The solution is quite complicated so make sure you read and proceed carefully. As preparation to this make sure you enabled all packet sources so your /etc/apt/sources.list
looks like this and do an upgrade:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
reboot
To install the old version:
Then as a first step, you need to remove the existing version of gedit. To do so run the following commands in your terminal (ctrl+alt+t):
# this installs the build dependencies
sudo apt-get build-dep gedit gedit-plugins
sudo apt-get install moreutils
# this uninstalls the 3.18.3 version of gedit, gedit-dev,
# gedit-plugins and gedit-common and should get rid of everything else
# installed for gedit
sudo apt-get remove gedit gedit-dev gedit-plugins gedit-common
Now prepare a directory to work in. For convenience we do that in our home directory.
# creating directory and switching to it
mkdir ~/gedit-downgrade
cd ~/gedit-downgrade
Next step is to create a wget-list
file to make the download easier (you can copy and paste the whole field into your terminal). If you're not using a 64-bit system you might want to find the proper links for i386 here.
cat > wget-list << "EOF"
http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/main/g/gedit/gedit-common_3.10.4-0ubuntu13_all.deb
http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/main/g/gedit/gedit_3.10.4-0ubuntu13_amd64.deb
http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/main/g/gedit/gedit-dev_3.10.4-0ubuntu13_amd64.deb
http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/universe/g/gedit-developer-plugins/gedit-developer-plugins_0.5.15-0ubuntu1_all.deb
http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/universe/g/gedit-latex-plugin/gedit-latex-plugin_3.8.0-3build1_all.deb
http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/universe/g/gedit-plugins/gedit-plugins_3.10.1-1ubuntu3_amd64.deb
http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/universe/g/gedit-r-plugin/gedit-r-plugin_0.8.0.2-Gtk3-Python3-1ubuntu1_all.deb
http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/universe/g/gedit-source-code-browser-plugin/gedit-source-code-browser-plugin_3.0.3-3_all.deb
http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/universe/g/gedit-valencia-plugin/gedit-valencia-plugin_0.8.0-0ubuntu2_amd64.deb
http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/universe/r/rabbitvcs/rabbitvcs-gedit_0.16-1_all.deb
http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/universe/s/supercollider/supercollider-gedit_3.6.6~repack-2-1build1_all.deb
EOF
Now you have that wget-list
file, you can download everything in one go by typing wget -i wget-list
, let the files download and then begin your installation.
Please follow below steps one by one and if you run into dependency errors simply do sudo apt-get remove <package-name>
which reflects the package giving trouble, then install the dependencies by hand with sudo apt-get install <package-name>
then do the dpkg line again. Do not, and I mean do not run sudo apt-get -f install
while you're trying this installation: it will mess everything up.
Now, let's begin with the essential packages (tested and working on a clean 16.04 LTS installation):
# install gedit-common (essential needed)
sudo dpkg -i gedit-common_3.10.4-0ubuntu13_all.deb
# install gedit (essential needed)
sudo dpkg -i gedit_3.10.4-0ubuntu13_amd64.deb
# install gedit-dev (essential needed)
sudo dpkg -i gedit-dev_3.10.4-0ubuntu13_amd64.deb
# install gedit-plugins (essential needed)
# here are some steps needed follow them carefully
# unpacking the .deb file
sudo dpkg-deb -R gedit-plugins_3.10.1-1ubuntu3_amd64.deb tmp
# editing tmp/DEBIAN/control:
# change 'python3 (<< 3.5), python3 (>= 3.4~), python3.4' to 'python3 (>= 3.5~), python3.5'
sed 's/python3 (<< 3\.5), python3 (>= 3\.4~), python3\.4/python3 (>= 3.5~), python3.5/' tmp/DEBIAN/control | sudo sponge tmp/DEBIAN/control
# editing tmp/DEBIAN/postinst
# change 'py3compile -p gedit-plugins /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gedit/plugins -V 3.4' to
# 'py3compile -p gedit-plugins /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gedit/plugins -V 3.5'
sed 's/3\.4/3.5/' tmp/DEBIAN/postinst | sudo sponge tmp/DEBIAN/postinst
# packing a new .deb file
sudo dpkg-deb -b tmp gedit-plugins_3.10.1-1ubuntu4_amd64.deb
# changing ownership of the new .deb file replace username with your username
sudo chown username:username gedit-plugins_3.10.1-1ubuntu4_amd64.deb
# removing tmp
sudo rm -rfv tmp
# installing it
sudo dpkg -i gedit-plugins_3.10.1-1ubuntu4_amd64.deb
The following packages are only optional and you should be able to install them easily, the dependencies to download are given and tested on a clean 16.04 LTS install like the above.
