Thanks for taking the time to report this bug.
This bug report isn't very useful because it doesn't describe the bug well. If you have time and can still reproduce the bug, please read http://bugzilla.gnome.org/bug-HOWTO.html and add a more useful description to this bug.

Sorry, I didn't describe the problem clearly 'cause I use gimp in Chinese. 

Here comes the right one:
My operating system is win XP sp3,  and I use gimp 2.8 windows intaller.
the eyedropper (color picker) of FG/BG dialog actually doesn't work. every click and pick leds to a selection of black color.

It can always be reproduced.

Confirming.

This could be related to bug #666940, although that one is claimed to only happen on a secondary screen.

I am having the same problem, also in GIMP 2.8, I'm on Windows 7, 64 bit. 

It's not the color picker tool, but the color picker in the Change Foreground/Background color tool, as well as the color picker in the Change Text Color tool, the picker will only choose black (00000), no matter what layer, color whatever you're trying to choose. 

Expected using secondary color picker to choose color selected, instead selects black (000000) every time. 

This problem is recurring, through different sessions of opening GIMP, different shutdowns of this computer. I did NOT have this problem with GIMP 2.6 (before I updated a few weeks ago, maybe May 25?)

The actual color picker tool works around it, but it's a pain... I'm not certain if this means that it's on a secondary screen, but. 

This makes me really sad, is there anything that I can do to work towards a solution?

Windows XP SP3, Gimp 2.8
I am having a similar Problem with the color picker.
If in a script-fu a parameter SF-COLOR is to choose, the color picker always selects black. All script-fu's with this option do not work in Gimp 2.8.
In Gimp 2.6.12 they do.

*** Bug 679727 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Confirmed in Win XP 32-bit, SP3. Gimp 2.8 color picker does not work. When you selecte either the foreground or background color from the tools pallet and then click on the color picker icon to grab a color from the image (or screen for that matter) you cannot pick any color. No matter what color you click on, black is the color returned (html notation 000000)

Uninstalled 2.8 and reinstalled 2.6.11 and the color picker works fine. This is a 2.8 bug.

*** Bug 678748 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

*** Bug 678495 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Confirmed, GIMP 2.8, Windows 7 64 bit, 
Not workaround yet?

Confirming this for the native Mac build 2.8.2 and thus setting 'OS' to 'All'. The eyedropper in Colours/Colour to Alpha is affected, too. A workaround for the latter (thanks to Burnuser in bug #683152): 
1. Pick a color with the Colour picker tool in the toolbox (that works).
2. Right click on the color button and choose Foreground Colour.

IIRC there is a dedicated bug for the OS X platform.

Michael, I couldn't find one. Can you provide the proper number, please? Perhaps a fix for that one could fix this issue, too.

The OS X one is bug 576124. 

A similar discussion has happened a few weeks ago on IRC (are you there?), and the conclusion was that all of this is platform-specific. We should not generalize any of these bugs without sound proof that the same code paths are involved.

It's indeed different code paths.

for me it works, cannot reproduce problem (Win 7 64 bit, GIMP 2.8.2)

I submitted Bug 678495, which has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. In my submission I mentioned that I experienced this only in some of the visual themes in Windows (Windows Basic). Perhaps it may be worth investigating the reasons for this?

If we had some windows developers we would :) But thanks for the hint,
it sounds worth looking into.

Noticed this bug yesterday on Windowx XP, 32 Bit with 2.8.4.! Pipette works, color picker from the color choosing dialog doesn't and returns black color. No additional info, sorry...

I can confirm this bug for the macosx version of gimp.

Wolf, please see comment #16  - please do not mix different platforms, as the code paths are different for this.

Using GIMP color picker of color dialog does not work.
in the color palette is next to HTML-Notation a button with the eyedropper. 
Clicking on this button, the mouse can be moved (arrow-symbol).
A symbol for the eyedropper does not show up, 
and a color can not be selected. 
The eyedropper button "freezes", i.e. can not be pushed again.

I filed a bug report (with a patch) to cairo bugzilla:

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=69617

on XP, cairo considers an empty Clip on the root window as 
an empty window. 

On my Win7/64bit the color dialog color picker works as
intended.

Having the same problem in GIMP 2.8.8 on Windows XP, 32 bit.

Paul's problem (#24) is not what I have. The eyedropper symbol shows up after clicking the button. When I click (to select a color) the symbol disappears, returning the standard cursor, but no color is selected (or black).

Yeah, the cause has been identified by Massimo (see comment 25). And because that problem is outside of GIMP, it still happens with 2.8.10.

the bug affects Gimp. so it is not outside of it

:)

prince: The problem lies in the Cairo codebase. That is outside of GIMP's codebase. GIMP depends on Cairo. See comment 25 where this was explained already.

*** Bug 725028 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Hi,
I have the same bug with Win 7 64bits Fr and Gimp 2.8.14 Fr.

When I clic on the foreground color to change it, then i select the color picker,  then clic on a color on my screen (only one screen) the actual color stay black. Then, to try again, when i clic again on color picker and then on a color on my screen, The Gimp freeze! and Windows tell me this program is not responding and suggest me to close Gimp...

i made a mistake on the second part the gimp freeze only if i select a color on a particular place of the screen : on the gimp's toolbar

I can confirm that also in One Window Mode (and Split Window Mode Win7 x64)

I have alway to copy or type manually the color code in the dialog for "Color to Transparency". :-[

I have the same problem (color picker always pick black) on Win7 x64 using the latest official 2.8.16 release. Is there a mode in which I can pick up the color and see its HTML code, so that I can type it in later?

I do have that problem on Fedora 25 with Wayland.

New bug or does it belong here?

I only have on primary external screen.

New one, please - this one is platform-specific.

Could this be related to bug 740634?

I guess not, but since we are using native color picking API now,
this bug might be fixed as well.

I'm seeing this problem as well... both the variant where GIMP freezes up (and clicking on it causes Windows to offer to check for solution/close/debug) and the variant where black is chosen.

Here's the info:
OS - Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit
GIMP - 2.8.20 official release

What I did:
I opened an existing .png file and saved it as a new .xcf.bz2 file.  It has a single layer with an alpha channel.  I clicked on the foreground color to bring up "Change Foreground Color."  Then I clicked the eyedropper and clicked a color on my image.  GIMP either froze or selected black (see below).

Variations:
I have 3 screens, and I have done this same procedure on all 3.

When I did it on the screen that Windows identifies as monitor 1, it selected black.  I also set the color to white first, and the color picker still selected black (wanted to verify that it wasn't just remaining unchanged from what was already selected for the foreground color).

When I did it on the other 2 screens (2 and 3), GIMP froze.

Hello Gordon, your description is consistent with bug 740634.

A fix is in the way for GIMP 2.8 and 2.9 for that specific issue, so I guess you will have to verify when the next version of GIMP is released.  It is still present in release 2.8.20/2.9.4.

In fact, it would be welcome if you could verify the fix when the next version of GIMP is released, and give some feedback, as this would help confirm if it works properly.

Best regards,
Eric

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