So, I determined that the package I had installed in /opt wasn't going to work with a lot of the plug ins I use...so I decided to start over and as I need to learn to compile have dl'd the tar.bz2 from gimp.org for 2.7.5 in order to do so. When I get it up and running this is what I'll use until Ubuntu 12.0 comes out and Gimp 2.8.

It is seeing babl, but when I ./configure the one error message I do get is for gegl, which from my research is common....so I went to the Gegl website and realized I hadn't fully installed it. The libraries are now up to date and installed..

(Libraries have been installed in:
/usr/local/lib/gegl-0.2)

So when I got back to the gimp 2.7.5 directory and ./configure though it still isn't finding it... I'm sure it's something easy, but insight would be beneficial. By the way I can't believe the quickness I am picking this up. I thank everyone for their insight ahead of time. Here's the data from the latest ./configure...I know from researching this is a common error, I just am not finding or at least I guess I'm not comprehending the way to fix it.

@ubuntu:/usr/local/src/gimp-2.7.5$ ./configure
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
checking for a thread-safe mkdir -p... /bin/mkdir -p
checking for gawk... no
checking for mawk... mawk
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
checking whether make supports nested variables... yes
checking for gcc... gcc
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out
checking for suffix of executables...
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc option to accept ISO C89... none needed
checking for style of include used by make... GNU
checking dependency style of gcc... gcc3
checking whether gcc and cc understand -c and -o together... yes
checking build system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
checking host system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
checking how to print strings... printf
checking for a sed that does not truncate output... /bin/sed
checking for grep that handles long lines and -e... /bin/grep
checking for egrep... /bin/grep -E
checking for fgrep... /bin/grep -F
checking for ld used by gcc... /usr/bin/ld
checking if the linker (/usr/bin/ld) is GNU ld... yes
checking for BSD- or MS-compatible name lister (nm)... /usr/bin/nm -B
checking the name lister (/usr/bin/nm -B) interface... BSD nm
checking whether ln -s works... yes
checking the maximum length of command line arguments... 1572864
checking whether the shell understands some XSI constructs... yes
checking whether the shell understands "+="... yes
checking how to convert x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu file names to x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu format... func_convert_file_noop
checking how to convert x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu file names to toolchain format... func_convert_file_noop
checking for /usr/bin/ld option to reload object files... -r
checking for objdump... objdump
checking how to recognize dependent libraries... pass_all
checking for dlltool... no
checking how to associate runtime and link libraries... printf %s\n
checking for ar... ar
checking for archiver @FILE support... @
checking for strip... strip
checking for ranlib... ranlib
checking command to parse /usr/bin/nm -B output from gcc object... ok
checking for sysroot... no
checking for mt... mt
checking if mt is a manifest tool... no
checking how to run the C preprocessor... gcc -E
checking for ANSI C header files... yes
checking for sys/types.h... yes
checking for sys/stat.h... yes
checking for stdlib.h... yes
checking for string.h... yes
checking for memory.h... yes
checking for strings.h... yes
checking for inttypes.h... yes
checking for stdint.h... yes
checking for unistd.h... yes
checking for dlfcn.h... yes
checking for objdir... .libs
checking if gcc supports -fno-rtti -fno-exceptions... no
checking for gcc option to produce PIC... -fPIC -DPIC
checking if gcc PIC flag -fPIC -DPIC works... yes
checking if gcc static flag -static works... yes
checking if gcc supports -c -o file.o... yes
checking if gcc supports -c -o file.o... (cached) yes
checking whether the gcc linker (/usr/bin/ld -m elf_x86_64) supports shared libraries... yes
checking whether -lc should be explicitly linked in... no
checking dynamic linker characteristics... GNU/Linux ld.so
checking how to hardcode library paths into programs... immediate
checking whether stripping libraries is possible... yes
checking if libtool supports shared libraries... yes
checking whether to build shared libraries... yes
checking whether to build static libraries... no
checking dependency style of gcc... gcc3
checking whether to enable maintainer-specific portions of Makefiles... yes
checking for pkg-config... /usr/bin/pkg-config
checking pkg-config is at least version 0.16... yes
checking for target architecture... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
checking for some Win32 platform... no
checking for native Win32... no
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... (cached) yes
checking for special C compiler options needed for large files... no
checking for _FILE_OFFSET_BITS value needed for large files... no
checking whether to turn on debugging... no
checking whether to turn on profiling... no
checking whether gcc understands -Wdeclaration-after-statement... yes
checking whether gcc understands -Wmissing-prototypes... yes
checking whether gcc understands -Werror=missing-prototypes... yes
checking whether gcc understands -Wstrict-prototypes... yes
checking whether gcc understands -Wmissing-declarations... yes
checking whether gcc understands -Winit-self... yes
checking whether gcc understands -Wpointer-arith... yes
checking whether gcc understands -Wold-style-definition... yes
checking whether gcc understands -Wmissing-format-attribute... yes
checking whether gcc understands -Wformat-security... yes
checking whether gcc understands -Wformat-non-literal... no
checking whether gcc understands -fno-common... yes
checking whether gcc understands -fdiagnostics-show-option... yes
checking whether gcc understands --omg-optimized... no
checking whether gcc understands --disable-instructions... no
checking for ANSI C header files... (cached) yes
checking for sys/wait.h that is POSIX.1 compatible... yes
checking whether time.h and sys/time.h may both be included... yes
checking sys/param.h usability... yes
checking sys/param.h presence... yes
checking for sys/param.h... yes
checking sys/time.h usability... yes
checking sys/time.h presence... yes
checking for sys/time.h... yes
checking sys/times.h usability... yes
checking sys/times.h presence... yes
checking for sys/times.h... yes
checking for sys/wait.h... (cached) yes
checking for unistd.h... (cached) yes
checking for pid_t... yes
checking for vprintf... yes
checking for _doprnt... no
checking for size_t... yes
checking for working alloca.h... yes
checking for alloca... yes
checking for fsync... yes
checking for difftime... yes
checking for mmap... yes
checking whether binary relocation support should be enabled... no
checking for _NL_MEASUREMENT_MEASUREMENT... yes
checking whether NLS is requested... yes
checking for intltool >= 0.40.1... 0.50.2 found
checking for intltool-update... /usr/bin/intltool-update
checking for intltool-merge... /usr/bin/intltool-merge
checking for intltool-extract... /usr/bin/intltool-extract
checking for xgettext... /usr/bin/xgettext
checking for msgmerge... /usr/bin/msgmerge
checking for msgfmt... /usr/bin/msgfmt
checking for gmsgfmt... /usr/bin/msgfmt
checking for perl... /usr/bin/perl
checking for perl >= 5.8.1... 5.12.4
checking for XML::Parser... ok
checking locale.h usability... yes
checking locale.h presence... yes
checking for locale.h... yes
checking for LC_MESSAGES... yes
checking libintl.h usability... yes
checking libintl.h presence... yes
checking for libintl.h... yes
checking for ngettext in libc... yes
checking for dgettext in libc... yes
checking for bind_textdomain_codeset... yes
checking for msgfmt... (cached) /usr/bin/msgfmt
checking for dcgettext... yes
checking if msgfmt accepts -c... yes
checking for gmsgfmt... (cached) /usr/bin/msgfmt
checking for xgettext... (cached) /usr/bin/xgettext
checking for iso-codes... yes
checking for BABL... yes
checking for GEGL... no
configure: error: Package requirements (gegl >= 0.1.8) were not met:

