Picasa 3 for Linux: Free download from Google

The current, stable version of Picasa for Linux is 2.7. If you are using Picasa 2.2, we recommend you upgrade to 2.7 to take advantage of the new features and bug fixes.

In the future, we may offer a newer, beta version of Picasa for Linux. Beta versions have more features, but can be less stable. You will be able to find the beta releases on the Download page, as well as on the testing track in the Linux software repository.

Q: What versions of Linux does Picasa support?

Picasa should run on any x86-compatible Linux system. We’ve tested it against the following Linux distributions:

Debian 4.0 (Etch)
Fedora Core 6
Fedora 7
Mandriva 2006
Mandriva 2007.1
Mandriva 2008.0 (beta)
Red Hat Workstation 4
Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (Dapper Drake)
Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn)
SuSE 10.2

Note that these distributions were up to date as of September 10, 2007 (the time of the testing), and that all tests were done under KDE and Gnome. Newer distributions may include changes that break Picasa. The SELinux features of Fedora Core are notorious for causing problems with programs like Picasa. If you have problems with Fedora Core, Running Picasa with SELinux enabled may cause problems. You may want to invoke this command: setenforce 0

Q: Will Picasa run on a 64-bit version of Linux?

Yes, Picasa runs on 64-bit versions of Linux. For RPM-based distributions, just install the normal 32-bit RPM of Picasa; this works on the RPM-based 64-bit distributions we tried, as they're pretty good about letting you mix 32 and 64-bit packages.

For Debian-based distributions, install the amd64.deb instead of the i386.deb. This is still 32-bit, but it knows to reference the system's 32-bit libraries. If you use apt-get to install Picasa from our 64-bit repository, the system's 32-bit libraries will be automatically installed if needed.

Q: Will Picasa run with XFCE, Blackbox, or another Window Manager?

Yes. The core functionality of Picasa should work well with any Window Manager, though some desktop-integration features may not work with all environments. These features -- automatic camera detection, setting the wallpaper, creating a screen saver, and using the native email client, for example -- usually require KDE or Gnome.

We’ve also provided the means for advanced users to customize Picasa for their particular environments. If you refer to the files in /opt/picasa/desktop/, you’ll see examples of how to tailor Picasa to your own environment.

Q: What are the Picasa for Linux system requirements?

Should work on any Linux system with Intel 386-compatible processor, glibc 2.3 or greater, and a working X11 display system. Optional: XVideo extension on your display driver (to view things full screen); having a newer kernel (>= 2.6.13) to get notified of file changes; having a new kernel and HAL to automatically detect new media insertion. Note: There are other variations -- for example, setting screensavers and desktop backgrounds only works on certain Linux windowing environments.
Desktop Integration features require a current version of Gnome or KDE.
Downloading from Picasa Web Albums requires a Mozilla-based browser like Firefox.

Q: How do I install Picasa for Linux?

Download the Picasa for Linux software. This will open the File Download screen.
Install the downloaded package with your Linux distribution's package manager. (We'll show you how after the download starts.)
Start Picasa by looking in your Linux distribution's Graphics menu.

When you start Picasa, it will scan your computer and begin to automatically find and sort the photos it finds into folders, organized by name and date taken. For more information on Picasa’s features, please visit http://picasa.google.com

Q. I'd rather just use my package manager to download and install Picasa.

Please see the instructions at http://www.google.com/linuxrepositories/.

Q: OK, I installed it (I think). Now how do I start it?

On most Linux systems, you’ll see a Picasa menu entry in your menu; it will be under either ”Photography” or “Graphics.”

Picasa primarily supports the Free Desktop menu standards (see www.freedesktop.org); Linux environments that don’t support those standards won’t operate properly.

You can also always run Picasa from a command-line window. To launch Picasa, the command to type is picasa, /usr/bin/picasa, or /opt/picasa/bin/picasa, depending on how verbose you're feeling at the moment.

If you use an unusual desktop environment, you’re welcome to place the Picasa menu link in your environment. A XDG compliant DESKTOP file along with an .xpm file with the icon are located in “/opt/picasa/desktop/”.

Q: Will Picasa work over a remote X11 connection?

