Shell ignores all search results if not all metadata available

[Sebastien Bacher]

Using current artful, g-s 3.25.91 and snapd-glib 1.18, looking for "vlc" or "gimp" in the gnome-shell overview returns a "no result", after deleting the snapd plugin and restarting g-s it lists them fine

bug #1713929 is about the fact that there are no snap listed, this bug about the fact that one plugin can/do block others from returning results

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Using current artful, g-s 3.25.91 and snapd-glib 1.18, looking for "vlc" or "gimp" in the gnome-shell overview returns a "no result", after deleting the snapd plugin and restarting g-s it lists them fine

There is an issue in the snap plugin there but also in the gnome-software behaviour, one buggy plugin shouldn't stop other plugins to return their results

Reported on https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-software/+bug/1713931

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

it doesn't seem to block all queries but the ones which should return a deb and a snap, if you look for something which isn't snapped (e.g "pidgin") that gets listed

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

the description is a bit misleading, it returns results but only for things which don't have a snap available (e.g "pidgin"), those which have a deb and a snap don't get listed

[Robert Ancell (robert-ancell)]

What seems to be occurring here:
1. GNOME Shell sends the search term to GNOME Software.
2. GNOME Software does a search for this by passing the search term to each plugin.
3. Both the appstream and the snap plugin return results.
4. The IDs are sent back to the Shell.
5. The shell asks for additional metadata on these IDs.
6. For some reason, we don't get data for the snaps, but we do for the appstream IDs.
7. Only some of the metadata is returned to the Shell.
8. The Shell ignores all the results because not all the metadata is there

js/ui/search.js:

  if (metas.length != metasNeeded.length) {
    log('Wrong number of result metas returned by search provider ' + this.provider.id +
        ': expected ' + metasNeeded.length + ' but got ' + metas.length);
    callback(false);
    return;
  }

So if we fix bug 1713929 this would probably not be an issue, but the specific cause of this bug is the Shell.

[Robert Ancell (robert-ancell)]

This is occurring because a bug in GNOME Software is causing GetResultMetas() to not return metadata for the snap results. This is causing the Shell to ignore all results. It probably should just use the results it can get.

js/ui/search.js:

  if (metas.length != metasNeeded.length) {
    log('Wrong number of result metas returned by search provider ' + this.provider.id +
        ': expected ' + metasNeeded.length + ' but got ' + metas.length);
    callback(false);
    return;
  }

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[KrosseKrabbe (krossekrabbe)]

Not sure if I am experiencing exactly the same bug, but it sounds like it.

Installed "KeePassXC" as snap from the software center, now searching for "keepass" is returning "KeePassX" and "keepass-elopio", but not the installed KeePassXC :-[ So I have to open up the software center to start KeePassXC.

[KrosseKrabbe (krossekrabbe)]

➜ ~ gnome-software --version
gnome-software 3.26.1
➜ ~ gnome-shell --version
GNOME Shell 3.26.2

[Gnome-sysadmin (gnome-sysadmin)]

GNOME is going to shut down bugzilla.gnome.org in favor of gitlab.gnome.org.
As part of that, we are mass-closing older open tickets in bugzilla.gnome.org
which have not seen updates for a longer time (resources are unfortunately
quite limited so not every ticket can get handled).

If you can still reproduce the situation described in this ticket in a recent
and supported software version, then please follow
  https://wiki.gnome.org/GettingInTouch/BugReportingGuidelines
and create a new ticket at
  https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/-/issues/

Thank you for your understanding and your help.