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How can I downgrade vsftpd from the latest Ubuntu package (2.3.5) to version 2.3.2?

I have tried to put this into /etc/apt/preferences file:

Package: vsftpd
Pin: version 2.3.2*
Pin-Priority: 1001

However, every time I do sudo apt-get install vsftpd it installs version 2.3.5: vsftpd_2.3.5-1ubuntu2_i386.deb

Is there something else I need to do or am I doing something wrong?

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2 Answers

up vote 9 down vote accepted

What you are after is not pinning, but holding.

Holding a package can be achieved with

  echo vsftpd hold | dpkg --set-selections

See Ubuntu Pinning Howto

Edit: as for the original question it would probably be easiest to uninstall whatever version is there and download the version you need from Ubuntu Main pool and install it with dpkg -i. Afterwards hold to it as describe above.

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Hmm I tried holding, but no luck. I think it is because I already had 2.3.5 installed (as it is the latest version in Ubuntu 12.04). I also tried removing vsftpd and then installing it again, but unfortunately it keeps installing 2.3.5. Any other suggestions? –  j doen Apr 30 '12 at 9:24
It would probably be easiest to download the package from pool and install it with dpkg -i vsftpd_2.3.2-3ubuntu5.1_i386.deb –  Dmitri Chubarov Apr 30 '12 at 9:32
Thanks! Manually installing the package did the trick. –  j doen Apr 30 '12 at 9:39
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I was getting "needs read/write" access errors when running the hold command, even with "sudo". It did finally work when I switched to root (sudo su) and ran it as root. Just in case anyone else has the same issue.

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