Yes, but you won't enjoy it. Picasa is a very graphics-intensive application and, as such, may not work well over remote links. It may work better over a dedicated gigabit link though.

Q: I use NFS, and Picasa runs very slowly.

when Picasa first starts, click File / Add Folder. Unselect your NFS shares from the watched list. Otherwise Picasa can get bogged down scanning all your network directories!

Q: When I start Picasa from the command line, I get another shell prompt before the Picasa window pops up.

That's normal. Picasa runs in the background.

Q: Why does Picasa not work well with Compiz?

Compiz is an experimental compisite window manger that is still in development. We will make sure Picasa works with Compiz once it stabilizes and becomes more mainstream.

Q: Why does Picasa not work on the Asus EEE PC?

In order for Picasa to work on the Asus EEE PC, you need to install ASUS Desktop OS Update Pack version 1.0.4 or greater.

Q: Why do my menu icons still launch the old version of Picasa?

If you previously installed Picasa 2.2 with the standalone (.bin) installer, upgrading to the DEB or RPM packages will not uninstall the old version for you, causing some systems to continue using the launchers from the standalone installer. To fix this, you must manually run the standalone uninstaller. For instance, if you installed the standalone installer to "~/picasa", then you need to run "~/picasa/uninstall". If this doesn't solve the problem, you may need to manually remove the extraneous launcher files, like this:

rm -f ~/.local/share/desktop-directories/google-picasa.directory
rm -f ~/.local/share/applications/google-picasa*

Q: I miss the .bin package. Why is it gone, and how can I install Picasa 2.7 in my home directory?

We no longer ship a .bin because we prefer users to add our repository to their package manager, and use their system's normal autoupdate to pick up new versions of Picasa automatically.

If you really can't or don't want to use a .rpm or .deb package manager, you can still do a manual install into your home directory by unpacking the .deb or .rpm package. For instance, to unpack the .deb package manually, do:

cd $HOME
ar x picasa_*.deb data.tar.gz
tar zxf data.tar.gz

You can then run Picasa with the command:

$HOME/opt/picasa/bin/picasa

You probably want to make an icon, shortcut, or symlink for that so you only have to type it once!

Q: How does Picasa handle hidden files?

Picasa ignores hidden files (files that start with the letter ".").

Q: How does Picasa handle symbolic links?

Picasa follows symbolic links (symlinks) and scans the files / folders pointed to by the symbolic links. Symbolic links pointing to folders will show up as regular folders in Picasa.

When Picasa scans both a folder and symlinks pointing to that folder, the folder will show up multiple times in Picasa. This can lead to confusing behavior. We strongly recommend removing the duplicate folders, since changes to one folder will affect its duplicates. To remove a duplicate folder, right click on the folder and choose "Remove from Picasa" from the pop-up menu.

Likewise, the same picture can show up multiple times if there are symbolic links pointing to it. Again, this can lead to confusing behavior where changing one picture affects another. We recommend hiding the duplicate pictures in this case. To do so, right click on a picture and choose "Hide" from the pop-up menu.

Q: How does Picasa handle hard links?

Picasa treats hard linked files as separate files. For example, if photo.jpg is a hard link to p1000.jpg:

deleting photo.jpg will not affect p1000.jpg.

changing photo.jpg will cause a new file to get created, resulting in photo.jpg and p1000.jpg no longer being linked together.

Q: Why are my deleted pictures not in the system trash folder on Gnome?

Picasa follows the trash-spec from Freedesktop.org, but Gnome has not implemented this spec yet. The deleted files are stored in ~/.local/share/Trash.

Importing and finding photos

Q: Will Picasa support my camera?

Probably; see the list below. However, your system has to be fairly modern in order for Picasa to find it. You'll need kernel >= 2.6.13, hal >= version 0.5.6 (and a running hald), libgphoto2, and you'll need to have the equivalent of gnome-volume-manager running (that is automatic in modern versions of Gnome and KDE).

If you leave the Picasa Media Detector running, when you plug in your camera, Picasa should automatically pop up and help you import the pictures. If you don't, you should be able to start Picasa and select 'Import', and pick your camera from the list.

Below is a list of the cameras we have tested. Since Wine is using the gphoto library, all the cameras listed on http://www.gphoto.org/proj/libgphoto2/support.php should behave the same way.

