Downgrade Ubuntu/Debian using apt preferences
Sun, 12 Aug 2012 22:26:13 +0000
There are people who prefer bleeding-edge software versions, other prefer stability over new features. I'm an advanced Linux user, however I fall into the latter category of users. Recently I discovered my current mixed-version Ubuntu is not as stable as I would like and I decided to revert to older version of Ubuntu (lucid).
Debian apt system allows to set preferences for packages and this method can be used to downgrade packages. First of all you have to declare sources of software of desired distro (lucid) in my case:
$ grep ^deb /etc/apt/sources.list deb http://pl.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid main restricted deb http://pl.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid-updates main restricted deb http://pl.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid universe deb http://pl.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid-updates universe deb http://pl.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid multiverse deb http://pl.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid-updates multiverse deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu lucid-security main restricted deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu lucid-security universe deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu lucid-security multiverse
Then we can declare we prefer lucid even if current package in the system if newer:
$ cat /etc/apt/preferences.d/downgrade-to-lucid Package: * Pin: release a=lucid Pin-Priority: 1010 Package: * Pin: release a=lucid-updates Pin-Priority: 1011 Package: * Pin: release a=lucid-security Pin-Priority: 1012
As you can see I added updates and security source pacages into account to have such updates already in my system.