So, I had some spare time to have a play with this. I installed Ubuntu 11.04 in a virtual machine and tried to solve the dependency issues you have. Overall I'd say you have 2 options, downgrade or upgrade. If the bug is fixed in 11.10 and up, upgrading the system would probably cause you the least amount of grief. If you for whatever reason cannot or will not upgrade then downgrading must be done. You can either downgrade the entire system (in which case I'd recommend downgrading to a LTS version such as 10.04) or just some of the packages as you've already tried - in either case you should remove the Debian packages you installed and replace them with the proper ones from the Ubuntu repositories.
Disclaimer
Note that I am not at all a hardcore system administrating Ubuntu guru, if your system breaks it is your responsibility alone.
Here is what I did.
It seems that downgrading the following packages:
Code: Select all
ghostscript ghostscript-cups ghostscript-doc ghostscript-x libgs8 evince libevdocument3 libevview3 libspectre1
solved the problem. However, note that by doing this following packages:
will be removed. I don't think this can be avoided as it seems that these packages replaced libgs8. Keep in mind that this was done on a clean Ubuntu 11.04 install and that YMMV with regards to extra installed packages. That is, in your case additional packages, that I cannot by any means take into account, might be removed or otherwise cause unforeseeable issues.
I added the Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meercat) repositories to /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ by copying /etc/apt/sources.list to /etc/apt/sources.list.d/maverick.list and replacing all instances of natty with maverick. (Using nano, press Ctrl+\ for the search and replace functionality)
The content of /etc/apt/sources.list.d/maverick.list:
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######################################################
#### Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meercat) Repositories ####
######################################################
# See http://help.ubuntu.com/community/UpgradeNotes for how to upgrade to
# newer versions of the distribution.
deb http://dk.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick main restricted
deb-src http://dk.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick main restricted
## Major bug fix updates produced after the final release of the
## distribution.
deb http://dk.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick-updates main restricted
deb-src http://dk.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick-updates main restricted
## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
## team. Also, please note that software in universe WILL NOT receive any
## review or updates from the Ubuntu security team.
deb http://dk.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick universe
deb-src http://dk.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick universe
deb http://dk.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick-updates universe
deb-src http://dk.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick-updates universe
## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
## team, and may not be under a free licence. Please satisfy yourself as to
## your rights to use the software. Also, please note that software in
## multiverse WILL NOT receive any review or updates from the Ubuntu
## security team.
deb http://dk.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick multiverse
deb-src http://dk.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick multiverse
deb http://dk.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick-updates multiverse
deb-src http://dk.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick-updates multiverse
## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from the 'backports'
## repository.
## N.B. software from this repository may not have been tested as
## extensively as that contained in the main release, although it includes
## newer versions of some applications which may provide useful features.
## Also, please note that software in backports WILL NOT receive any review
## or updates from the Ubuntu security team.
# deb http://dk.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick-backports main restricted universe multiverse
# deb-src http://dk.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick-backports main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu maverick-security main restricted
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu maverick-security main restricted
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu maverick-security universe
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu maverick-security universe
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu maverick-security multiverse
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu maverick-security multiverse
## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from Canonical's
## 'partner' repository.
## This software is not part of Ubuntu, but is offered by Canonical and the
## respective vendors as a service to Ubuntu users.
# deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu maverick partner
# deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu maverick partner
## This software is not part of Ubuntu, but is offered by third-party
## developers who want to ship their latest software.
deb http://extras.ubuntu.com/ubuntu maverick main
deb-src http://extras.ubuntu.com/ubuntu maverick main
For all the above mentioned packages I created pinning policies under /etc/apt/preferences.d/. The easiest way of doing this is running this code bit as root or with sudo:
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for a in ghostscript ghostscript-cups ghostscript-doc ghostscript-x libgs8 evince libevdocument3 libevview3 libspectre1; do echo -e "Package: $a\nPin: release a=maverick\nPin-Priority: 700" > /etc/apt/preferences.d/ps_downgrade_policies_$a; done
It will create the following files under /etc/apt/preferences.d/
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ps_downgrade_policies_ghostscript
ps_downgrade_policies_ghostscript-cups
ps_downgrade_policies_ghostscript-doc
ps_downgrade_policies_ghostscript-x
ps_downgrade_policies_libgs8
ps_downgrade_policies_evince
ps_downgrade_policies_libevdocument3
ps_downgrade_policies_libevview3
ps_downgrade_policies_libspectre1
containing:
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Package: package-name-here
Pin: release a=maverick
Pin-Priority: 1000
Then, as root or with sudo, issue
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apt-get update
apt-get dist-upgrade
and you're done.
If/when you want to remove the pinning, just delete the files previously created under /etc/apt/preferences.d/ and run
Pinning the packages might prevent you from being able to properly update the system until the pinning is removed.
Edit:
I'm currently working on downgrading the Ubuntu system installed on a virtual machine and will report back whether or not it succeeds.
The one-liner for stateement has been corrected tho include "echo -e" rather than just "echo".