GIMP will no longer launch

[andrewbergman]

In a managed account + AD environment here, I'm having the same problem.

From what I can work out, it appears to be dbus-launch causing the problem.

PER-MB003:bin acb$ /Applications/Gimp.app/Contents/Resources/bin/dbus-launch
Could not get password database information for UID of current process: Failed to get groups for username "acb" primary GID 749857189: Unknown error: 0

Failed to start message bus: Memory allocation failure in message bus
EOF in dbus-launch reading address from bus daemon

Editing /Applications/Gimp.app/Contents/Resources/bin/gimp (a shell script) to remove 'dbus-launch' from the startup process makes this work. It's certainly not a "good" solution, but either way, Gimp now starts for me.

I happen to be a member of 19 groups in the AD here, somebody here mentioned that it may be failing as it's > 16.

If this helps, great, if not, meh

 

[Doctor Q]

Thanks mucho, andrewbergman. We'll try that.

 

[Doctor Q]

Are you using AD, or strictly OD here?

Interesting note..

The 10.5.3 Server update mentions:

"using Managed Preferences when clients are bound to Active Directory"

Open Directory only.

 

[Doctor Q]

andrewbergman's suggestion worked! Gimp now launches. Hooray and thank you to everyone who helped me.

For the record, I edited file

/Applications/Gimp.app/Contents/Resources/bin/gimp

and changed the last lines from

dbus-launch gimp-2.4 "$@"
killall dbus-daemon

to

# This is a crude hack as a workaround for Gimp not launching.
#dbus-launch gimp-2.4 "$@"
#killall dbus-daemon
gimp-2.4 "$@"

More and more Macs were failing, so I fixed the ones where it already happened, and I'll do the rest of the Macs to prevent them from going bad.

 

[yellow]

Great fix!

 

[Jschwaer]

How to open a shell?

Hello together, I have the same problem, but i am a newby on the MAC platform! I will try to use the fix, but i have no idea how i can open a shell!

Please can you discribe for a 3 years old child how i can do the fix?

Pleaes help me?

Best regards from Germany
Joe

 

[Doctor Q]

Please can you discribe for a 3 years old child how i can do the fix?

First, get a big chair with a pillow on the seat so you can reach the computer. Sorry, just kidding.

The fix I applied involves editing a file in the shell.

To get into a shell, you can open the Finder, open the Applications folder, open the Utilities folder inside the Applications folder, and double-click the program named Terminal. However, editing a file using a text editor in the shell is not easy.

However...

Rather than documenting how to use a shell text editor, I think it would make more sense if we give you the entire file, already edited, so you can download it and put it in the right place. I will get a copy of the file at school so I can do that for you (unless somebody else posts it first).

 

[yellow]

First, get a big chair with a pillow on the seat so you can reach the computer. Sorry, just kidding.

Blatant sizism!

 

[Jschwaer]

Very good!

hello, first thank you for help.....

Ok, now i wait for the file. And than i change the files and the app will run..... ok, than we do it!

Im waiting

Best regards Joe

 

[Doctor Q]

Here's the file, Jschwaer. Download the attached file gimp.zip to your desktop. Double-click it to extract the file named simply "gimp". The file is to be used to replace file /Applications/Gimp.app/Contents/Resources/bin/gimp.

I hope you can install the new file using the Finder, as follows:

1. Log in as a user with administrative privileges.
2. Open your Applications folder.
3. Control-click Gimp.app and pick Show Package Contents. This will open a folder named Gimp.app.
4. Double-click the folder named Contents.
5. Double-click the folder named Resources.
6. Double-click the folder named bin.
7. Rename file gimp to gimp.original (just for safe-keeping).
8. Drag file "gimp" from your desktop into the bin folder.

If the Finder gives you a hard time, saying you don't have permission to move file gimp into folder bin, you could try fixing it as follows:

1. Control-click the bin folder and pick Get Info.
2. Open Ownership & Permissions and its Details section.
3. Click the padlock if it is locked.
4. If you are prompted for a password, enter your login (administrative) name and password.
5. Set the drop-downs to give you Read & Write permission and change the file owner to yourself if it's not already set that way.
6. Close the bin Info window.
7. Try the previous set of steps again.

If all that fails, you might still be able to do the whole process using Terminal:

1. Launch Terminal in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.
2. In the Terminal window, type (or copy/paste) the following as one long line:

   sudo mv /Applications/Gimp.app/Contents/Resources/bin/gimp /Applications/Gimp.app/Contents/Resources/bin/gimp.original

3. If you are prompted for a password, enter your login (administrative) name and password.
4. If you get an error message, stop and post here; maybe there's something to do about it. Otherwise, proceed.
5. In the Terminal window, type this:

   cd desktop

6. In the Terminal window, type (or copy/paste) this:

   sudo mv gimp /Applications/Gimp.app/Contents/Resources/bin/gimp

7. Its unlikely you'll be prompted for your password again, but if you are enter your login (administrative) name and password again.
8. If you get an error message, stop and post here; maybe there's something to do about it. Otherwise, proceed.
9. Quit from Terminal.
10. Try launching Gimp from the Applications folder to see if it is fixed!

When you are all done, you can erase gimp.zip (and gimp if it's still there) from your desktop.

Good luck!