[BUG] Plugins installed with zip or link do not show up until decky restarts

[PartyWumpus]

Please confirm

• I have searched existing issues
• This issue is not a duplicate of an existing one
• I have checked the common issues section in the readme file
• I have attached logs to this bug report (failure to include logs will mean your issue may not be responded to).

Bug Report Description

Install a plugin with zip or with link in the developer settings, it will not show up in the plugins list until decky restarts (restarting the frontend alone does not fix it, so it's a problem in the backend). Looking through the code, I can't really tell why this happens, as the function calls look the same. (maybe the InstallType is wrong?)

Expected Behaviour

The plugin should appear right away.

SteamOS version

SteamOS 3.5 Main, and my EndevourOS desktop

Selected Update Channel

Prerelease

Have you modified the read-only filesystem at any point?

No response

Logs

deckylog.txt

[eXhumer]

Hello. I came across this as well when I had to install TabMaster's new update and did a bit more digging through the code to figure out the problem, it seems to be due to the code in src/backend/browser.py backend code, more specifically the _install method inside it.

First issue is when the function tries to determine if the plugin is already installed, it fails this check until the ZIP file is named exactly the same as the plugin name

decky-loader/backend/src/browser.py

Line 166 in 9295e4b

pluginFolderPath = self.find_plugin_folder(name)

Any ZIP which is not named exactly as the plugin name will fail this check always and will assume the plugin is not installed already.

decky-loader/backend/src/browser.py

Lines 111 to 120 in 9295e4b

	def find_plugin_folder(self, name: str) -> str | None:
	for folder in listdir(self.plugin_path):
	try:
	with open(path.join(self.plugin_path, folder, 'plugin.json'), "r", encoding="utf-8") as f:
	plugin = json.load(f)
	if plugin['name'] == name:
	return folder
	except:
	logger.debug(f"skipping {folder}")

This piece of code is never executed as a result of the failed check

decky-loader/backend/src/browser.py

Lines 206 to 212 in 9295e4b

	# If plugin is installed, uninstall it
	if isInstalled:
	try:
	logger.debug("Uninstalling existing plugin...")
	await self.uninstall_plugin(name)
	except:
	logger.error(f"Plugin {name} could not be uninstalled.")

And this is the final bit of mistake. ZIP is extracted, but since the find_plugin_folder fails, it raises AssertionError because of an empty plugin_folder and halts the rest of the code execution.

decky-loader/backend/src/browser.py

Lines 214 to 219 in 9295e4b

	# Install the plugin
	logger.debug("Unzipping...")
	ret = self._unzip_to_plugin_dir(res_zip, name, hash)
	if ret:
	plugin_folder = self.find_plugin_folder(name)
	assert plugin_folder is not None

Install from ZIP/URL will correctly work only if the ZIP file is named the same as the plugin name.

[eXhumer]

This ultimately boils down to what "name" is assigned when requesting to install the plugin.

When using the plugin storefront or reinstalling it, the plugin name is provided directly from the frontend. While install from URL, it instead strips out the .zip extension from the filename and uses it as the name.

decky-loader/frontend/src/store.tsx

Lines 73 to 90 in 9295e4b

	export async function installFromURL(url: string) {
	const splitURL = url.split('/');
	await window.DeckyPluginLoader.callServerMethod('install_plugin', {
	name: splitURL[splitURL.length - 1].replace('.zip', ''),
	artifact: url,
	});
	}
	export async function requestPluginInstall(plugin: string, selectedVer: StorePluginVersion, installType: InstallType) {
	const artifactUrl = selectedVer.artifact ?? pluginUrl(selectedVer.hash);
	await window.DeckyPluginLoader.callServerMethod('install_plugin', {
	name: plugin,
	artifact: artifactUrl,
	version: selectedVer.name,
	hash: selectedVer.hash,
	install_type: installType,
	});
	}

The best suggestion I have is to fetch the ZIP and read the plugin.json directly from the ZIP to get the plugin name correctly while installing from developer mode.

[PartyWumpus]

Good job figuring that one out, thank you.
Will be good to get this fixed.

[PartyWumpus]

This was fixed a while ago, forgot to close the issue. Thanks for this!