Arch Linux User Repository

I had a persistent 'libffi.so.7' problem with python2-gimp/gimp-resynthesizer, similar to the issue reported by other users. It took me almost half a day to figure out the culprit...

Lately, lots of python2 packages and their dependencies has been moved from the official repository to the AUR; consequently, they don't get updated, but just disappear from the package database.

When I noticed the libffi issue, my first reaction was to run

pactree -r -d 1 libffi

to check which packages depend on libffi. The problem is, I wasn't aware that pactree does not show packages which does not exist in the tree anymore, so it took me quite a while to figure out which package was actually broken.

In my case, 'python2-gobject2' was the culprit, causing those 'libffi.so.7' errors and breaking gimp-resynthesizer. I had originally installed it when it still was in the repository, so the obvious fix was to move to the AUR version.

TL;DR: If you have the same issue, be sure to check ALL python2-gimp dependencies and their dependencies deeply enough, and rebuild the ones moved to AUR in the correct order from bottom to top.

I hope this helps someone having the same issue.

@kitchen_ace it was an issue with Manjaro stable branch. Switched to unstable and now it's fine.

@korimitsu gegl is a dependency of gimp, which is itself a dependency of python2-gimp. It builds fine for me. Do you have an up-to-date gimp installation?

Flagged because does not auto install dependency: Building python2-gimp... ==> Making package: python2-gimp 2.10.30-1 (Wed 22 Dec 2021 12:12:15 AM CET) ==> Checking runtime dependencies... ==> Checking buildtime dependencies... ==> Retrieving sources... -> Found gimp-2.10.30.tar.bz2 ==> Validating source files with sha512sums... gimp-2.10.30.tar.bz2 ... Passed ==> Removing existing $srcdir/ directory... ==> Extracting sources... -> Extracting gimp-2.10.30.tar.bz2 with bsdtar ==> Starting prepare()... ... Error: GIMP configuration failed.

• Error: missing dependency gegl-0.4 >= 0.4.34

See the file 'INSTALL' for more help. ==> ERROR: A failure occurred in build(). Aborting...

Does not even work replacing gegl-git with gegl.

@MangoMan, gobject is not a package, it is a part of the glib2 library, which is in the core repo, and is practically required by every app, so you should have it installed. Furthermore, the gimp package has glib already listed as a dependency, meaning you should have glib2 installed before building python2-gimp, as gimp is a dependency of this package.

If you are having build errors, before marking my package out of date, please put actual debugging info, or an error message, so we can work this out.

Please, and thank you.

P.S. I was able to compile python2-gimp as it goes right now. If you are having problems, please post an error. I can't really know what's truly wrong if you just say gobject is not included in pygtk

gobject is not included in pygtk

@maderios

I updated and rebooted my system twice. when I run gimp I get the output below. after checking the output there is missing dependency or wrongly copied.

@MangoMan It builds fine for me. Update your Arch system?

