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I'm trying to install the package 'xiphos' on a fresh install of Xubuntu 21.10, but it doesn't appear in the Software Center, and 'apt-search' is unable to locate it. The 'Ubuntu -- Package Search' page shows it as being part of the 'Universe' repository, and I have made sure Universe is enabled and updated, but still nothing.

I notice, however, that the Package Search page adds the tag 'impish (21.10)(gnome)' to the the listing. Does this mean that I need to have the full Gnome desktop installed before apt will let me install Xiphos? If not, how do I get apt (or the Software Center) to let me install it?

(Also: Xiphos isn't available as a snap, and I tried adding a ppa for Xiphos as per this answer, but this information appears to be outdated, since it returns an error: "The user named '~unit193' has no PPA named 'ubuntu/crosswire'")

Edit: I deleted the 'sources.list' file, and renamed 'sources.list.save' as 'sources.list', then updated, but still getting the same error message: "Unable to locate the package xiphos". I also tried searching for xiphos with both uppercase and lowercase capitalization, but still getting the same error message.

Edit 2: The output of the command grep -r ^deb /etc/apt --include=*.list is (note that StackExchange won't allow me to post more than 8 links, so where you see 'ttp://' below, I have removed the letter 'h' to make it inactive):

/etc/apt/sources.list:deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal main restricted universe
/etc/apt/sources.list:deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates main restricted universe
/etc/apt/sources.list:deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal multiverse
/etc/apt/sources.list:deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates multiverse
/etc/apt/sources.list:deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports main restricted multiverse universe
/etc/apt/sources.list:deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security main restricted universe
/etc/apt/sources.list:deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security multiverse

Also, the output of sudo apt-get update is:

Hit:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal InRelease
Hit:2 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates InRelease
Hit:3 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports InRelease
Hit:4 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security InRelease
Reading package lists...

Edit 3: karel, I tried your suggestion with 'wget', and this is the output:

The following packages have unmet dependencies: xiphos : Depends: xiphos-data (= 4.2.1+dfsg1-5) but it is not installable
      Depends: libgdk-pixbuf-2.0-0 (>= 2.22.0) but it is not installable
      Depends: libicu67 (>= 67.1-1~) but it is not installable
      Depends: libsword1.9.0 (>= 1.9.0+dfsg) but it is not installable

I'm planning to work on getting those dependencies soon, but they don't seem to be available with 'apt'.

Edit 4: So I wasn't able to find any of those dependencies, either with 'apt' or 'wget'. Karel & NOrbert I appreciate your time. I've decided to just install a different program, called 'BibleTime'. It's not what I wanted, but at least it installed without hassle. And if even that doesn't work well, then maybe I'll install WINE and eSword instead.

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  • Please run sudo apt update and add output of apt-cache policy xiphos to the question.
    – N0rbert
    Dec 24, 2021 at 13:15
  • The result was "N: Unable to locate package Xiphos" Dec 25, 2021 at 2:14
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    Does this answer your question? How do I restore the default repositories?
    – N0rbert
    Dec 25, 2021 at 7:05
  • I deleted the 'sources.list' file, and renamed 'sources.list.save' as 'sources.list', then updated, but still getting the same error message: "Unable to locate the package xiphos" Dec 25, 2021 at 9:59
  • Can't reproduce on fresh VM. Please show all yours source.list - execute grep -r ^deb /etc/apt/ --include=*.list and add the output to the question. Also please run sudo apt-get update and share its output.
    – N0rbert
    Dec 25, 2021 at 12:11

2 Answers 2

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The Xiphos package is not available in the Ubuntu Repositories for Focal due to 'bad timing' for a fix for an issue in Debian which addresses a build-dependency problem.

Its removal reason initially was:

Debian: #889019, scheduled for removal in Debian, b-d on removed gnome-doc-utils

This means that it was scheduled for removal in Debian, and the build-dependencies on the removed gnome-doc-utils package means that the package could not be built.

However, in June of 2020, gnome-doc-utils was removed from Debian and the build dependency removed from the packages needed to build the xiphos package, and as such the block on xiphos was no longer a concern. As such, Focal is the only supported Ubuntu release that does not ship Xiphos, as that change to remove the blocking package happened after Ubuntu release. And since this is a Universe package, nobody went back to see if it should be synced or added after the fact to -updates, however that is usually rarely done.

One can always backport Xiphos in a PPA for Focal, however it doesn't look like that's being done at this point, and PPAs are not necessarily 'trustworthy' unless you trust the person who maintains that PPA.

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  • Thank-you, Thomas! That explains a lot. Jan 10, 2022 at 15:58
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Just use this PPA for Focal. As mentioned in the other answer, Xiphos can be installed from it's official repositories.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pkgcrosswire/ppa
sudo apt update
sudo apt install xiphos
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