[Bug 2119394] [NEW] Uninstallation hobbled by gzip

[Dougga]

Public bug reported:

I'm uninstalling Steam (with a two or three applications installed under steam.
I expect an uninstallation process to take a couple of minutes max.
What I'm seeing is somewhere between odd and suspicious.
It's taking  45 minutes to uninstall Steam, and this is on a machine with an Intel Core i9 14900KF (32 cores), 64GB RAM, and a very fast SSD.
BTOP is showing gzip slammed for processing power and snapd taking up a bit.  Nearly all cores are idle and it would appear from my untrained eye that gzip is limited to 2 cores which seems to be the root cause of this problem.  I see two cores being used significantly: both between 35% and 75% changing with every refresh of btop.  

I find it hard to imagine this is not a bug given the absurd time it
takes to remove an application.

Ubuntu 25.04 fully updated
Steam latest/stable 1.0.0.83
Expectation: Quick removal of software package from system.
What happened: An interminable wait as gzip is doing gawd knows what.  It shouldn't be used in a software removal process.  This is the suspicious part.

** Affects: apport (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New


** Tags: app center uninstall

** Attachment added: "screenshot of app center doing the unistall with btop showing the system"
   https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2119394/+attachment/5896239/+files/Screenshot%20from%202025-07-17%2015-15-57.png

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2119394

Title:
  Uninstallation hobbled by gzip

Status in apport package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  I'm uninstalling Steam (with a two or three applications installed under steam.
  I expect an uninstallation process to take a couple of minutes max.
  What I'm seeing is somewhere between odd and suspicious.
  It's taking  45 minutes to uninstall Steam, and this is on a machine with an Intel Core i9 14900KF (32 cores), 64GB RAM, and a very fast SSD.
  BTOP is showing gzip slammed for processing power and snapd taking up a bit.  Nearly all cores are idle and it would appear from my untrained eye that gzip is limited to 2 cores which seems to be the root cause of this problem.  I see two cores being used significantly: both between 35% and 75% changing with every refresh of btop.  

  I find it hard to imagine this is not a bug given the absurd time it
  takes to remove an application.

  Ubuntu 25.04 fully updated
  Steam latest/stable 1.0.0.83
  Expectation: Quick removal of software package from system.
  What happened: An interminable wait as gzip is doing gawd knows what.  It shouldn't be used in a software removal process.  This is the suspicious part.

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