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I would like to install Xchat, the IRC client, on Ubuntu 21.04. These are the instructions I find on various parts of the web, to run:

sudo apt install xchat

However, when I run this, I get this error:

Package xchat is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source

E: Package 'xchat' has no installation candidate

In seems that the package xchat is no longer available in the Ubuntu universe repositories in Ubuntu 20.10 or later. Is that right? Or am I missing something?

muru
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Flimm
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1 Answers1

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https://packages.ubuntu.com/search?suite=all&searchon=names&keywords=xchat

xchat isn't maintained and hexchat is generally preferred

xchat requires python2 (EOL) and hasn't been ported to python3.

https://packages.ubuntu.com/focal/xchat

guiverc
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  • I'm slightly amused that hexchat started off as a windows port (as xchat-wdk) and is now the 'preferred' xchat fork. – Journeyman Geek Jul 04 '21 at 02:14
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    hexchat itself is old & rather deprecated... It's GTK2 based which shows it's age (GTK3 is the current standard with GNOME moving to GTK4). Most users will likely have moved to newer IRC clients... me I still use hexchat though as many addons for it rely on python2 (just as with xchat) my reason for sticking with it are mostly I'm lazy.. I wonder if we'll still have it in 22.04 & later; it's days numbered like LXDE & other GTK2 tools to when gimp is fully GTK3, & GTK2 gets removed from debian/ubuntu repositories; the question is when will this occur, not if in my opinion – guiverc Jul 04 '21 at 02:33