Getting older packages from ppa

Question

Can I install an older version of a specific package from a ppa? Specifically, I want to get an older version of xserver-xorg-video-intel (and dependencies) from xorg-edgers ppa. The reason is that the older version seemed to work with my hardware. The present version seems to feature (I would like to found out if it is really the source) severe crashes as the present stable releases of this package do. I tried

apt-get install pkg=version

but didn't succeed. I am afraid that the packages in the cache are lost after

apt-get clean

I do not even know the precise version number of the previous version, assuming that it doesn't have to be exactly one less. The current version is xserver-xorg-video-intel-2.20.15 Alternatively: Is there a place, e.g. at launchpad, where I can manually download the previous version of the package?

Solution

Yes, you can install a specific version of a package with apt-get install pkg=version but the version you want needs to be available from one of your APT sources.

e.g.

$ apt-cache policy dpkg
dpkg:
  Installed: 1.16.12
  Candidate: 1.16.12
  Version table:
     1.17.1 0
        800 http://localhost:3142/debian/ unstable/main amd64 Packages
 *** 1.16.12 0
        900 http://localhost:3142/debian/ testing/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

in this case, both 1.17.1 and 1.16.12 are available to APT. 1.16.12 is installed.

Like the main Ubuntu archive, PPAs remove superseded packages. So, only one version is available for each, Ubuntu release, in a PPA.

Comments

[Admin]

I don't think that old ppa-packages are available at all. If you don't find the deb-Package you have to build it yourself from source.

[Admin]

That's bad news ... The package had a lot of strict dependencies - including the kernel, I think.

[Admin]

and what if I would like to install an older version from a "superseded" package?

[pbhj]

Looks like you have to manually download and use dpkg to install older packages.

[Paul Knopf]

I think it's crazy that they remove older packages. Where would we manually download the older ones?

[tumbleweed]

@user3892683: Very simply, you can't, they're gone. Unless they're still published for an older release.

[Parsa Mousavi]

@PaulKnopf Or if they have been archived by the Wayback Machine.

[balu]

Unfortunately, pull-ppa-debs does not seem to help when the PPA no longer contains older versions of the package.