Bug 436932

Summary:	Provide a better placeholder message when no app-backends are available
Product:	[Applications] Discover	Reporter:	Alex <alex765>
Component:	discover	Assignee:	Dan Leinir Turthra Jensen <leinir>
Status:	CONFIRMED ---
Severity:	minor	CC:	aleixpol, nate
Priority:	NOR	Keywords:	usability
Version First Reported In:	5.21.4
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Fedora RPMs
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:
Attachments:	Screenshot of error message No apps backend Even worse now

Description Alex 2021-05-11 15:13:58 UTC

Created attachment 138344 [details]
Screenshot of error message

See https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=436722#c5

You can reproduce this by running Discover like so:

plasma-discover --backends fwupd-backend

For whatever reason, it fails due to this error:

org.kde.plasma.libdiscover: Couldn't find a category for  "fwupd-backend"

...despite fwupd.service being active and running on my system. This bug is about the resultant error message though, which tells me to "Please verify Internet connectivity", when my internet connection is perfectly fine.

Comment 1 Aleix Pol 2021-05-17 23:18:12 UTC

I consider not having any apps backend a distribution's bug.

This message just reflects what it means when no backend offers apps.

Comment 2 Nate Graham 2021-05-18 19:07:17 UTC

The fact that we allow Discover to be packaged and run with no backends means it's a legitimate use. You could use Discover purely for firmware updates and KNS content downloading+updating, for example.

If we want this to be an invalid usage, I think we need to require at least one app backend in the code itself, so it's impossible for distros to package it contrary to our wishes without manual patching.

If we're not willing to do that, we probably need to do as the bug reporter requests and improve the error message.

Comment 3 Aleix Pol 2021-05-24 01:25:14 UTC

Created attachment 138729 [details]
No apps backend

This behaviour only happens when you run with --backends.

What are you trying to achieve exactly?

Comment 4 Nate Graham 2023-01-12 17:52:18 UTC

Created attachment 155244 [details]
Even worse now

Urgh, it's even worse now. See screenshot.