Re Undoing an update

[Jack]

I don't see how you could get back to what you had. At least not without a lot of PAIN.

You might try this:
Open the Synaptic package manager from System->Administration->Synaptic Package Manager. Then, select File->History from the menu to see a log of all updates for the past month. You can then search for 26 packages that you think might be causing trouble. Finally, after selecting an offending package you can choose Package->Force Version from the menu and make it roll back to the previous version if available.

Here is my reasoning, on why this might not work. When you updated, the update utility ran the command "apt-get update", either directly or indirectly or effectively doing so. This altered the list of what versions of software are available for updating. This of course destroyed the previous list of software packages. The only way to undo an update would be for Ubuntu, or any other debian based distro, to save the previous list prior to updating. You could, create your own utility to do this, but that would entail the command line and a shell script most likely. With this list in hand you ought to be able to restore it to it's proper location and run apt-get upgrade from the commandline to restore you system to it's previous setting. Although you'd probably have to remove any "new" packages, such as the new kernel, by doing an "apt-get remove <application to remove>" from the commandline. You should not be afraid of the commandline. It makes sense to
 learn at least some basic commands. Take it slow and easy and eventually you may find the commandline to be comfortable.


Brian

--- On Wed, 1/28/09, Craig Aldinger <gonzogone at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Craig Aldinger <gonzogone at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re Undoing an update
>...
> 
> What I want to know: is there a way I can undo/delete that
> specific update
> (all 20some of them) and restore my OS to where it was and,
> if so, how?
> Command line stuff is still a bit intimidating for me but I
> am always
> interested in learning so if the answer goes that
> direction, I'll learn!
> 
> Thanks,
> Craig