I have an invisible Gimp, and I don't know why...

March 29, 2016 12:33 PM

I installed the Gimp image program and it is sometimes see-through (like in this image.) It is running under Ubuntu 15. Anyone know the cause and a solution?
posted by marienbad to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

Response by poster: (I tried googling see-through gimp and all it was all stuff about making clothes see-through. I tried transparent gimp and it gave results relating to alpha-transparency. ffs, google!)
posted by marienbad at 12:35 PM on March 29, 2016

It looks suspiciously like a video driver problem to me. Are you sure you have the correct drivers installed? You might have to enable "non-free" packages in Ubuntu to install them.
posted by neckro23 at 12:42 PM on March 29, 2016

I agree with neckro23 that this smells like a driver problem and not a Gimp problem. I used to have this issue with other applications on a system with nvidia graphics (a system I no longer have). If I recall correctly the solution was to switch from non-free drivers to free drivers -- or perhaps vice-versa.
posted by /\/\/\/ at 2:08 PM on March 29, 2016 [1 favorite]

If you're not too attached to your GIMP settings, you can try moving or deleting the corresponding user profile (probably a ".gimp" or similar hidden folder in your home folder) and relaunching the program to make a new one from defaults. I had a similar xsane issue that kept needing that to resolve.
posted by fifthrider at 2:37 PM on March 29, 2016

Response by poster: How do I check the video drivers and enable non-free packages? I am not a Linux wiz!
posted by marienbad at 3:14 PM on March 29, 2016

Ubuntu ships with a driver manager that makes that easy. Just search for "Driver" in your dash.
posted by fifthrider at 3:39 PM on March 29, 2016