[HOW TO] Downgrade Abiword version to 2.8.6 in Xubuntu 12.04/12.10
It has been brought to my attention, by one of the readers, that the Abiword 2.9 which is pre-installed in Xubuntu 12.04/12.10 has some problems. The last stable version is 2.8.6 and people were happier with it, so I wrote a simple script to downgrade the installed version to 2.8.6.
The script removes the current installed version, downloads and installs the deb files for version 2.8.6 and locks this version so it won't get upgraded automatically when the system is upgraded. The code on the "Downgrade" section of this post, downloads and executes this script. It'll ask for your password because it needs administrator privileges for installing the packages.
Downgrade
Open a terminal window and run:
cd && wget -O downgrade_abiword.sh http://goo.gl/cZM6N && chmod +x downgrade_abiword.sh && ./downgrade_abiword.sh && rm downgrade_abiword.sh
Hi, Wilson.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, thank you to answer my request.You're so generous.
However, I tried the script and it removed Abiword 2.9 but didn't install the 2.8.6 version. At the end of the process, there's an error message:
ERROR: Unknown architecture.
I don't know what does it mean or why my computer doesn't allow to install the 2.8.6 version.
Carlos-Xfce
Could you run this command: uname -m
Deleteand tell me what the output is?
Hi, it's me again.
DeleteAfter the command "uname -m", the output is "i686" (without the quotation marks).
Carlos-Xfce
Okay, thank you. Please try again to install.
DeleteI am running a fresh install of Xubuntu 12.10 64 bit and I had issues with this script as well. It removed Abiword 2.9, but didn't install the older package because of dependency issues.
ReplyDeleteThis is from the terminal output:
Setting up abiword-common (2.8.6-0.3ubuntu2) ...
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of abiword:
abiword depends on libaiksaurusgtk-1.2-0c2a (>= 1.2.1+dev-0.12); however:
Package libaiksaurusgtk-1.2-0c2a is not installed.
abiword depends on libgoffice-0.8-8 (>= 0.8.8); however:
Package libgoffice-0.8-8 is not installed.
abiword depends on libjpeg62 (>= 6b1); however:
Package libjpeg62 is not installed.
dpkg: error processing abiword (--install):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of libabiword-2.8:
libabiword-2.8 depends on libgoffice-0.8-8 (>= 0.8.8); however:
Package libgoffice-0.8-8 is not installed.
libabiword-2.8 depends on libjpeg62 (>= 6b1); however:
Package libjpeg62 is not installed.
dpkg: error processing libabiword-2.8 (--install):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of libwv-1.2-3:
libwv-1.2-3 depends on libjpeg62; however:
Package libjpeg62 is not installed.
dpkg: error processing libwv-1.2-3 (--install):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of abiword-plugin-grammar:
abiword-plugin-grammar depends on libabiword-2.8 (= 2.8.6-0.3ubuntu2); however:
Package libabiword-2.8 is not configured yet.
abiword-plugin-grammar depends on abiword (= 2.8.6-0.3ubuntu2); however:
Package abiword is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing abiword-plugin-grammar (--install):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of abiword-plugin-mathview:
abiword-plugin-mathview depends on libabiword-2.8 (= 2.8.6-0.3ubuntu2); however:
Package libabiword-2.8 is not configured yet.
abiword-plugin-mathview depends on abiword (= 2.8.6-0.3ubuntu2); however:
Package abiword is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing abiword-plugin-mathview (--install):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Processing triggers for shared-mime-info ...
Unknown media type in type 'all/all'
Unknown media type in type 'all/allfiles'
Unknown media type in type 'uri/mms'
Unknown media type in type 'uri/mmst'
Unknown media type in type 'uri/mmsu'
Unknown media type in type 'uri/pnm'
Unknown media type in type 'uri/rtspt'
Unknown media type in type 'uri/rtspu'
Processing triggers for menu ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils ...
Processing triggers for mime-support ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
abiword
libabiword-2.8
libwv-1.2-3
abiword-plugin-grammar
abiword-plugin-mathview
Hope this helps you sort things out. Love your site, you've always got some really helpful info! :-)
Sorry. I'm also using 12.10 and I thought that I had all dependencies solved. I'll solve this ASAP.
DeleteThose dependencies are now installed by the script. It should be working now.
DeleteThanks Mr. Santos. :-)
ReplyDeleteI just read your reply, and I'll give it a shot again when I can pry my husband away from my computer... LOL
I'll keep you posted. :-)
Just a thought- since I have a fresh install of 12.10 and I don't want to muck things up on my nicely running system.
ReplyDeleteI have already UNinstalled Abiword 2.9 when I first tried the script.
Should I be running the above script just to install version 2.86?
Just wondering, as I'm not exactly a CLI guru like you are and I don't want to create problems... ;-)
You can run the script with Abiword uninstalled.
