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I'd like to install a version of a software (e.g. Firefox) that is no longer supported (e.g. 22.0), what's the best way to do this? Is it possible to enable a kind of legacy repository that supports almost every version of the software I'm searching for?

$ sudo apt-get install firefox=(needed version)
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  • Which version of Ubuntu are you on?
    – Thomas Ward ♦
    Nov 17, 2014 at 22:46
  • Hi, thank you for your answer, you just clarified me the situation, the Ubuntu version doesn't matter because I'm using ubuntu as virtual machine through Vagrant, so I can use any version I need...
    – Daniele
    Nov 18, 2014 at 11:13
  • per my below comments on my answer, I need to know which architecture your computer is, at least for Firefox.
    – Thomas Ward ♦
    Nov 18, 2014 at 12:44

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The ability to install a Firefox package, or any package really, that is old is totally dependent on what's available in your repositories and whether you have any cached installers lying around.

The method you're describing conforms to the requirements of the previous statement - you need to have a repository with the specified version in its contents, and in the specific release you are on. In most cases of old software, this is not the case, so you have to end up doing manual downloads of older package versions and install.

As Firefox 22 is sufficiently old that it might not exist anymore in the repositories for modern releases, and may even exist without the ability to recover it from the remote repository servers, you may have to manually download the Firefox package and manually install it.

For Firefox 22, you can use the following commands. Note that this will completely remove your much newer Firefox version, and will REPLACE your Firefox. It is also entirely possible that apt-get and update manager will attempt to upgrade the version as well, and you will need to check to make sure Firefox is not upgraded.

For 64-bit Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get purge -y firefox
mkdir /home/$USER/firefox-old-binaries
cd /home/$USER/firefox-old-binaries
wget -O firefox_22.0+build2-0ubuntu0.12.04.2_amd64.deb https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-mozilla-security/+archive/ubuntu/ppa/+build/4751637/+files/firefox_22.0%2Bbuild2-0ubuntu0.12.04.2_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i firefox_22.0+build2-0ubuntu0.12.04.2_amd64.deb

For 32-bit Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get purge -y firefox
mkdir /home/$USER/firefox-old-binaries
cd /home/$USER/firefox-old-binaries
wget -O firefox_22.0+build2-0ubuntu0.12.04.2_i386.deb https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-mozilla-security/+archive/ubuntu/ppa/+build/4751640/+files/firefox_22.0%2Bbuild2-0ubuntu0.12.04.2_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i firefox_22.0+build2-0ubuntu0.12.04.2_i386.deb
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  • Hi, thank you for your answer, you just clarified me the situation, the Ubuntu version doesn't matter because I'm using ubuntu as virtual machine through Vagrant, so I can use any version I need...
    – Daniele
    Nov 18, 2014 at 8:03
  • @Daniele I kind of needed to know so I could get as close to the version you're on as I can with the older software and links... the problem here is that the varying older versions of Ubuntu all have varying build-depends, hence my trying to find out the specifics... at the very least I need to know the architecture of the VM - 32bit? 64bit?
    – Thomas Ward ♦
    Nov 18, 2014 at 12:41
  • I suppose that older versions of software/Ubuntu were based on 32bit so if the best choice is 32bit then I'll get an Ubuntu 32bit VM...
    – Daniele
    Nov 18, 2014 at 13:25
  • @Daniele um... what? Since Precise, there's amd64 and i386 builds - I asked you what is the architecture of the VM. I did not ask you to make a supposition regarding whether Firefox 22 has only 32bit binaries or 64bit binaries. (Both exist)
    – Thomas Ward ♦
    Nov 18, 2014 at 18:12
  • I mean that I can choose the architecture of the virtual machine, it's so simple with Vagrant... so, I think I'll get the architecture that satisfies my needs...
    – Daniele
    Nov 18, 2014 at 23:23

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