gimp cannot load g'mic / gmic-qt port completely

[thomaslee101]

hi, I have installed gmic-qt 3.3.3 on MacBook Air using MacPort and i can't get it to load properly.

after MacPort installed the plugin, i added a new path to the /opt/local/bin folder in Gimp's "Plug-in Folders" settings. when i restart Gimp, Gimp will start "Querying new plugins" and get stuck at the "tests" executable. I have to force quit Gimp each time.

I tried to start Gimp in command line and it gets start at one of the plugins too: Querying plug-in: '/opt/local/bin/giffiltr'.

I have restarted my MacBook and Gimp several times but to no avail.

here are my specs and error messages. thanks.

macOS: Sonoma 14.1 (23B74)

GIMP: 2.10.36

gmic-qt: 3.3.3

error message: see attached

[ryandesign (Ryan Carsten Schmidt)]

I see you're using a non-MacPorts installation of GIMP. Not sure if that's relevant just pointing it out since others might assume you had installed it with MacPorts.

Does the problem go away if you deactivate gmic-qt?

/opt/local/bin/giffiltr is provided by giflib, not gmic-qt. But I'm not sure whether GIMP prints the name of the thing before or after it tries to use it. It could be that giffiltr was the last plugin it loaded successfully and it's getting stuck at whatever the next one is.

I'm surprised to see gifflitr referred to as a GIMP plugin. It's not; it's a command-line program. I also noticed that when I tried to run giffiltr to see what it does, it doesn't do anything; it hangs, waiting for input. If GIMP is trying to call giffiltr without any input, it would hang there too.

This may lead to the conclusion that giffiltr should not be accessed by GIMP as a plugin, and in turn that /opt/local/bin is not the correct directory to tell GIMP to look for plugins in.

gmic-qt is, as far as I know, a standalone program using the Qt interface, not a GIMP plugin. The port you probably want to install instead is gmic-gimp. It installs into the directory /opt/local/lib/gimp/2.0/plug-ins. That may be the correct directory to tell GIMP to use as a plugin directory.

[thomaslee101]

thanks for the quick reply! i followed your instructions and it worked! turns out i should have downloaded the gmic-gimp port instead! in case anyone is interested, here are the complete steps that i used to install gmic

1. install macport
2. install Xquartz (?) (i already have Xquartz preinstalled. previous version of gmic for mac needed Xquartz, not sure if the current version of gmic for MAC needs this as well)
3. install gmic-gimp.
   ​https://ports.macports.org/port/gmic-gimp/
4. add path to plugins in GIMP under GIMP -> Settings -> Folders -> Plug-ins
   /opt/local/lib/gimp/2.0/plug-ins
   optional: move this folder to the 1st line using the ^ button.
5. restart GIMP

[ryandesign (Ryan Carsten Schmidt)]

Great, glad that worked. And note that instead of installing the standalone XQuartz package, you could install the xorg-server port with MacPorts which is the same software.