GIMP plugins relying on deprecated python

[world_is_a_fun]

I'm losing my mind, I just need these plugins to work but no matter how deep in the weeds I get nothing I do seems to work properly.

GIMP has a use flag python, which is disabled. Without this use flag, it doesn't have python support built in, meaning plugins do not work. When modifying the ebuild, I find that it relies on a deprecated package dev-python/pygtk. The only ebuild I can find is an attachment in the bug report https://bugs.gentoo.org/662518 which I had to heavily modify in order to get it to build. All these ebuilds went into my local repository. After some more tweaking I end up with a successfully compiled GIMP 2.10.38 however, it still refuses to load python2.7 and still seems to be missing something important after all that effort, but what specifically I could not say if my life depended on it. Then when I try to reemerge it, with no changes, it seemingly stops working as if by magic.

All I need is a fully functioning GIMP. I've been at this for over 12 hours and it just refuses, stubbornly, to work. The only other option I can find is flatpak, and I would rather never edit another image again for the rest of my entire life than use flatpak. GIMP3 may very well work, but since the plugins I have are not actively maintained and rely on python 2.7, its not really helpful. Also, for some god forsaken reason, eselect python list only sees python 3 versions and does not see python 2.7 depsite an otherwise functional installation.

I don't understand why dev-python/pygtk was removed when a critical aspect of a widely used piece of software still relies on it for major functionality, but arguing about it is besides the point. No matter what I do, nothing seems to work, and I really just need these plugins to function.

Relevant links:
GIMP ebuild version 2.10.38-r1
Modified pygtk ebuild (PS pastebin apparently censors cursewords now, rip my comments)
emerge --info =media-gfx/gimp-2.10.38-r1::local
Removal of pygtk from repos
GIMP ebuild has python flag hard disabled (mentions newer ebuild requiring unmask does not disable python, but plugins I need do not support newer stuff as mentioned, so moot point)

[Hu]

Although you provided several links, I do not see among them the error message when GIMP fails to use the plugins you want. Therefore, someone who wants to help you would need to use the provided content to locally reproduce a GIMP before they could begin debugging. Additionally, I don't see a mention of specifically what Python plugins you want that are abandoned, so I am doubtful that I could reproduce your test environment.

eselect python is no longer needed. My system depclean'd it more than a year ago. I suspect, but did not check, that eselect python no longer sees python:2.7 because that version is long deprecated, and has been completely removed from the Gentoo Portage tree.

Perhaps you would be better off maintaining the needed plugins and updating them to work with current Python, rather than trying to force python2.7 back into service.

[world_is_a_fun]

[world_is_a_fun]

I will add, after another day full of troubleshooting, that I'm just giving up. Trying to get plugins to work for the current stable version just wasn't happening, so I decided to try porting the plugins to the new API as suggested with version 3.0.0-r1. I hit a wall just as fast, and I just don't see a way to continue forward. The poor documentation alone is a severe roadblock and even a best case scenario where it works perfectly, its going to take me days that I just don't have. The deeper I look into the history of what happened with these packages, the more I think that completely removing the option for the user to use legacy versions of software was a mistake. The end result here, no matter what I try or which version I use, is that I am effectively locked out of using plugins for GIMP unless I compromise and use something bloated or more opaque. Having spent a total of 3 full days including my whole weekend, I'm just completely stuck, and it's unbelievably frustrating that the reason is not because of my own lack of technical understanding but because there are so many roadblocks artificially placed in my way of using the software as intended.

If someone has an overlay where I can get access to legacy stuff to get this off the ground, I'd love to hear about it, but honestly this has turned into a bit of a black mark in my mind against both GIMP and the maintainers that didn't seem to care overmuch that critical stuff was going to permanently break. Good luck to anybody else trying to solve this issue.