gimp can't open images - probably an easy fix
 

I can't open any files such as .png's or .jpg's in gimp. How can I change this. I installed it via pacman. I don't know if this helps, but I'm running kde with arch. I'm guessing I need to add the path of libpng to the plugins section. What should I do?

I have installed GIMP on Arch Linux at least 20 times---and I have never had to add a path or do anything special.

Any issue with the permissions on the files?

Can you create an image and then open that?

<edit> Are you double-clicking on the files or opening from within GIMP?

are you double clicking then you should right click on the image and select openwith and select GIMP. Or first open GIMP and then File->Open and select files.