I just created a simple plugin as described here (Only the view/layout.html and a CSS) : http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.comp.python.web2py/71183
Here is the content of the w2p plugin file : pivert@skinner:~/Downloads$ tar -ztvf web2py.plugin.layout_name.w2p -rw-rw---- francoisd/www-data 6279 2012-05-26 13:27 views/plugin_layout_name /layout.html drwxrwx--- francoisd/www-data 0 2012-05-28 23:44 static/ plugin_layout_name/css/ -rw-rw---- francoisd/www-data 5237 2012-05-28 23:43 static/ plugin_layout_name/css/name.css drwxrwx--- francoisd/www-data 0 2012-05-28 23:48 static/ plugin_layout_name/images/ -rw-rw---- francoisd/www-data 2796 2012-05-22 23:46 static/ plugin_layout_name/images/logo-name.gif -rw-rw---- francoisd/www-data 754 2012-05-22 23:46 static/ plugin_layout_name/images/header.gif And if I deploy from the web admin interface, I have the "App does not exist or your are not authorized" error.