software-center dependency on lzma is suboptimal

[Matthew Paul Thomas]

Third-party .deb packages -- such as Opera and Chrome -- sometimes have their data.tar portion compressed using LZMA.

Until Ubuntu 11.10 this wasn't a problem, because the lzma package was installed by default. In 11.10, however, it was not (bug 868188).
<http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=1124872&t=1318873023&page=1#comment10564932>

To work around this problem, software-center 5.0.2 Recommends lzma.

However, as described by ruario in that bug report, "the lzma package installs the older lzma utils, which are no longer actively maintained[. T]he upstream maintainer of lzma utils is the same as xz utils. He considers xz to be the replacement for lzma, which is why it is backwards compatible".

While the xz-utils source package has been in Main at least since Lucid, the xz-lzma binary package inside it is in Universe.

So, xz-lzma should be promoted to Main, apt should use xz-lzma, and software-center should no longer Recommend lzma.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package software-center - 5.2

---------------
software-center (5.2) precise; urgency=low

  [ Michael Vogt ]
  * debian/control:
    - recommend xz-lmza instead of lzma (LP: #878354)
  * lp:~mvo/software-center/track-axi-changes:
    - add a monitor for changes in the apt-xapian-index to ensure
      the DB is reopened if the cron job changes the apt-xapian-index
      database (LP: #507836)
  * lp:~mvo/software-center/lp970342:
    - do not crash if the parent goes away (and therefore the pipe)
      and the token can not be obtained (LP: #970342)
  * lp:~mvo/software-center/lp967036:
    - fix UnicodeDecodeError crash for apps with hardware
      requirements in the details view (LP: #967036)
  * lp:~mvo/software-center/list-a11y:
    - restore the a11y support for orca/accerciser/ldtp for
      the listview and treeview
  * lp:~mvo/software-center/lp979013:
    - fix a bug in the review display for certain language
      environments (LP: #979013)
  * lp:~mvo/software-center/appview-tweaks:
    - code cleanup in the sortmode code
  * lp:~mvo/software-center/lp772549:
    - fix a bug that can result in a blank software center
      screen on startup (LP: #772549)
  * lp:~mvo/software-center/lp914393:
    - adds an explicit sys.exit() to ensure all gtk event
      processing is stopped on application quit (LP: #914393)
  * lp:~mvo/software-center/lp976169:
    - do not crash if apt-xapian-index is not installed
      (LP: #976337)
    - ignore xapian.DatabaseOpeningError here (happens when
      there is no a-x-i so we don't care) (LP: #976169)
  * lp:~mvo/software-center/lp976525:
    - do not show "upgradable" button when there should be "remove"
      (LP: #976525)

  [ Gary Lasker ]
  * lp:~gary-lasker/software-center/sorting-fix-lp969215:
    - fix sort combo box inconsistencies (LP: #969215)

  [ Dave Morley ]
  * lp:~davmor2/software-center/remove_two_lines:
    - small fixes for test script USC-start-stop-times.py

  [ Kiwinote ]
  * sc/ui/gtk3/widgets/apptreeview.py:
    - everyone tries to expand a category in the installed pane by clicking
      on the text rather than the expander arrow (LP: #877130)
 -- Michael Vogt <email address hidden> Fri, 13 Apr 2012 18:35:13 +0200

[Julian Andres Klode (juliank)]

Since some time, apt uses the lzma/xz library, so the problem is solved on our side.

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

The Precise Pangolin has reached end of life, so this bug will not be fixed for that release