some xfce panel plugins don't work unless defined in systemPackages

[jficz]

Describe the bug
At least

    xfce.xfce4-xkb-plugin
    xfce.xfce4-cpugraph-plugin
    xfce.xfce4-systemload-plugin
    xfce.xfce4-cpufreq-plugin

plugins are not available in xfce panel setup unless installed via environment.systemPackages.

Tried home-manager packages and nix-env -iA options, neither works.

To Reproduce

1. xserver.....xfce.enable = true
2. nix-env -iA xfce.xfce4-xkb-plugin || home.packages = [ ... pkgs.xfce.xfce4-xkb-plugin ...]
3. setup plugin in xfce panel (panel -> add new items)

Expected behavior
Keyboard plugin should be listed among available plugins.

Actual behavior
The plugin is not listed.

Additional context
Using home-manager for ~.

Notify maintainers
@AndersonTorres

Metadata

 - system: `"x86_64-linux"`
 - host os: `Linux 5.6.15, NixOS, 20.09pre227577.135073a87b7 (Nightingale)`
 - multi-user?: `yes`
 - sandbox: `yes`
 - version: `nix-env (Nix) 2.3.5`
 - channels(user): `"home-manager, nixos-20.09pre227294.46f975f81e0, stable-19.09.2505.35eda4aede5, unstable-20.09pre227294.46f975f81e0"`
 - channels(test): `"home-manager"`
 - channels(root): `"nixos-20.09pre227577.135073a87b7, nixos-hardware"`
 - nixpkgs: `/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/root/channels/nixos`

Maintainer information:

# a list of nixos modules affected by the problem
module: pkgs.xfce

[stale]

I marked this as stale due to inactivity. → More info

[novoid]

I most probably do have the very same issue: novoid/nixos-config#2 novoid/nixos-config#3 novoid/nixos-config#4 novoid/nixos-config#5

[novoid]

I just moved the list of xfce packages including the add-ons/plugins from homemanager/xfce.nix to configuration.nix (NixOS without/outside of Home-Manager) and then it worked.

So with Home-manager, it seems to be the case that xfce plugins are not indexed/found.

[D3vil0p3r]

Same issue: it is not only an issue related to home-manager. It occurs only when you configure these packages in the following manner:

  users.users.athena = {
    isNormalUser = true;
    description = "athena";
    extraGroups = [ "networkmanager" "wheel" ];
    packages = with pkgs; [
      xfce.xfce4-cpugraph-plugin
      xfce.xfce4-docklike-plugin
      xfce.xfce4-genmon-plugin
      xfce.xfce4-pulseaudio-plugin
      xfce.xfce4-settings
      xfce.xfce4-whiskermenu-plugin
    ];
  };

As already mentioned, they work only if installed by:

  environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [
    xfce.xfce4-cpugraph-plugin
    xfce.xfce4-docklike-plugin
    xfce.xfce4-genmon-plugin
    xfce.xfce4-pulseaudio-plugin
    xfce.xfce4-settings
    xfce.xfce4-whiskermenu-plugin
  ];

Could it be some XFCE plugins like the one listed in these comments have been packaged in a wrong manner?

@bobby285271 @romildo @muscaln what do you think?

[AldebaraanMKII]

I got the same issue. Placing them inside environment.systemPackages made them appear after rebuild. I`m not using home-manager.