No package 'gegl' found

Consider adjusting the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable if you
installed software in a non-standard prefix.

Alternatively, you may set the environment variables GEGL_CFLAGS
and GEGL_LIBS to avoid the need to call pkg-config.
See the pkg-config man page for more detail

Danke!

-jorden

Have you compiled gegl without using the --prefix? Gegl needs to be compiled to the same place you're compiling gimp to, I think...

Hi Jorden,
I wrote a howto to install 2.7x from git about a year ago.
viewtopic.php?f=24&t=1261
It contains a lot of info on problems that might arise.
Also on compiling tar.bz2 files.

As for your problem gimp configure not finding gegl:
If you have "mc" installed go to /usr/local/lib and open it.
It should contain /pkgconfig.
Open it and check for gegl.

If you don't have mc then try this:

Less will give you the contents of pkgconfig page by page.
If gegl is not there something went wrong during gegl's install.

Do you want to keep Gimp-2.6?
My experience is that having both 2.6 and 2.7 in the same install can give problems.
That's why I have it on a separate install.
Good luck,
Gerard.

Naww I took 2.6 off. So I have no gimp installed on ubuntu. I'll check out your thread and do as suggested. Thanks for helping!

I asked because if 2.7 will be the only one there's no need to compile it in /usr/local.
Use --prefix=/usr instead,it'll avoid problems.
Gerard.

I installed MC....(very cool software btw)...and yes, gegl-0.2.pc
is in the usr/local/pkconfig directory, I wonder if I do the install without the -prefix if it would find it? but I'll go look at your thread you pointed me to.

Jorden it should be in /usr/local/LIB/pkgconfig!

Gerard.

Well I completely started fresh again, and installed all libs and packages..following here Installing Gimp 2.7.5 on Ubuntu 12.04 and it is up and running...

Very minimal tweaking, a couple of ldconfigs and better knowledge of the directory system.

No better way to learn than to just jump in and do it. Should have done it long ago. I think I'll be ready when 12.04 comes out for ubuntu and Gimp is at 2.8.

Thanks.

(Now for gmic)