gnome.nautilus: No thumbnails for heic/heif files

[asbachb]

Describe the bug

Gnome nautilus does not generate thumbnails for heic/heif files.

Steps To Reproduce

Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Ensure thumbnails are enabled in preferences
2. Open a folder containing heic files

Screenshots

Notify maintainers

@hedning
@jtojnar
@dasj19
@maxeaubrey

Metadata

 asbachb@nixos-t14s  ~  nix-shell -p nix-info --run "nix-info -m"
 - system: `"x86_64-linux"`
 - host os: `Linux 5.16.12, NixOS, 22.05 (Quokka)`
 - multi-user?: `yes`
 - sandbox: `yes`
 - version: `nix-env (Nix) 2.7.0`
 - channels(asbachb): `""`
 - channels(root): `"nixos, nixos-hardware"`
 - nixpkgs: `/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/root/channels/nixos`

[jtojnar]

Hi, this is well known issue, see #87033. Currently it is blocked on #153275.

[usul0184]

Sorry, a bit confused; it looks like #87033 is closed as complete. #153275 is still in draft, though. Is the blocker still #153275?

[jtojnar]

Actually, #153275 was not a blocker for this issue, only for displaying the files in eog.

environment.systemPackages = [ pkgs.libheif pkgs.libheif.out ];
environment.pathsToLink = [ "share/thumbnailers" ];

should be sufficient since #212842 added libheif pixbuf-loader and thumbnailer.

[jtojnar]

I think this can be closed, people can install the package if they want.

[usul0184]

Is heif.thumbnailer supposed to be automatically installed into /run/current-system/sw/share/thumbnailers? If not, how do you do so? Thanks!

[jtojnar]

See #164021 (comment)

[usul0184]

Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but I still don't see heif.thumbnailer in /run/current-system/sw/share/thumbnailers even after adding environment.pathsToLink = [ "share/thumbnailers" ];? For what it's worth, I do see evince.thumbnailer, gnome-font-viewer.thumbnailer, and totem.thumbnailer.

[jtojnar]

Apparently, libheif has bin as the default output so you would need environment.systemPackages = [ pkgs.libheif pkgs.libheif.out ];

Edit: the thumbnailer file does not use an absolute path so you need both outputs.

[Saiv46]

@jtojnar Shouldn't this be included in package itself? Or maybe as heif-thumbnailer like other distributions did

environment.systemPackages = [ pkgs.libheif pkgs.libheif.out ];
environment.pathsToLink = [ "share/thumbnailers" ];

[jtojnar]

It would be possible to add it to Nautilus but it is not clear to me how common these file types are and if the increased closure size is worth it. We already had people complaining about our Nautilus package being bloated by GStreamer.

environment.pathsToLink is only necessary if you do not use a desktop environment (e.g. GNOME) or build your own from scratch.

It would be nice to split the thumbnailer into a separate output so that user could just install pkgs.libheif.thumnailer. We have an issue about that: #32817 Patches welcome.

[Saiv46]

environment.pathsToLink is only necessary if you do not use a desktop environment (e.g. GNOME)

Well, I use Cinnamon right from NixOS installer, it's strange how it's not working out-of-the-box.

[jtojnar]

Cinnamon links everything in /share just like GNOME:

nixpkgs/nixos/modules/services/x11/desktop-managers/cinnamon.nix

Line 210 in 535b744

"/share" # TODO: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/47173