How to Install GIMP 2.99.2 (Dev for GIMP 3.0) in Ubuntu 20.04

GIMP 2.99.2, the first development release for the next major GIMP 3.0, now is available to install for testing purpose.

What’s New in GIMP 2.99.2:

GTK+3 user interface
Native Wayland and HiDPI support.
Major refactoring and cleanup
New plug-in API
Plugins now possible with Python 3, JavaScript, Lua, and Vala
More (color) space invasion
Render caching available for better performance

GIMP 2.99.2 is available to install via Flatpak package in the “beta” branch of the official Flathub repository. You can open terminal and run following commands one by one to install it in Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, and Ubuntu 20.10.

1. Install Flatpak framework if you don’t have it (For Ubuntu 18.04, add this PPA first).

sudo apt install flatpak

2. Add the flathub beta channel via command:

flatpak remote-add --user flathub-beta https://flathub.org/beta-repo/flathub-beta.flatpakrepo

3. Finally install GIMP 2.99.2 via command (for single user only):

flatpak install --user flathub-beta org.gimp.GIMP

Once installed, launch it from ‘Show Applications’ menu and enjoy! In the case, I have GIMP 2.10 (via deb) and GIMP 2.99.2 (via flatpak).

NOTE: If you installed both GIMP flatpak stable and beta packages, only one will be visible in app launcher. To make beta version visible, run command:

flatpak make-current --user org.gimp.GIMP beta

And to make stable version visible, replace beta in the command with stable.

Uninstall GIMP 2.99.2:

To remove the package, simply run command:

flatpak uninstall org.gimp.GIMP

Ji m

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I'm a freelance blogger who started using Ubuntu in 2007 and wishes to share my experiences and some useful tips with Ubuntu beginners and lovers. Please notify me if you find any typo/grammar/language mistakes. English is not my native language. Contact me via ubun[email protected]

4 responses to How to Install GIMP 2.99.2 (Dev for GIMP 3.0) in Ubuntu 20.04

FAN November 8, 2020 at 12:47 pm

How to Install GIMP 2.99.2 in Ubuntu 16.04 ??

Reply
- Ji m November 8, 2020 at 1:50 pm
  Alexander Larsson’s PPA offers flatpak package for Ubuntu 16.04 (64-bit only so far as 32-bit package is broken). You can add the PPA via commands:
  
  sudo add-apt-repository ppa:alexlarsson/flatpak sudo apt-get update
  
  Then try the steps in this tutorial to install GIMP 2.99.2
  Reply
John January 24, 2021 at 3:32 am

As Ubuntu 20.04 no longer support python 2, gimp 2 PPAs are pretty much useless now.
Trying to install 2.99.4 on Ubuntu 20.04 but it requires gnome 3.38 which is only available in 20.10. Can you help explain how I either install Gimp 2.10 with Python 2 support, or install Gimp 2.99 with python 3 support on Ubuntu 20.04 with gnome 3.36

Reply
Peter February 9, 2021 at 8:56 am

Thanks!

As always: very informative and precise!

Greetings!

Reply