How to install an appstream package from previous release

Rocky Linux Help & Support
1

Dear Rocky Experts,

I am trying to install a previous version of the “qemu-kvm” package on a Rocky 8.6 system. However, the version I want is no longer listed on the appstream repo, even with the “–showduplicates” option.

Here’s what I see on my host after updating all packages from Rocky 8.5 to 8.6:

# dnf --showduplicates list qemu-kvm
Installed Packages
qemu-kvm.x86_64            15:6.2.0-11.module+el8.6.0+1000+18e3b59f.5         @appstream
Available Packages
qemu-kvm.x86_64            15:6.2.0-11.module+el8.6.0+847+b490afdd            appstream 
qemu-kvm.x86_64            15:6.2.0-11.module+el8.6.0+998+252a5635.2          appstream 
qemu-kvm.x86_64            15:6.2.0-11.module+el8.6.0+1000+18e3b59f.5         appstream

Looking on another 8.5 system (not yet updated) here’s what shows:

#dnf list qemu-kvm
Installed Packages
qemu-kvm.x86_64            15:4.2.0-59.module+el8.5.0+670+c4aa478c            @appstream
Available Packages
qemu-kvm.x86_64            15:6.2.0-11.module+el8.6.0+1000+18e3b59f.5         appstream

I need to get back to version 15:4.2.0 of qemu-kvm, due to an unresolved bug. How do I make this version available on my Rocky 8.6 system?

Note: I tried modifying the Appstream repo.conf file with “baseurl=http://download.rockylinux.org/vault/rocky/8.5/AppStream/$basearch/os/” but no dice.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

-jm

2

Did you hash out the mirrorlist line? This must not be enabled - just making sure in case. Also, you might want to do:

dnf clean all

and then see if it will pick up the vault url. Not sure if you tried that?

3

Aha!

That did the trick! The mirrorlist was still enabled. After fixing that, and a quick “dnf clean all”, I can now see the v4.2.0 package that I need. I installed v4.2.0-60 and now I see this:

# /usr/libexec/qemu-kvm -version
QEMU emulator version 4.2.0 (qemu-kvm-4.2.0-60.module+el8.5.0+772+743bb337.2)
Copyright (c) 2003-2019 Fabrice Bellard and the QEMU Project developers

NOTE: I did have to reboot before removing the v6.2 package. Even though ps showed no “qemu-kvm” processes running, “dnf remove qemu-kvm” completed without error, but the files were stil there. Only after rebooting and re-running “remove” were the files actually gone. Maybe some file locks…

Weird, huh?

Anyway, thanks for your help.

-jm

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4

For what it’s worth, the mirrorlist does also support older versions to be served.

In the mirrorlist line, change the repo name (e.g. AppStream-8) to something like “vault-AppStream-8.5”

See below:

https://mirrors.rockylinux.org/mirrorlist?repo=vault-AppStream-8.5&arch=x86_64

1 Like
5

If you edit the *.repo files, they might not get dnf updated, only because the package will see them as dirty, and create something like *.rpmnew.

6

gerry,

Agreed. I don’t plan on leaving the “hacked” appstream repo def in place for long – just until I have the old packages I need. Then I will restore the default Rocky-AppStream.repo.

However, I am adding this line, to prevent qemu-kvm (and its dependencies) from updating, until I resolve the issue I am having with v6.2.0:

exclude=*qemu* edk2-ovmf seabios-bin seavgabios-bin sgabios-bin usbredir
1 Like