimp-data/focal,focal,now 2.10.18-1 all [installed,automatic]
michael@michael-HP-EliteDesk-800-G1-SFF:~$ flatpak list | fgrep gimp
GNU Image Manipulation Program    org.gimp.GIMP    2.99.4    beta    flathub-beta    user
michael@michael-HP-EliteDesk-800-G1-SFF:~$ snap list | fgrep gimp 
michael@michael-HP-EliteDesk-800-G1-SFF:~$

I'm assuming the beta Gimp is installed through flatpak. Not sure what the "gimp-data"is that can be seen with Synaptic Package Manager - what would happen if I remove that?

[Dennis N]

I'm assuming the beta Gimp is installed through flatpak. Not sure what the "gimp-data"is that can be seen with Synaptic Package Manager - what would happen if I remove that?

gimp needs gimp-data to work (it called a dependency), so apt won't allow you to remove gimp-data without also removing gimp.

[jmichaels29]

gimp needs gimp-data to work (it called a dependency), so apt won't allow you to remove gimp-data without also removing gimp.

Thanks for your reply!

It's interesting that it's called "gimp-data/focal,focal,now 2.10.18-1"

The last stable version I had installed was version 2.10.20, and the beta version I have now is version 2.99.4

But the beta version still needs that data - interesting.

[deadflowr]

Thanks for your reply!

It's interesting that it's called "gimp-data/focal,focal,now 2.10.18-1"

The last stable version I had installed was version 2.10.20, and the beta version I have now is version 2.99.4

But the beta version still needs that data - interesting.

gimp-data would be leftover from the Ubuntu repository version of gimp that was installed.
Should be removable with

sudo apt autoremove

if that does not remove it you can simply run

sudo apt purge gimp-data

No flatpak-based package should ever need any apt-based package.
It would more or less break the entire concept of flatpaks.

[Paddy Landau]

@deadflowr is correct. You can remove gimp-data, because the flatpak version comes with its own dependencies, which are independent of the DEB (apt) versions. I have no DEB gimp apps installed. (I've used the snap version rather than the flatpak version, but the concept is the same.)

Once the stable gimp version has been updated without the bug, you can remove the flatpak version (as you can see, you have the flathub-beta installed) and install the stable version.

Remove the beta version:

flatpak uninstall org.gimp.GIMP

Install the stable version. You can use flatpak or snap, whichever you prefer (Ubuntu prefers snap, but you are free to disagree).
EITHER flatpak:

flatpak install flathub org.gimp.GIMP

OR snap:

snap install gimp

Be aware that when you uninstall, you might lose all your configuration options. Flatpak options are stored in this folder (note the dot before "var"):

~/.var/app/org.gimp.GIMP/config

I don't know if you can simply back up that folder before uninstalling, and restore it after installing the stable version.
EDIT: I've just realised that flatpak doesn't delete your configuration files, so you should find that your settings are retained after reinstalling.

[jmichaels29]

ok, thanks. I removed it with Synaptic and the beta version still runs fine - thanks!

[jmichaels29]

Thanks for all that info - will be very useful in the future!

[jmichaels29]

gimp-data would be leftover from the Ubuntu repository version of gimp that was installed.
Should be removable with

sudo apt autoremove

if that does remove it you can simply run

sudo apt purge gimp-data

No flatpak-based package should ever need any apt-based package.
It would more or less break the entire concept of flatpaks.

That sudo apt autoremove is a very useful command - just read about it!