How To Install GIMP With Single Window Mode In Ubuntu

Initially, the GIMP 2.7 repository (unofficial) had some GIMP 2.7 builds which were quite stable. Then, when the GIMP developers started working on the single-window mode, the builds became pretty unstable and it ended up breaking GIMP 3-4 times on my computer. But now, it finally seems stable again, so if you want to use a pretty (still not very) stable GIMP 2.7 (currently 2.7.1) which has the long awaited single window mode, follow the steps in this post.

A note: you can always switch back to the multiple window GIMP - it's all done with a simple setting!

To install GIMP 2.7 in Ubuntu Karmic, firstly add the following PPA:

-For Ubuntu Lucid and Karmic:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:matthaeus123/mrw-gimp-svn

-For Ubuntu Janunty:

sudo sh -c "echo 'deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/matthaeus123/mrw-gimp-svn/ubuntu jaunty main' >> /etc/apt/sources.list"
sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 405A15CB

Then, for any Ubuntu version, simply upgrade to GIMP 2.7.1:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

If "sudo apt-get dist-upgrade" wants to remove some packages, you can go to Synaptic, manually search for GIMP and upgrade it, then remove this PPA.

In case you get an error with GIMP complaining about libgegl or libbabl, run this in a terminal:

sudo apt-get install libgegl-0.0-0 libbabl-0.0-0

Then, open GIMP and to enable the single-window mode, go to the top menu, and enable "Single Window" under the "Windows" drop-down menu:

To remove the changes made by this PPA (remove the PPA and any packages it installs), see our post about removing PPA repositories via command line.

Special thanks to Claudio [via Ubuntued]!