deb v. 5.8 is not installable on Debian

[Doc73]

JabRef version

5.8 (latest release)

Operating system

GNU / Linux

Details on version and operating system

Debian 11 Bullseye

Checked with the latest development build

• I made a backup of my libraries before testing the latest development version.
• I have tested the latest development version and the problem persists

Steps to reproduce the behaviour

Deb file of v. 5.8 is not installable due to unknown compression. Here is the steps to reproduce and the log:

1. sudo apt -f install ./jabref_5.8_amd64.deb

Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Note, selecting 'jabref' instead of './jabref_5.8_amd64.deb'
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  jabref
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/187 MB of archives.
After this operation, 227 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 ~/Scaricati/App/jabref_5.8_amd64.deb jabref amd64 5.8.60000 [187 MB]
dpkg-deb: error: archive '~/Scaricati/App/jabref_5.8_amd64.deb' uses unknown compression for member 'control.tar.zst', giving up dpkg: error processing archive ~/Scaricati/App/jabref_5.8_amd64.deb
 (--unpack):
 dpkg-deb --control subprocess returned error exit status 2
Errors were encountered while processing:
 ~/Scaricati/App/jabref_5.8_amd64.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Many thanks in advance,

Appendix

Log File

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Note, selecting 'jabref' instead of './jabref_5.8_amd64.deb'
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  jabref
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/187 MB of archives.
After this operation, 227 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 ~/Scaricati/App/jabref_5.8_amd64.deb jabref amd64 5.8.60000 [187 MB]
dpkg-deb: error: archive '~/Scaricati/App/jabref_5.8_amd64.deb' uses unknown compression for member 'control.tar.zst', giving up dpkg: error processing archive ~/Scaricati/App/jabref_5.8_amd64.deb
 (--unpack):
 dpkg-deb --control subprocess returned error exit status 2
Errors were encountered while processing:
 ~/Scaricati/App/jabref_5.8_amd64.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

[Doc73]

Here is another info, maybe useful: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/669004/zst-compression-not-supported-by-apt-dpkg

[calixtus]

Thanks for the quick feedback. Looks like this is a debian / jdk jpackage issue. As a temporary workaround I suggest using the portable version of jabref 5.8.

[Siedlerchr]

Related https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8293629

[koppor]

Debian eventually will support it https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=892664 - the concrete date is not known. I did not find anything for OpenJDK, so I asked the twitter brain: https://twitter.com/koppor/status/1604586662436442112

[Doc73]

@koppor
Debian freeze is sheduled for 2023-01-12 (cf. https://release.debian.org/bookworm/freeze_policy.html), but even if they add support for this library in v. 12 Bookworm (which I find unlikely), it will hardly be available for current stable v. 11 Bullseye.

[einhander]

Binary packages should be more compatible as possible, currently no Debian release support zstd compression for deb files.
EDIT: I rebuilded deb package for private use using unar and tar commands. If someone needs more detailed explanation, please reply this message.

[Siedlerchr]

Well, it's an issue of the jdk itself, but maybe we can change the compression level or repackage the deb files. In the forum someone wrote a solution to that. Alternatively, we could try if this works, but I have no idea where and if jpackage can pick this up https://stackoverflow.com/a/72359798/3450689 Spitsyn Andrey Aleksandrovich ***@***.***> schrieb am Di., 27. Dez. 2022, 10:55:

…

Binary packages should be more compatible as possible, currently no Debian release support zstd compression for deb files. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#9472 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AACOFZAC35DUMNUOEVOKBSDWPK4HZANCNFSM6AAAAAATCW3JXM> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[Siedlerchr]

For reference:
https://discourse.jabref.org/t/jabref-5-8-release/3671/3?u=siedlerchr

[Siedlerchr]

@Doc73 I implemented the repacking stuff mentioned in the forum now for the deb file workflow, can you please test if this version works? https://builds.jabref.org/pull/9506/merge/

[Doc73]

@Siedlerchr
I can confirm that this deb works perfectly, but I tested it in a Debian Unstable (Sid) in my laptop.
I guess it works also in a Debian Stable, but I won't be able to check until January 9-10.

OT: sometime i will report another problem that happens when the application is uninstalled. I have to remember that! 😄