there is an error that some modules can not be loaded

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/gimp/2.0/plug-ins/spyro_plus/spyro_plus.py", line 18, in <module>
    from gimpshelf import shelf
  File "/usr/lib/gimp/2.0/python/gimpshelf.py", line 40, in <module>
    import gimp
ImportError: could not import gobject (error was: 'libffi.so.7: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory')
gimp: LibGimpBase-WARNING: gimp: gimp_wire_read(): error
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/gimp/2.0/plug-ins/python-eval/python-eval.py", line 19, in <module>
    from gimpfu import *
  File "/usr/lib/gimp/2.0/python/gimpfu.py", line 76, in <module>
    import gimp
ImportError: could not import gobject (error was: 'libffi.so.7: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory')
gimp: LibGimpBase-WARNING: gimp: gimp_wire_read(): error
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/gimp/2.0/plug-ins/python-console/python-console.py", line 19, in <module>
    from gimpfu import *
  File "/usr/lib/gimp/2.0/python/gimpfu.py", line 76, in <module>
    import gimp
ImportError: could not import gobject (error was: 'libffi.so.7: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory')
gimp: LibGimpBase-WARNING: gimp: gimp_wire_read(): error
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/gimp/2.0/plug-ins/py-slice/py-slice.py", line 30, in <module>
    from gimpfu import *
  File "/usr/lib/gimp/2.0/python/gimpfu.py", line 76, in <module>
    import gimp
ImportError: could not import gobject (error was: 'libffi.so.7: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory')
gimp: LibGimpBase-WARNING: gimp: gimp_wire_read(): error
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/gimp/2.0/plug-ins/palette-to-gradient/palette-to-gradient.py", line 16, in <module>
    from gimpfu import *
  File "/usr/lib/gimp/2.0/python/gimpfu.py", line 76, in <module>
    import gimp
ImportError: could not import gobject (error was: 'libffi.so.7: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory')
gimp: LibGimpBase-WARNING: gimp: gimp_wire_read(): error
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/gimp/2.0/plug-ins/palette-sort/palette-sort.py", line 17, in <module>
    from gimpfu import *
  File "/usr/lib/gimp/2.0/python/gimpfu.py", line 76, in <module>
    import gimp
ImportError: could not import gobject (error was: 'libffi.so.7: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory')
gimp: LibGimpBase-WARNING: gimp: gimp_wire_read(): error
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/gimp/2.0/plug-ins/palette-offset/palette-offset.py", line 16, in <module>
    from gimpfu import *
  File "/usr/lib/gimp/2.0/python/gimpfu.py", line 76, in <module>
    import gimp
ImportError: could not import gobject (error was: 'libffi.so.7: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory')
gimp: LibGimpBase-WARNING: gimp: gimp_wire_read(): error
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/gimp/2.0/plug-ins/histogram-export/histogram-export.py", line 40, in <module>
    from gimpfu import *
  File "/usr/lib/gimp/2.0/python/gimpfu.py", line 76, in <module>
    import gimp
ImportError: could not import gobject (error was: 'libffi.so.7: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory')
gimp: LibGimpBase-WARNING: gimp: gimp_wire_read(): error
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/gimp/2.0/plug-ins/gradients-save-as-css/gradients-save-as-css.py", line 25, in <module>
    from gimpfu import *
  File "/usr/lib/gimp/2.0/python/gimpfu.py", line 76, in <module>
    import gimp
ImportError: could not import gobject (error was: 'libffi.so.7: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory')
gimp: LibGimpBase-WARNING: gimp: gimp_wire_read(): error
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/gimp/2.0/plug-ins/foggify/foggify.py", line 19, in <module>
    from gimpfu import *
  File "/usr/lib/gimp/2.0/python/gimpfu.py", line 76, in <module>
    import gimp
ImportError: could not import gobject (error was: 'libffi.so.7: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory')
gimp: LibGimpBase-WARNING: gimp: gimp_wire_read(): error
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/gimp/2.0/plug-ins/file-openraster/file-openraster.py", line 20, in <module>
    from gimpfu import *
  File "/usr/lib/gimp/2.0/python/gimpfu.py", line 76, in <module>
    import gimp
ImportError: could not import gobject (error was: 'libffi.so.7: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory')
gimp: LibGimpBase-WARNING: gimp: gimp_wire_read(): error
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/gimp/2.0/plug-ins/colorxhtml/colorxhtml.py", line 24, in <module>
    import gimp
ImportError: could not import gobject (error was: 'libffi.so.7: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory')
gimp: LibGimpBase-WARNING: gimp: gimp_wire_read(): error
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/user/.config/GIMP/2.10/plug-ins/tokenBlack.py", line 4, in <module>
    from gimpfu import *
  File "/usr/lib/gimp/2.0/python/gimpfu.py", line 76, in <module>
    import gimp
ImportError: could not import gobject (error was: 'libffi.so.7: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory')
gimp: LibGimpBase-WARNING: gimp: gimp_wire_read(): error
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/user/.config/GIMP/2.10/plug-ins/blackout_token.py", line 4, in <module>
    from gimpfu import *
  File "/usr/lib/gimp/2.0/python/gimpfu.py", line 76, in <module>
    import gimp
ImportError: could not import gobject (error was: 'libffi.so.7: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory')
gimp: LibGimpBase-WARNING: gimp: gimp_wire_read(): error