DeleteHi, Wilson.
ReplyDeleteIt's me again. Last week, I had problems with the script. It created a problem with repositories and dependences: everytime the system asked me to update but nothing happends. I tried to open Abiword, but nothing happens either. Fortunately, I tried the script in my netbook, where I don't have any important file, so I reinstalled the whole Xubuntu 12.10.
Now, I just tried the script and it works very well. Thank you very much. I'm happy because I hope I can work with Abiword without problems.
Until next time,
Carlos-Xfce.
I'm glad that you got it working.
DeleteHi, Wilson!
ReplyDeleteIt's possible to have Firefox ( Thunderbird, Radio Try, etc) in the panel? I've tried with add items AND SEARCH but don't work.
Thank you!
Is this what you're looking for: http://goo.gl/iTKPs?
DeleteHi
ReplyDeleteI've just switched from ubuntu 10.04 to xubuntu 12.10 and your blog has been a great discover!
I downgradeded abiword but today are available some updates to abiword, ¿have you prove them?
I mean, if this update give to abiword 2.9 the same stability that 2.8 has ¿how I can unlock the updates for abiword?
Thanks in advance
Miguel
According to Abiword's website, 2.8 is still the latest stable version. If the developers themselves are saying this, I won't expect 2.9 to be any stabler than 2.8.
ReplyDeleteYou can unlock Abiword's version so it'll be automatically updated using this five commands:
echo "abiword install" | sudo dpkg --set-selections
echo "abiword-plugin-grammar install" | sudo dpkg --set-selections
echo "abiword-plugin-mathview install" | sudo dpkg --set-selections
echo "abiword-common install" | sudo dpkg --set-selections
echo "libabiword-2.8 install" | sudo dpkg --set-selections
It worked perfectly for me! Thank you very very much!
ReplyDeleteAndrew
I have Xubuntu 12.04 and it works perfect. God job!
ReplyDeleteThank you so very much!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome.
DeleteYour script is just. That. Awesome. I plugged into the cli for the latest stable version but still got 2.92, unfortunately. Used your script and it still worked successfully, for my Linux Mint 13 XFCE. Thank you sir, you are a scholar.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteThank you, Wilson, your solution worked like a charm.
ReplyDeleteVic
Works perfect! Thanks a lot! (Xubuntu 12.04)
ReplyDeleteWorked perfect to downgrade on Kubuntu 12.04 . Thank-you greatly.
ReplyDeleteTried the script in ubuntu 12.04 and 12.10. It worked very well.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the work.
Wilson,
ReplyDeleteI think maybe something was reverted back to a prior version because it looks like I'm receiving the same error as mrsfixit did on 2/22/13. After the script runs for a while the installation finishes with these lines:
(There are several 'dependency problem' errors prior to this one.)
dpkg: error processing libwv-1.2-3 (--install):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Processing triggers for shared-mime-info ...
Unknown media type in type 'all/all'
Unknown media type in type 'all/allfiles'
Unknown media type in type 'uri/mms'
Unknown media type in type 'uri/mmst'
Unknown media type in type 'uri/mmsu'
Unknown media type in type 'uri/pnm'
Unknown media type in type 'uri/rtspt'
Unknown media type in type 'uri/rtspu'
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
abiword-plugin-grammar
abiword-plugin-mathview
abiword
libabiword-2.8
libwv-1.2-3
Do you still maintain this script? If so, would you please fix these errors for me?
Thank you,
Ken
Could you tell me which Xubuntu version are you running? This script was meant for 12.04 and 12.10.
DeleteOh, sorry, I meant to include that, but I ended up forgetting it. I'm using Kubuntu 12.04.
DeleteKen
Wilson,
DeleteI didn't see a reply from you, so I wasn't sure if you have been able to look into this yet. I gave it another try, and i still received the same error. I'm using Kubuntu 12.04 rather than Xubuntu, but since it is the 12.04 version I would tend to expect it to still work, and I saw a comment above saying it worked for another Kubuntu 12.04 user.
Ken
Sorry for the delay.
DeleteI installed Kubuntu 12.04 in a virtual machine and got dependency errors as well. I updated the script to install those packages. Please retry and tell me if it's working.
No, it didn't work for me. I received the same errors as I did previously.
DeleteKen
Could you list the packages that are missing? Also you can try:
Deletesudo apt-get -f install
Usually this installs all the missing dependencies.
Wilson,
DeleteThat seems to have taken care of things. I used apt-get-f and then retried your script. I can now run abiword 2.8.6.
Thank you so much for your script and the additional help you gave me.
Ken
I'm glad your problem is resolved.
DeleteIs there a mirror of this script anywhere?
ReplyDeleteOr at least a rough idea of what it does
Right now the goo.gl address gives a 404.
Thanks.
I was stored at google code. I'll store it somewhere else as soon as possible.
Delete