How to downgrade PHP from 5.3.x to 5.2.x

Question

I need to downgrade my PHP to 5.2.x from 5.3.x Certain software I currently use requires it. I found all these link explaining how to do it but they no longer work because they show you how to use the Karmic archives to downgrade but as those archives no longer exist on archive.ubuntu.com

• Downgrade PHP to PHP5.2?
• How to downgrade from PHP 5.3 to PHP 5.2 in Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick

Answer 1

I found this script on the ubuntu forums which worked for me

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1566808

On ubuntu 10.10 you'll need to install aptitude as it is no longer installed by default.

sudo apt-get install aptitude

Answer 2

try one of these links: first second

Answer 3

Even when there is no Karmic repos available, you could use older ones from 8.04. For Hardy is 5.2.4 available. So first solution is to use those links and make Karmic -> Hardy.

But mixing repos from two different realeases may become painful. So i don't suggest to add other realease to your apt sources. I prefer to install downloaded deb with dpkg -i php_whatever.deb and set it on hold. Last time i used hold, apt-get did not care about setting hold, so maybe you need to install aptitude and use it for further upgrades.

Answer 4

5.2 is unsupported and RIFE with security holes.

However if you must use it, you can probably port the hardy-security package forward, as it is 5.2.4. It will be supported until April of 2013.

Still, you're going to be in better shape running the distro version of PHP and fixing your PHP apps than trying to deal with old broken PHP.

Answer 5

Uset this script on Ubuntu forum. It worked for me flawlessly. But the 'first' link above has some invalid urls and the 'second' script above is customized for apache.

Answer 6

You should install PHP 5.2 from source.

First of all you have to download the sources, install the required dependencies, after that configure based on your needs and install.

The steps can be found here.

Answer 7

Why not just try to install PHP through apt-get.

After you have apache up and running:

apt-get install php5 libapache2-mod-php5

/etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Test PHP

sudo vi /var/www/info.php

Type:

<?php phpinfo(); ?>

Call that file in a browser:

e.g. http://192.168.0.100/info.php

Source

If you want a specific version of php package you can create a file called /etc/apt/preferences.d/php

sufo gedit /etc/apt/preferences.d/php

Put the packages you want to install and corresponding versions, for example:

Package: libapache2-mod-php5 Pin: version 5.2.10* Pin-Priority: 991

Package: libapache2-mod-php5filter Pin: version 5.2.10* Pin-Priority: 991

Package: php-pear Pin: version 5.2.10* Pin-Priority: 991

Package: php5 Pin: version 5.2.10* Pin-Priority: 991

Package: php5-cgi Pin: version 5.2.10* Pin-Priority: 991

Package: php5-cli Pin: version 5.2.10* Pin-Priority: 991

Package: php5-common Pin: version 5.2.10* Pin-Priority: 991

Package: php5-curl Pin: version 5.2.10* Pin-Priority: 991

Package: php5-dbg Pin: version 5.2.10* Pin-Priority: 991

Package: php5-dev Pin: version 5.2.10* Pin-Priority: 991

Package: php5-gd Pin: version 5.2.10* Pin-Priority: 991

Package: php5-gmp Pin: version 5.2.10* Pin-Priority: 991

Package: php5-ldap Pin: version 5.2.10* Pin-Priority: 991

Package: php5-mhash Pin: version 5.2.10* Pin-Priority: 991

Package: php5-mysql Pin: version 5.2.10* Pin-Priority: 991

Package: php5-odbc Pin: version 5.2.10* Pin-Priority: 991

Package: php5-pgsql Pin: version 5.2.10* Pin-Priority: 991

Package: php5-pspell Pin: version 5.2.10* Pin-Priority: 991

Package: php5-recode Pin: version 5.2.10* Pin-Priority: 991

Package: php5-snmp Pin: version 5.2.10* Pin-Priority: 991

Package: php5-sqlite Pin: version 5.2.10* Pin-Priority: 991

Package: php5-sybase Pin: version 5.2.10* Pin-Priority: 991

Package: php5-tidy Pin: version 5.2.10* Pin-Priority: 991

Package: php5-xmlrpc Pin: version 5.2.10* Pin-Priority: 991

Package: php5-xsl Pin: version 5.2.10* Pin-Priority: 991

Then run:

sudo apt-get update

And try again the command for installing php:

apt-get install php5 libapache2-mod-php5 Source

Answer 8

For all php-related packages use the historical repositories from old-releases.ubuntu.com for the karmic Ubuntu release to downgrade to php 5.2

I created a script solution here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=9201854&postcount=6

it adds the histroical sources to a file /etc/apt/preferences.d/php5_2 that locks all php-related packages to karmic.

your system will stil stay on the actual release (11.10) onnly php will be taken from the old release

Answer 9

I would suggest you install the following:

sudo apt-get install php5=5.2.12.dfsg.1-2