Passed our tests:

Canon 1D mk 2
Canon EOS 10D
Canon EOS 20D
Canon Powershot A520
Canon Powershot A70 and A80
Casio Exilim EX-Z40
FujiFil FinePix 1400Z
FujiFilm FinePix S7000
HP photoSmart 318
HP Photosmart R717
Kodak DX3900
Konica Dimage x31
Minolta Dimage S404
Nikon Coolpix 3100
Nikon Coolpix P2
Olympus C-700
Olympus FE-100
Panasonic Lumix DMC-LC20
Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ3
Pentax Optio w3
Sony Cybershot DSC-S600
Sony DSC-P50
Toshiba PDR M70

Failed our tests:

AGFA ePhoto CL20
Toshiba PDR-M21

Q: Why does Picasa default to Winefile for finding files on a disk?

Picasa tries to find an appropriate program to display files on your disk. If it’s unable to find an appropriate program, it will use a built-in program called Winefile.

You may be surprised that Picasa can’t locate files on your Gnome system. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to find a way to make Nautilus to open with the correct file highlighted.

Q: With what file types does Picasa for Linux work?

Picasa for Linux works with the following file types:
Images -- JPG, BMP, GIF, PNG, PSD, TIF
RAW data files, including but not limited to cameras from Canon, Nikon, Kodak, Minolta and Pentax.

Q: I got a message that “Picasa was unable to find a default handler for that file.” What happened?

You may get this message if you ask to open a file (usually a picture) with your native Linux program and Picasa can't figure out what program to use. Again, because there’s no standard way to do this on Linux, Picasa just does its best to figure it out; if it can't, it will present you with this dialog box.

Q: Hey! I have a bunch of movie files that Picasa skipped.

Picasa for Linux does not support movie files. The program will not attempt to find or play movies. (Note: under Options > File Types, the Movies checkbox is visible but not functional.)

Q: I used File / Add Folder, but it didn't work.

In the Folder Manager, clicking on a folder and the OK does nothing unless you also click on an action, e.g. Remove, Scan Once, or Scan Always.

Q: When I import photos from my camera, I don't get any of of the EXIF data my camera stores!

If your camera uses the PTP photo protocol, Picasa's import feature does not preserve the EXIF data created by the camera. If you need to import your photos with the EXIF data preserved, some cameras also support another mode of communication, usually called "USB Mass Storage", or "Mass Storage". Consult your camera's user manual to find out if you can use this mode.

Q: My camera doesn't support Mass Storage mode, but I need my EXIF data anyway!

You can still retrieve the files with EXIF data by removing the memory card from your camera and using a memory card reader to access your data, as external card readers use USB Mass Storage mode.

Q: Picasa acts funny when I use Import to tell it to index a directory.

To get Picasa to see pictures on your hard drive, click "File / Add Folder" (NOT "Import"). "Import" is for copying pictures from removable drives. Doing that with a folder on your hard drive would result in duplicate copies.

Q: How do I stop Picasa from scanning all my files?

The fastest way to stop Picasa from scanning all your files is to click "File / Add Folder". Then, click the folders in the "Watched Folders" list, and select "Remove from Picasa". You can then browse the list of folders and select just the folders you want scanned.

Q: Why is the import from media feature broken on 64-bit Ubuntu Feisty/Gutsy?

64-bit Ubuntu Feisty (7.04) and Gutsy (7.10) shipped a ia32-libs package without libdbus. Without this library, Picasa for Linux cannot detect your media devices. Please try to upgrade to Ubuntu Hardy (8.04) if possible.

Viewing and printing photos

Q: Why doesn't sound play during the slideshow?

For licensing reasons, we were concerned about distributing code to play MP3 files.

In a future release, however, we hope to provide an interface for you to select your own MP3-playing software.

Q: Why are movie files so big?

Due to licensing issues with movie codecs, we can’t include a motion-compressing codec for making movies. As a result, we can only produce movies that are uncompressed.

If you can obtain a license to use a better codec on your Linux system, we recommend that you use that licensed software to compress the resulting movie files; they should drastically drop in size with any such codec.

Q: How do I change my print settings?

