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Tonight I ran sudo apt upgrade and seven packages were upgrade. One of them was Google Chrome 53 x.y?

Anyway flash player now gets pause pizza followed by 1/4 second black flash after the rotating pizza has finished it's 2 to 3 second spinning. I also did a failed Nvidia 367.44 driver install and am not sure which event is causing it but I'd like to reverse the Google Chrome 53.x.y upgrade Ubuntu/Debian just installed.

  • How do I find out what Chrome version was running before the upgrade? (ie does Ubuntu keep track of versions that were just upgraded somewhere?)
  • How do I reinstall that Chrome version the sanctioned/safe way?
  • How do I freeze that Chrome version so it doesn't get updated again automatically? (Some day I will after finding out what is going on)

I know enough to be dangerous and can probably stumble my way through this but I've been reading about broken packages lately and would like to know the safe path back from where I've come.

The other six packages upgraded tonight I would like to keep as I try to stay current. Note that sudo apt update was run before sudo apt upgrade.

WinEunuuchs2Unix
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  • Are you talking about chromium? – FredFoo Sep 30 '16 at 00:45
  • @Zacharee1 I dont think its a duplicate, not even close :) This is about using apt and dpkg with a bit of out of the box thinking and some luck. Your reference says slaughtered it, ate from it - how to reanimate? :) – FredFoo Sep 30 '16 at 01:04
  • Oh, please clarify your question :) You ask to undo upgrade, but then only talk about a single package to be downgraded. What do you actualy want to do? I answered the 3 questions, not the one on the top. Top answer would be no way, anyway. – FredFoo Sep 30 '16 at 01:08
  • Not Chromium... I'll update the title it's causing confusing with Ubuntu distribution upgrade like 14.04 to 16.04 I guess??? – WinEunuuchs2Unix Sep 30 '16 at 01:09
  • Upgrade might have been what you used - which installs all available package upgrades at once. Might be many. But it seems you only plan to downgrade one specific package. – FredFoo Sep 30 '16 at 01:19
  • @FredFoo yes only the Google Chrome I wish to downgrade and freeze for the time being until I can research if others have problems with pepper-flash player and when the fix is coming. I still need to fix Nvidia drivers I recklessly downloaded tonight too. – WinEunuuchs2Unix Sep 30 '16 at 01:27
  • @DavidFoerster The dup is close. Using their answer apt-cache policy google-chrome-stable the currently installed version (53.0.2785.143-1) appears but no previous versions. – WinEunuuchs2Unix Sep 30 '16 at 10:24
  • @WinEunuuchs2Unix: If apt-cache policy shows no older versions they're not in the repositories any longer. Excellent find on that question and the link to the archive of old Chrome versions and I didn't even think of the cached packages in /var/lib/apt. – David Foerster Sep 30 '16 at 11:01
  • Question: Is marking duplicates rewarded with reputation? If so, I want that, too :) – FredFoo Sep 30 '16 at 15:14
  • @FredFoo No marking duplicates gains no points. It's part of community service and I try to do 20 a day myself. – WinEunuuchs2Unix Oct 29 '16 at 15:09

1 Answers1

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As you want to reverse only one package there might be some possibilities. But be aware they are all more or less related to luck and not so much a standard procedure.

The package database has no entries about packages that used to live on your computer. It can only tell you what your current version is and if there is a newer available. You might be able to derrive some intel from the apt log files in /var/log/apt, but don't expect them to give it to you on a silver platter. You will need to figure out what you did when and deduct what the situation might have been before you upgraded.

Whenever you deal with a package repository, it has not histiory of the files that used to be in this repo - it only knows about one, and that is the most recent one. The moment you can upgrade from package-0.1.deb to package-0.2.deb, version 0.1 of that package is already deleted in the repository you are pointing to.

That said: mirror scripts written and configured by humans and they might fail. So perhaps you find a mirror that still has old files. Or you find it somewhere else on the internet - you will need to find the deb package with your version somewhere.

You might be super lucky - or lazy like me and use apt-get clean seldom :) - and find your package in /var/cache/apt/archives/. That happens you can just remove your current version and reinstall from the package using dpkg.

Again, there is no sanctioned way as you usually dont the the package anyway.

To freeze a specific version, you can use pinning. That in short enables you to tell the package manager to use a specific version and only that specific version of a package and never touch.

FredFoo
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    Sorry I didn't respond to your earlier comment sooner. It's Google Chrome, not Chromium. – WinEunuuchs2Unix Sep 30 '16 at 01:13
  • How did you install it? I guess you added a repo for chrome? You might be lucky and it gets managed in a way that gives you access to older versions of the package. For instance if the maintainer also offers a website to download the deb :) The standard repo of Ubuntu only offers chromium. – FredFoo Sep 30 '16 at 01:18
  • I actually don't remember how I installed it. My modus-operandi is to google something like "how to install Google Chrome Ubuntu" and then copy and paste the sudo apt-get install xxxxx (it was before I learned apt to replace apt-get). – WinEunuuchs2Unix Sep 30 '16 at 01:21
  • Well, there's this https://google-chrome.en.uptodown.com/ubuntu/old but I've never used it. – Organic Marble Sep 30 '16 at 02:09
  • Uh, I like that one! :) – FredFoo Sep 30 '16 at 02:35
  • @OrganicMarble: Unfortunately the most recent Chrome release in that archive is v42.0.*. – David Foerster Sep 30 '16 at 11:05