GIMP Version: 2.6.11
Operating System: Linux
OS Version: linux Mint Nadia
GIMP Experience: Intermediate Level

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Hi, this is probably a stupid question. I have switched from Win7 to Linux Mint 14 (Nadia). I have been using LM for over two months and I am very impressed with it. As part of the install Gimp is supplied by the package manager with Gimp 2.8 . There is nothing wrong with 2.8 but I simply prefer Gimp 2.6.11 .
Is it possible to get this older version through the packet manager or must I uninstall Gimp 2.8 and compile Gimp 2.6.11 from a tarball? I am a reasonably computer literate user of Windows but I am a novice Linux user and may find that sorting out all the dependencies and pre-requisites beyond my current Linux skills.

I shall be posting the same question in a Linux Mint forum as the question is both a Linux question and a Gimp question.
Wbool63

Mint is a variant of Ubuntu. You should be able to find precompiled binaries for both Ubuntu and Mint.

Hi Partha, thank You for your reply, it seems that every repository seems to have gimp 2.8 now and every one that specifically still mentions 2.6.11 only has 2.8 as a substitute. It seems that 2.6.11 seems to have disappeared into the big blue yonder. So I will download a tarball and have a shot at compiling.
A quick question, must I uninstall gimp 2.8 or can I install both Gimp versions side by side?
Thanks Wbool63

Have you tried wine and run windows version of Gimp-2.6.11 through it?

The way Linux works is it uses the same libraries for all its programs.That's it's beauty.Simplicity.
I would most definitely un-install anything in Linux before re-installing other versions or you may cross-compile files in the same directories.Then you have out of date dependency issues.

I would also look forward to update screens flashing for Gimp-2.8 as Linux will see it needs to update to the new version.That may not happen too often though.

I would try wine first.Then you get the best of both worlds.

With Mint being based on Ubuntu and Ubuntu based on Debian you would hope that there might be a backward path.

The Debian packages are still there, see: http://packages.debian.org/squeeze/gimp If you go to the bottom of the page, choose your architecture which takes you to a list of mirrors you can download the deb file.

I did give it a try for you in a LM14 VM, starting with the basic gimp, gimp-data & libgimp packages.

Assuming a terminal in the directory with the packages.
The command (as root) is dpkg -i --force-overwrite *.deb

but this quickly leads to dependency hell & downloading the required packages brings up further dependencies and I lost interest.

Another way is to add the squeeze repo to synaptic.
The line works.
Then in synaptic you can force a package. Ended up uninstalling half of Mint so that is no good.

I suppose it might be possible to compile Gimp 2.6.x against more recent dependencies (babl, gegl, python etc) but I dont know and think you will be in serious risk of breaking your installation.

A better bet might be find an old-ish live CD/DVD which includes Gimp 2.6.x and install as a parallel OS or maybe as a VM.

Thanks Rod, I shall attempt a wine version, Good idea.

Rich2005, I do have a few old Ubuntu live cds that (luckily) I did not throw away. Installing as a VM seems a solution. Thanks for the link to the deb packages.
I dont want to break my LM installation. I am slowly migrating lots of personal stuff such as pictures and documents (even though I can access them through "computer").

I know it sounds a bit silly as everyone seems to be enamoured with Gimp 2.8 and I am using it, but I like the 2.6.11 version better for what I do.

I spent about 2 hours searching for a 2.6.11 tar and I finally found one. At least I hope that I found the correct one , gimp-2.6.11.tar.bz2 It seems that there are plenty of windows versions around but a gimp- 2.6.11 linux code download is extremely rare.

I prefer to not add another installation as I already run an XP for oldish games and win 7 for Ps, gimp 2.6.11 and some other stuff

If you are using an Ubuntu 12.04 LTS GNU/Linux based distro (five years support), GIMP 2.6.12 is still there in the repositories. In any time you want install GIMP 2.8 you can add "otto" PPA and install it:
https://launchpad.net/~otto-kesselgulasch/+archive/gimp

Hi Yafu, thank you for your advice, I am currently running Linux Mint 14 (Nadia). I do not know how close or similar that is to Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. During my search tonight for old linux gimp installs I came across a few entries for Gimp 2.6.12, however, when 2.6.12 was released there were problems with it and most people switched back to 2.6.11 so I really am hesitant to accept 2.6.12 over 2.8
Cheers Wbool63

GEGL has apparently re-arranged some of its data structures and 0.2 is no longer backwards compatible with 0.0.18 (the GIMP 2.6 dependency). This means that, at a minimum, the older GEGL needs to be installed.

Yes, you can find a 2.6 tarball and compile/install it side by side with 2.8. When you run the build configuration step you can specify a "prefix" so that Gimp is built to run from /opt instead of /usr. The same applies to GEGL and BABL that you may have to install as well.

The latest 2.6 issue was 2.6.12...