At this point, I think it's safe to say that implementing full multiarch support for AppStream simply isn't going to happen. It's simply better for app authors to provide native implementations for amd64 instead of relying on i386 compatibility. If support was implemented fully, we would download lots of additional big metadata and run into all kinds of troubles of which app gets selected when there are conflicts. Resolving all of these issues is possible, but the huge effort IMHO doesn't justify the gains.
There is a workaround for high-profile packages that are only available on one architecture: *If* i386 support is enabled by default, the appstream-generator can be instructed to inject metadata for a specific package directly into the final metadata collection. See https://github.com/ximion/appstream-generator/blob/master/docs/asgen- config.md#injecting-extra-metainfo--removing-components for details. This is intended to be used for web applications, but may work for this case as well. ** Changed in: appstream (Ubuntu) Status: In Progress => Opinion -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to appstream in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1567630 Title: Skype not shown as installation candidate Status in appstream package in Ubuntu: Opinion Status in gnome-software package in Ubuntu: Confirmed Status in skype package in Ubuntu: Confirmed Bug description: I activated Canonical Partners, but Skype did not show up when I used gnome-software to search for it. I have a theory (unconfirmed): I used a 64 bits Xenial, with only amd64 architecture enabled. While the .deb package skype is amd64, it's a meta package. The skype-bin package, with the important files including the .desktop file, is i386. So possibly skype would have showed up in gnome-software if I had first enabled i386 with dpkg --add-architecture i386 OTOH, even if that's the case, I don't think it ought to be necessary. When using Synaptic, skype was shown. A possible fix (workaround?) would be to move the .desktop file from skype-bin to skype. Anyway, I could successfully install Skype from command line, and then it showed up in gnome-software. However, bug #1563322 applies to Skype too. To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/appstream/+bug/1567630/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages Post to : desktop-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
