[game-launcher][BUG] Steam games are not detected on NixOS

[dinhokusanagi]

Submission checklist

• I have searched existing issues and confirmed this is not a duplicate.
• I am using the latest available version of Noctalia and of the plugin.
• This is a bug in a community plugin, not in Noctalia itself (those belong in the noctalia repo).

Plugin

game-launcher

Plugin version

v1.0.0

Bug description

The Game Launcher plugin does not detect Steam games installed through NixOS. My Steam library is located at:

/home/dinho/.local/share/Steam/steamapps

The plugin only searches the following Steam paths:

const char *steam_roots[] = {
"/Steam",
"/.steam/steam",
NULL
};

Steps to reproduce

Steps to reproduce

1. Install Steam on NixOS.
2. Install at least one game through Steam.
3. Confirm that Steam game manifests exist in ~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps.
4. Install and open the Noctalia Game Launcher community plugin.
5. Trigger a library scan or refresh.
6. Observe that no Steam games are detected or displayed.

Workaround

1. Edit gamelauncher.c and add "/.local/share/Steam" to steam_roots[].
2. Recompile the gamelauncher binary.
3. Run the scanner again.
4. Observe that Steam games are now detected correctly.

Expected behavior

The plugin should also detect Steam installations located at:

~/.local/share/Steam

Actual behavior

o games are shown in the Game Launcher, even though Steam game manifests exist in:

~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps

Logs / error output

Noctalia version

noctalia v5.0.0

Compositor

Niri

Environment information

Additional context

• Steam is installed on NixOS using the native NixOS package, not Flatpak.
• The Steam library is located at: /home/dinho/.local/share/Steam/steamapps.
• Steam manifests such as appmanifest_570.acf are present in that directory.
• The plugin source code only searches the following Steam roots by default:

const char *steam_roots[] = {
    "/Steam",
    "/.steam/steam",
    NULL
};

• The path "/.local/share/Steam" is not included in steam_roots[].
• After adding "/.local/share/Steam" to steam_roots[] and recompiling the gamelauncher binary, Steam games were detected successfully.
• This appears to be a missing default Steam path for NixOS installations.

[spiros132]

CC @Ahmed5Emad

[Ahmed5Emad]

store data on nix and I will fix it ,it's about data storage

[Ahmed5Emad]

Sorry didn't use nix before I will add os detection for it

[dinhokusanagi]

Sorry didn't use nix before I will add os detection for it

Thanks! If you need any testing on NixOS, I'd be happy to test it and provide feedback.

[Ahmed5Emad]

Thanks! If you need any testing on NixOS, I'd be happy to test it and provide feedback.

ok I just added your fix it is better than os detection and more reliable
just test then close the issue

[Ahmed5Emad]

CC @Ahmed5Emad

thanks for mentioning me other wise , I wouldn't even see it

[dinhokusanagi]

CC @Ahmed5Emad

thanks for mentioning me other wise , I wouldn't even see it

No problem! Thank you for your work and for fixing this issue. I really appreciate your time and effort.

[dinhokusanagi]

Found another NixOS-specific issue after the Steam path fix.

The plugin tries to compile the scanner using /usr/bin/cc, but NixOS doesn't have the compiler available there.

I tested manually from:

~/.local/state/noctalia/plugins/materialized/community/game-launcher

with:

gcc gamelauncher.c -o gamelauncher $(pkg-config --cflags --libs sqlite3)

After creating the gamelauncher binary in that directory, the games appeared correctly.

Using cc from PATH instead of /usr/bin/cc should make the automatic build work on NixOS.

[Ahmed5Emad]

Found another NixOS-specific issue after the Steam path fix. The plugin tries to compile gamelauncher using /usr/bin/cc, but NixOS doesn't have compilers in /usr/bin. After manually compiling with:

gcc gamelauncher.c -o gamelauncher $(pkg-config --cflags --libs sqlite3)

the games appeared correctly. Using cc from PATH instead of /usr/bin/cc should make it work on NixOS too.

oh another path related error , anyway I am did pull request for my new plugin after it finished , I will create another one fix this it is easy error that just come with me thinking all distro at least store data the same sorry

[dinhokusanagi]

oh another path related error , anyway I am did pull request for my new plugin after it finished , I will create another one fix this it is easy error that just come with me thinking all distro at least store data the same sorry

No worries! Thanks for the quick response and for taking the time to fix these NixOS issues. I really appreciate it. I'll be happy to test the new PR once it's ready.