# install gedit-developer-plugins (optional)
sudo apt-get install python-pocket-lint
sudo dpkg -i gedit-developer-plugins_0.5.15-0ubuntu1_all.deb
# install gedit-latex-plugin (optional)
sudo apt-get install rubber
sudo dpkg -i gedit-latex-plugin_3.8.0-3build1_all.deb
# install gedit-r-plugin (optional but needs gedit-plugins)
sudo dpkg -i gedit-r-plugin_0.8.0.2-Gtk3-Python3-1ubuntu1_all.deb
# install gedit-source-code-browser-plugin (optional)
sudo apt-get install ctags
sudo dpkg -i gedit-source-code-browser-plugin_3.0.3-3_all.deb
# install gedit-valencia-plugin (optional)
# unpacking .deb file
sudo dpkg-deb -R gedit-valencia-plugin_0.8.0-0ubuntu2_amd64.deb tmp
# edit tmp/DEBIAN/control
# change 'libvala-0.28-0 (>= 0.15.1)' to 'libvala-0.30-0 (>= 0.15.1)'
# change 'libvte-2.90-9 (>= 1:0.27.2)' to 'libvte-2.91-0 (>= 0.27.2)'
sed -e 's/libvala-0\.28-0 (>= 0\.15\.1)/libvala-0.30-0 (>= 0.15.1)/' -e 's/libvte-2\.90-9 (>= 1:0\.27\.2)/libvte-2.91-0 (>= 0.27.2)/' tmp/DEBIAN/control | sudo sponge tmp/DEBIAN/control
# packing a new .deb file
sudo dpkg-deb -b tmp gedit-valencia-plugin_0.8.0-0ubuntu3_amd64.deb
# changing ownership of the new .deb file replace username with your username
sudo chown username:username gedit-valencia-plugin_0.8.0-0ubuntu3_amd64.deb
# removing tmp
sudo rm -rfv tmp
# installing it
sudo dpkg -i gedit-valencia-plugin_0.8.0-0ubuntu3_amd64.deb
# install rabbitvcs-gedit (optional)
sudo apt-get install rabbitvcs-core
sudo dpkg -i rabbitvcs-gedit_0.16-1_all.deb
# install supercollider-gedit (optional)
sudo apt-get install supercollider-language
sudo dpkg -i supercollider-gedit_3.6.6~repack-2-1build1_all.deb
Now you have to make sure the packages won't be changed when you run an update, so ensure only to state the packages you have installed:
# now protecting this all from upgrading
sudo apt-mark hold gedit-common gedit gedit-dev gedit-developer-plugin gedit-latex-plugin gedit-plugins gedit-r-plugin gedit-source-code-browser-plugin gedit-valencia-plugin rabbitvcs-gedit supercollider-gedit
To reverse the whole process do:
# removing protection from upgrades
sudo apt-mark unhold gedit-common gedit gedit-dev gedit-developer-plugin gedit-latex-plugin gedit-plugins gedit-r-plugin gedit-source-code-browser-plugin gedit-valencia-plugin rabbitvcs-gedit supercollider-gedit
# simply do an upgrade
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
Is there a script to do it?:
Yes I made even a script to automate the whole process, you can get it here or by:
wget https://github.com/Videonauth/gdowngrade/blob/master/gdowngrade.sh
Then to run it:
chmod 755 ./gdowngrade.sh
sudo ./gdowngrade.sh
This will create a custom file for you called gupgrade.sh
which allows you to reverse the whole process by simply:
sudo ./gupgrade.sh