Thumbnails for .xcf files only show in Gimp ( snap ) and nowhere else.

[Coeur Noir]

Hi,

On Ubuntu ( Budgie ) 20.04 when using Gimp as a snap, you’ll see thumbnails for .xcf files only « inside » Gimp and nowhere else ( Nemo, Nautilus, gThumb… )

I did a messy workaround for .xcf thumbnails to appear anywhere expected : I put all of my user’s thumbnails into ~/snap/gimp/common/.cache/thumbnails/ and now ~/.cache/thumbnails/ is a symlink targeting the first.

You’d agree it’s absolutely a bad idea to store all of an user’s thumbnails into a particular subfolder of a particular snap.

How tell my session to look for thumbnails not only in ~/.cache/thumbnails/ but also in any thumbnails folder inside ~/snap/ ?

For references :
⋅ https://askubuntu.com/questions/1250031/gimp-snap-and-thumbnails-for-xcf-files
⋅ https://discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/t/gimp-as-a-snap-no-thumbnails-for-xcf-files-in-nemo-gthumb/3799
⋅ https://forum.snapcraft.io/t/gimp-and-thumbnails-for-xcf-files/18131/3?u=coeur-noir
⋅ https://forum.ubuntu-fr.org/viewtopic.php?id=2053949

[Coeur Noir (coeur-noir)]

Okay… differently worded :

is it normal thumbnails generated by a snap-app ( and therefore stored somewhere under ~/snap/… )
can't be then used by file explorer or pictures viewer ?

It's a regression between same app-as-deb and app-as-snap.

Just because Ubuntu looks for thumbnails only in ~/.cache/thumbnails or ~/.thumbnails
It should also watch inside any folder named thumbnails inside ~/snap

https://askubuntu.com/questions/1253862/how-tell-my-ubuntu-to-look-for-thumbnails-not-only-in-cache-thumbnails/1254111

[Coeur Noir (coeur-noir)]

I have finally ended up with binding both « thumbnails » folders through fstab adding those lines :

# .xcf thumbnails from gimp snap for anyone
/home/user_1/.cache/thumbnails/ /home/user_1/snap/gimp/common/.cache/thumbnails/ none bind 0 0
/home/user_2/.cache/thumbnails/ /home/user_2/snap/gimp/common/.cache/thumbnails/ none bind 0 0
/home/user_3/.cache/thumbnails/ /home/user_3/snap/gimp/common/.cache/thumbnails/ none bind 0 0

This way, Gimp-snap actually writes its thumbnails there and then Nemo and Nautilus accordingly displays thumbnails for .xcf files.

gThumb though still shows empty frames for .xcf files - but my main concern was the file explorer.

Thanks to https://forum.ubuntu-fr.org/viewtopic.php?pid=22362050#p22362050

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

It's not a problem to be resolved in the different applications that are loading thumbnails, snapd should resolve that usecase by making those write to a location used by the system

[Coeur Noir (coeur-noir)]

It's not a problem to be resolved in the different applications that are loading thumbnails, snapd should resolve that usecase by making those write to a location used by the system

I totally agree with you.

Any progress made since ?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.