Package index is not downloaded after adding URL to preferences

[per1234]

Describe the bug

In order to install a 3rd party boards platform via Boards Manager, the user must first add its package index URL to the Arduino IDE's File > Preferences > Additional Boards Manager URLs field.

🐛 After doing that, they will open Boards Manager and expect to find the platforms from that package index listed in addition to the default platforms of the primary official package index, as it works in the classic IDE. However, those platforms will not be shown because the Arduino IDE never downloaded the new package index after the user added its URL to the preferences. The user must restart the IDE in order to trigger the package index download.

To Reproduce

1. If present, delete the following:
   • <directories.data>/package_esp32_index.json
   • <directories.data>/packages/esp32/hardware/
2. Start the Arduino IDE.
3. Select File > Preferences from the Arduino IDE menus.
4. Add the following URL:

   https://raw.githubusercontent.com/espressif/arduino-esp32/gh-pages/package_esp32_index.json
   

   (The issue is not specific to this package index. I just picked an arbitrary one for the sake of the demo.)
5. Click the OK button.
6. Watch directories.data for some time.
   🐛 Note that the expected package_esp32_index.json file never appeared.
7. Open Boards Manager
8. Watch directories.data for some time.
   🐛 Note that the expected package_esp32_index.json file never appeared.
9. Look for the expected "esp32 by Espressif Systems" platform in the Boards Manager offerings.
   🐛 Note that it is not present.
10. Select File > Quit from the Arduino IDE menus.
11. Start the Arduino IDE.
12. Watch directories.data.
    🙂 Note that the package_esp32_index.json file now appears.
13. Open Boards Manager
14. Look for the expected "esp32 by Espressif Systems" platform in the Boards Manager offerings.
    🙂 Note that it is now present.

Expected behavior

Package index is downloaded after adding a new URL to File > Preferences > Additional Boards Manager URLs.

Desktop

• OS: Windows 10, Ubuntu 20.04
• Version: 2.0.0-beta.12-snapshot.a090dfe
  Date: 2021-11-25T17:24:00.480Z
  CLI Version: 0.20.0 [553c6375]

[Azzkikin]

Are there other answers to this problem? Following the above steps does not load additional boards.

[per1234]

Hi @Azzkikin please make a post on the Arduino forum with a detailed description of what you have tried and the problem you encountered.

https://forum.arduino.cc/c/using-arduino/installation-troubleshooting/18

I'll make sure to check your post over there.

---

UPDATE:

• Forum thread: https://forum.arduino.cc/t/cannot-install-a-new-board-after-adding-url-to-preferences/969365
• Dedicated issue: Cannot install a new board after adding URL to preferences #911

[kittaakos]

Breaking: 7f8b227#diff-f463d1c276a9080ec522ead62c6dd596e5bf330b093b7d51b71738c9795d0fdaR66-R98

The super class' init method listens to the CLI config change events, but the custom init implementation of the Core client-provider does not do it.

The rest of the logic looks good:

• The frontend sends the new 3rd party URLs to the backend,
• The CLI daemon gets updated,
• The new values are correctly written to the CLI config file,
• But, the config change event is ignored, and the index update does not run.

Update:

I fixed the notification and ran the index updates but could not find the new core. The problem is that IDE2 must create and init a new core gRPC client after the config merge. Strange. I do not remember doing it. I have to investigate. Maybe the old code did that, or there was a CLI behavior change in 0.19.1. The current state does not do it for sure after this change.

I also noticed that the old code was able to wait. It's not possible with the current one according to changes here and here. The readiness of the service must be checked from the call-site. Not good.