How often is the Gnome Extensions list updated?

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1

It seems that we can only install Gnome extensions through our configuration.nix files (extensions.gnome.org isn’t working anymore, I’m getting a “Bad Request” error). However, an extension that I’m interested in was recently updated with a feature that I’d really like to use. It was updated just earlier today, but NixOS unstable channel extension list was last updated 20 days ago - History for pkgs/desktops/gnome/extensions/extensions.json - NixOS/nixpkgs · GitHub (I’m looking at the timestamp of the last change). Out of curiosity, how often are the gnome extensions lists updated? Is it regularly updated? Is there any way that I can force Nix to choose a newer version of an extension (one that hasn’t yet been pushed into our unstable channel)?

Thanks!

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The update process is manual, see the extensions README for the instructions, so it is mostly updated when someone remembers to do it.

The latest iteration is https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/180482. After it is merged, the standard automated channel update process applies.

You can override the parameters of buildGnomeExtension as follows but you will need a base64-encoded content of metadata.json file from the extension:

(gnomeExtensions.shell-configurator.override {
  version = "5";
  metadata = "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";
  sha256 = "sha256-LrEOMq7iE/DFf7EEsP13cfd9xDma47XKLasjLNJt2iI=";
})

To get it, I would recommend running the extensions update process in your local checkout of Nixpkgs and then copying the content of metadata and sha256 fields from the updated extensions.json file.

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Some additional points:

  • The extensions updates are not backported to release branches, so if you are using a stable release you need to override the extensions with the unstable channel.
  • You should still be able to install extensions locally through the browser. Both should work out fine alongside each other.
4

Thanks @jtojnar! Your comment was very informative!

That PR is perfectly timed as well, I’ll use the override until unstable is updated with it.

@piegames Thanks! Regarding installing through the browser, that’s actually what I used to do but it’s been completely broken for me for the last few days at least (I havent tried in a while though, so I don’t know when it started breaking). For example, if I try to update Applications Menu - GNOME Shell Extensions, I get the following error in my journalctl logs:

JS ERROR: Extension apps-menu@gnome-shell-extensions.gcampax.github.com: Error: Unexpected response: Bad Request                                              
checkResponse@resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/extensionDownloader.js:95:15                                              
installExtension@resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/extensionDownloader.js:45:22                                              
async*InstallRemoteExtensionAsync@resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/shellDBus.js:439:36                                              
_handleMethodCall@resource:///org/gnome/gjs/modules/core/overrides/Gio.js:354:35                                              
_wrapJSObject/<@resource:///org/gnome/gjs/modules/core/overrides/Gio.js:387:34
5

In case anyone else is looking at this:

It looks like the above “Bad Request” error was actually a problem on the side of extensions.gnome.org!

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