Extremly poor compression for .tar.bz2

launchpad only allows 1 attachemt here is the other

Does the same behavior occur with command-line tar? (I'm guessing it will because file-roller is a front-end) If it does, please change the package to tar.

chad@Compaq-Presario-CQ60:~$ tar cjf ./back.tar.bz2 Desktop/backlightx
chad@Compaq-Presario-CQ60:~$ ls -l back*
-rw-rw-r-- 1 chad chad 864 Oct 8 20:34 back.tar.bz2

the file is 864byetes

I did a couple of quick tests and it looks as though file roller is not actually compressing the tar file, and it doesn't matter which compression method is chosen. Not sure why it has this effect on your files as the command works as expected for other files.

Steps to reproduce:
1) In Nautilus, right click on "backlightx" directory, Compress...
2) Select .tar.bz2
3) Resulting file size is 10.2KB

4) Right click on directory, Compress...
5) Select .tar
6) Resulting file size is 10.2KB

7) Right-click on .tar, Compress...
8) Select .bz2
9) Resulting file is 870KB

Should have added version information:

file-roller:
  Installed: 3.6.0-0ubuntu3
  Candidate: 3.6.0-0ubuntu3
  Version table:
 *** 3.6.0-0ubuntu3 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal/main amd64 Packages

tar:
  Installed: 1.26-4ubuntu1
  Candidate: 1.26-4ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 1.26-4ubuntu1 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal/main amd64 Packages

bzip2:
  Installed: 1.0.6-4
  Candidate: 1.0.6-4
  Version table:
 *** 1.0.6-4 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal/main amd64 Packages

seems it does compress it just sets a min size (sounds really dumb for a compression app to do)

from http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2065402#4 :
  here file-roller is 'compressing' but will never go below 10.2kB
  So - a folder with a number of small files
  43.6kB goes to 10.6kB
  34kB goes to 10.2kB
  15kB goes to 10.2kB
  1.5kB goes UP to 10.2kB

workaround:
downgrade file-roller
http://packages.ubuntu.com/precise/file-roller#pdownload
then lock the package with this command
echo "file-roller hold" | sudo dpkg --set-selections
also lock it in synaptic

Also affects file-roller 3.6.3-1ubuntu3 in raring

Fixed up stream:
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=695672

This bug was fixed in the package file-roller - 3.6.3-1ubuntu4

---------------
file-roller (3.6.3-1ubuntu4) raring; urgency=low

  * debian/patches/git_disable_libarchive_padding.patch: disable padding so
    the files don't have a minimal size of 10240 bytes (lp: #1064117)
 -- Sebastien Bacher <email address hidden> Tue, 12 Mar 2013 20:00:34 +0100