I am having the exact same problem.
pecl install ANYTHING
Does not work with the error message given by the OP.
Something is going wrong during the extraction process.

There was a known bug with php 5.5 & Archive_Tar library, which was fixed in it's latest version. So, I checked and made sure I have the latest Archive_Tar and yes I have the latest Archive_Tar and yes the problem is still there. Unless it is a very new bug, it is not Archive_Tar.

I really wanna dig deeper and troubleshoot&debug the problem but I dont know how to. I even couldn't manage to isolate the problem so I can say it is a PHP problem or Ubuntu 14.04 problem.

I installed debian testing which comes with php 5.5.11 and the problem is not there.

I have the same proble.
I can`t install any package from pecl.

version info:
-------------
$ pear info archive_tar|head -n1
ABOUT PEAR.PHP.NET/ARCHIVE_TAR-1.3.11

$ php -v
PHP 5.5.9-1ubuntu4 (cli) (built: Apr  9 2014 17:08:27)

$ uname -a
Linux user 3.13.0-24-generic #46-Ubuntu SMP Thu Apr 10 19:08:14 UTC 2014 i686 i686 i686 GNU/Linux

$ lsb_release -d
Description:    Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

-----------

But, in another pc, where installed ubuntu 14.04 x64, all works well.

I just noticed that as well. I guess the problem is only occurs on 32bit installations and things seems to work normal on 64bit Ubuntu 14.04

I have the same problem, 32bit Kubuntu 14.04, PHP 5.5.9, Archive_Tar 1.3.11, PEAR 1.9.4.

So this is the problem (at least in my case):
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/php5/+bug/1315888
https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=53829

No solution yet.

tldr: it's probably not a Ubuntu 14.04 x32-only problem because my production server is running 14.04 x64 and is getting the same failure with imagick.

-------------------------------- 

I wonder if this is something to the side of both PHP and Ubuntu. I'm trying to install imagick and getting the same error on my production server (hosted with linode) but not on my test server (VirtualBox in Windows host). I try hard to keep them as much the same as possible, installing security updates every couple of days. 

Except for the host names, they report identical versions for all of the following: php, gzip (gunzip), tar, perl (pecl), lsb_release, and uname

However, the production server is using a newer Linux kernel:

(fails to install imagick:)
# uname -a
Linux www.******.*** 3.14.4-x86_64-linode40 #1 SMP Tue May 13 12:25:05 EDT 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

(installs fine:)
# uname -a
Linux ******* 3.13.0-29-generic #53-Ubuntu SMP Wed Jun 4 21:00:20 UTC 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

So, I took a snapshot of that virtual machine so I can try updating the kernel to see if that has anything to do with anything...

# uname -a
Linux ******* 3.14.4-031404-generic #201405130853 SMP Tue May 13 12:54:33 UTC 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Well, good I guess that this still installs. It would be a little disconcerting to think that a kernel version could make this blow up.

However, I do think that it's not a Ubuntu 14.04 x32 problem because my production server is running x64.

What do you think the chances are this could be related to the problems with some PHP versions being compiled for large file support and so having a gzopen64 function instead of the regular gzopen?

My production server (which cannot install from PECL) has gzopen64 while my test server (can install) has gzopen.

I noticed this when trying to add a plug-in to Piwigo which hits the following:
    if (!function_exists('gzopen'))
    {
      die('Abort '.basename(__FILE__).' : Missing zlib extensions');
    }

Then I tried:

pecl install --nocompress imagick

...and got further than before. I don't have some of its dependencies right yet, but I was able to get pear working on it.

(Note to whomever: changing the name of a function without mapping the old name is a really annoying thing.)

Okay, 

pecl install --nocompress imagick

definitely worked for me once I had the libraries reinstalled (too many config changes fighting this today!) If any of you can verify it works for mongo, too, that would be great.

I compiled 5.5.13 on Ubuntu 14.04 x64 and got those pecl errors.  When I tried 5.5.11 instead, pecl worked without a hitch (installed imagick, xdebug, uploadprogress).

Installing mongo with pecl on 5.5.11 worked as well for my on Ubuntu 14.04 x64.

I second comment "[2014-06-17 18:19 UTC] dave at davidhbrown dot us" that it may be due to large file support.  Tested on Ubuntu Trusty with 5.5.9+dfsg-1ubuntu4.2 package installed:

---- 64 bit ----
PHP from the the php5 package is not compiled with lfs

# php-config --phpapi
20121212

pecl install mongo works

---- 32 bit ----
PHP from the php5 package is compiled with lfs

# php-config --phpapi
20121212+lfs

pecl install mongo gets "could not extract the package.xml file" error

pecl install --nocompress mongo works

"pecl install --nocompress mongo" works fine

This should be fixed in all the latest packages.