By default, Picasa uses a high print quality setting. To save on time and media costs, you can change your print settings by going to the Tools menu, select Options, and then the "Printing" tab.

Q: Picasa only lists one printer, but I have forty!

If you have 10 or fewer printers on your network, Picasa shows them all to you. But if you have more, it only shows the default printer (otherwise it takes too long to start up; each printer takes about a second).

Q: Why are the slideshow images not full-screen until I move the mouse?

You are probably running your X server at a 24-bit screen depth. Picasa thinks this is a 24 bits-per-pixel (bpp) configuration, which it doesn't fully support, so it won't scale the slideshow animation in this mode. Picasa supports scaling at 16bpp and 32bpp, but there's currently no way to tell it that, despite the confusing terminology, a 24-bit screen depth might actually be 32bpp. If you find this behaviour annoying, you can try to run X at 16-bit screen depth, which Picasa iterprets as 16bpp. You can do this by editing /etc/X11/xorg.conf and setting your screen's DefaultDepth to 16.

Q: Why is "Configure Screensaver" greyed out?

Older versions of Gnome and KDE used the xscreensaver standard, but newer versions do not offer a standard method of controlling the screensaver. We hope to deal with this in a future release, but for now, you can still get the Picasa screensaver by configuring Gnome or KDE's screensaver to run:

/opt/picasa/bin/showpicasascreensaver

Integration with external program

Q: I got a message that “Picasa was unable to determine the default web browser.” What happened?

Picasa does its best to try to determine the default web browser, particularly for the Gnome and KDE environments. Because this isn’t well standardized on Linux, sometimes Picasa won’t be able to find an appropriate browser. In such cases, you’ll see this message.

Q: Picasa opened the wrong web browser. What happened?

Under Gnome, Picasa will use whatever browser is configured within your Gnome environment. It retrieves the browser by running either gconftool-2 or gconftool as follows: gconftool -g /desktop/gnome/url-handlers/http/command. To change the browser that’s selected, go to System, Preferences, Preferred Applications, and select your preferred web browser.

Under KDE, Picasa will use the dcop command-line tool to interface to Konqueror, and use the KonquerorIface openBrowserWindow method to open a URL. To change the browser that’s selected, open the KDE Control Panel, KDE Components, Component Chooser, and select your preferred web browser.

Q: Why did Picasa register itself with Firefox?

Picasa registers itself with Firefox (and Mozilla-based browsers) to enable the Download Album feature on Picasa Web. The preferences added are:

network.protocol-handler.app.picasa
network.protocol-handler.external.picasa

Q: How do I choose which native email client Picasa uses?

Please follow the directions at http://portland.freedesktop.org/wiki/EmailConfig

On Gnome, go to System, Preferences, Preferred Applications, and select your preferred email client.

On KDE, open the KDE Control Panel, KDE Components, Component Chooser, and select your preferred email client.

Languages & fonts

Q: Some keys on the keyboard do not work in Picasa with KDE.

This is a known issue that affect certain keyboard layouts when running Picasa on KDE. You can work around this by running setxkbmap first. For instance, if you have a Greek keyboard, run the following command on the command line:

setxkbmap gr, us

Q: How do I input high ASCII / DBCS characters?

To input ASCII / DBCS characters in Picasa for Linux, use an input method program like SCIM or UIM.

Q: Why do I get menus that seem to be in Korean when I am running Picasa in Traditional Chinese locale?

You can change the menu font with the Picasa Font Settings tool in the same menu folder as the Picasa menu item. To run it from the command line, type:

/opt/picasa/bin/picasafontcfg

In the menu font tab, you can adjust the menu font and menu font size.

Q: I am running in a locale other than en_US, how come some characters are missing/displayed incorrectly?

Picasa may not have picked up your font settings correctly. You can correct this by using the Font Linking tab in the Picasa Font Settings tool to select which fonts to use for glyphs that are missing in the base font.

Q: I have a high resolution screen, display text is way too small for me to read.

The Picasa Font Settings tool has a tab for setting Screen Resolution. Higher resolution results in larger font size. If it is just the menus that are tiny, try increasing menu font size from the Menu Font tab.

