I have just successfully downgraded from PHP5.3 on Ubuntu 10.
To do this I used the following script:
#! /bin/sh
php_packages=`dpkg -l | grep php | awk '{print $2}'`
sudo apt-get remove $php_packages
sed s/lucid/karmic/g /etc/apt/sources.list | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/karmic.list
sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/preferences.d/
for package in $php_packages;
do echo "Package: $package
Pin: release a=karmic
Pin-Priority: 991
" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/preferences.d/php
done
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install $php_packages
For anyone that doesn't know how to run scripts from the command line, here is a brief tutorial:
1. cd ~/
2. mkdir bin
3. sudo nano ~/bin/myscriptname.sh
4. paste in the script code I have posted above this
5. ctrl+x (this exits and prompts for you to save)
6. chmod u+x myscriptname.sh
These 6 steps create a script in a folder called "bin" in your home directory. You can then run this script by calling the following command:
~/bin/myscriptname.sh
Oulia!
Hope this helps some of you!
For reference, here is where I got the script: PHP5.2.10 for Ubuntu 10
There are several people on there all confirming that this works, and it worked a treat for me.