How to put a box around something in GIMP?

This is a very simply question, but one that I have been struggling to find an answer to: How can I put a box outline around something in GIMP? So that you can easily circle (but with a rectangle or square and not a circle) something in an image that you want to point out to someone. Or is there a better tool which would easily allow it without lots of manual drawing if it cannot easily be done in GIMP? When on Windows I would use Paint for this as I could not find an option in GIMP, but now in Ubuntu I can't find anything else to do it in.

Solution 1:

Select the area you would like to outline with the rectangle select tool.

go to Edit > Stroke Selection.

You will get a dialogue. Choosing Solid Line will create an outline using the currently selected foreground color. Choosing Stroke with a Paint Tool will give you more creativity.

Solution 2:

Create new layer.
Rectangle select for outer wall of rectangle.
Bucket fill that rectangle or paste a texture if you want to use a texture for your outline.
Edit shrink selection by the width you want for your rectangle.
Cut.
Right click on the layer and merge the layer down.