Advanced configuration

Q: How do I set up Picasa to use a customized web browser / email client / file manager / external image viewer?

You can explicitly tell Picasa how to open the browser you'd like by editing the /opt/picasa/desktop/picasa-hook-urlhandler.sh.template file on your disk. You'll need to follow the instructions in that file to customize your installation of Picasa for your desktop.

Similarly, follow the instructions in picasa-hook-email.sh.template, picasa-hook-filemanager.sh.template, and picasa-hook-mimehandler.sh.template in the /opt/picasa/desktop directory to customize your email client, file manager, and external image viewer settings, respectively.

Q: Why do I get an error when I try to use Internet features behind a proxy?

If you are behind a proxy and get the error "You must have an internet connection to use this feature", run the following command to start Picasa's regedit:

/opt/picasa/bin/wrapper regedit

Then follow the guide at http://www.pctools.com/guides/registry/detail/292/ to set the proxy.

Known issues:

Q: What are the known issues/bugs in Picasa for Linux?

The system tray does not close with loss of focus. If you bring up the media detector menu, you have to either start picasa or stop the media detector to get the menu to go away.
This version of Picasa for Linux does not support movie files.
Picasa notices don't stay on a given desktop. Picasa pops up notices to let you know it's found new photos or has added photos to its library. These notices come on the current desktop; some users would rather they stayed on the same desktop that Picasa itself was on.
Music playback during slideshow doesn't work.
If you have a remote home directory, the performance may be poor. Picasa uses many small files in the ~/.picasa directory, and if the home directory is slow, then Picasa will be slow. Picasa will warn you if it detects your home directory is on NFS. To work around this, you can create the directory /var/opt/picasa with permissions 1777, and Picasa will use a subdirectory of that instead of ~/.picasa. See the comments in /opt/picasa/bin/wrapper.
A few print providers (namely Photobox) do not work correctly.
On multi-monitor displays, some interface elements do not display correctly. We currently do not have full Xinerama support.
The the BlogThis! Blogger window, palette selector is truncated. You can’t change colors of text while posting to your blog.
The the BlogThis! Blogger window, URL check availability feature reports 'checking availability...' forever.
In the BlogThis! Blogger window, CreateLink and SpellCheck buttons are not functioning.
Running Picasa with SELinux enabled may cause problems. We recommend you look for ways to temporarily disable SELinux

Q: Where can I get patches?

To get patches on Picasa for Linux, go to http://code.google.com/wine.html. Please note that most of these patches are already in the main wine tree at winehq.org.

General

Q: How do I send feedback on Picasa for Linux?

Please leave feedback for us on the Picasa for Linux Google Group

Q: What's different between the Windows version of Picasa and Picasa for Linux?

There are a few differences:

Google's Hello photo-messaging application is Windows only, so it’s not currently integrated with Picasa for Linux.
Picasa for Linux doesn't burn CDs directly, but the "Backup" and "Gift CD" functions will generate ISO images which you can burn to CD using your preferred Linux tools.
There’s currently no Export to TiVo® feature.
The screensaver option is currently disabled.

Q: Will more Google applications be ported to Linux under Wine?

If Picasa for Linux is successful, then other Google applications (and future versions of Picasa) may also be ported using Wine. For more info on Wine, please visit http://winehq.org.

Q: What other Google applications run on Linux?

Google has released the following Linux applications besides Picasa:
Google Toolbar, Google Desktop, and Google Earth.

Q: Is Picasa for Linux open source?

Picasa for Linux isn’t open source; it uses a carefully tested version of Wine to run the current Windows version of Picasa. Wine itself is an open-source implementation of the Windows API. It runs on top of the X Window System and Linux or Unix.

Q. Where can I get the source code for the open source portions of Picasa for Linux?

Most of our changes to Wine have already been applied to the main wine tree at http://www.winehq.org. You can get a full archive of all the open source used for the released version of Picasa at http://dl.google.com/linux/src/picasa-current.oss.tar.

To source archives for previous releases can be found at "http://dl.google.com/linux/src/picasa-<version>.oss.tar", where <version> is the Picasa for Linux release you are interested in (e.g. 2.2.2820-5).

Q: What are the Picasa for Linux Terms of Service?

Please see the Google Terms of Service.