[SOLVED] How to downgrade to an earlier release?

[jpc2769]

Yesterday I upgraded to 18.04.

So far, my wifi is completely broken, I have no audio, and I cannot use my yubikey to access my password database so I am locked out of email and everything else (which I need email to reset the passwords). Basically it has crippled my ability to work, and I am not sure I will be able to pay my bills without access to my bank accounts. I am sure there are plenty of other issues as well, I just haven't discovered them yet.

How can I revert to 16.04?

[chimak111]

I'm not sure there is a process to "revert" to 16.04.

Do you have access at all to internet from this machine or any other? If so, see https://github.com/UbuntuForums/wireless-info right up to the end. If you post the information generated here or at ubuntuforums.org (in their networking & wireless subforum after reading the sticky there) someone may help you.

[Snowhog]

If you can, connect your PC to a wired network connection and then in a console, run: sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade. Note any warnings and/or error messages reported.

[jpc2769]

If you can, connect your PC to a wired network connection and then in a console, run: sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade. Note any warnings and/or error messages reported.

OK I did that, here is what it says:

:~$ sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade
Ign:1 http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb stable InRelease
Hit:2 http://archive.canonical.com bionic InRelease                                                                         
Hit:3 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic InRelease                                                                     
Hit:4 http://ppa.launchpad.net/phoerious/keepassxc/ubuntu bionic InRelease                     
Hit:5 http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb stable Release               
Get:6 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates InRelease [88.7 kB]                           
Hit:7 http://ppa.launchpad.net/phoerious/keepassxc/ubuntu xenial InRelease                                     
Hit:8 http://ppa.launchpad.net/yubico/stable/ubuntu bionic InRelease                 
Hit:9 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-backports InRelease
Get:11 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security InRelease [83.2 kB]
Get:12 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates/main Sources [159 kB]
Get:13 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates/main amd64 Packages [304 kB]
Get:14 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates/main i386 Packages [272 kB]
Get:15 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates/main Translation-en [114 kB]
Get:16 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates i386 Contents (deb) [6,148 kB]
Get:17 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates amd64 Contents (deb) [8,611 kB]
Get:18 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates/universe i386 Packages [173 kB]
Get:19 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates/universe amd64 Packages [172 kB]
Get:20 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security/main Sources [45.6 kB]
Get:21 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security/main i386 Packages [128 kB]
Get:22 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security/main amd64 Packages [159 kB]
Get:23 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security/main Translation-en [60.9 kB]
Get:24 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security i386 Contents (deb) [5,019 kB]
Get:25 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security amd64 Contents (deb) [7,482 kB]
Fetched 29.0 MB in 8s (3,467 kB/s)                                                                                                                                        
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
All packages are up to date.
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following package was automatically installed and is no longer required:
 libzxcvbn0
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove it.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

Nothing looks out of the ordinary to me.

[jpc2769]

I'm not sure there is a process to "revert" to 16.04.

Do you have access at all to internet from this machine or any other? If so, see https://github.com/UbuntuForums/wireless-info right up to the end. If you post the information generated here or at ubuntuforums.org (in their networking & wireless subforum after reading the sticky there) someone may help you.

OK thanks, I have done this and will post in another thread.

If I download the 16.04 image and reinstall from a USB drive, will that overwrite 18.04 and bring me back to 16.04?

[Snowhog]

For the moment, now that you are connected to the 'Net via a wired connection, you can now check for wifi drivers that might actually be available but not activated on your 18.04 installation. Go into Device Manager.

[chimak111]

...
If I download the 16.04 image and reinstall from a USB drive, will that overwrite 18.04 and bring me back to 16.04?

Give people here a chance to help you! Not everyone is in the same time zone. 18.04 is quite an improvement over 16.04.

[jpc2769]

Go into Device Manager.

Is this the same as "Driver Manager" in System Settings, or is it something different?

Driver Manager hangs on "Collecting information about your system" and never displays anything else…

[jpc2769]

18.04 is quite an improvement over 16.04.

So far, it has broken my wifi, audio, USB ports, and it doesn't recognize my Yubikey which means I am locked out of ALL my email accounts, bank accounts, etc. and have bills due soon that I have to pay electronically. And those are just the problems I have discovered, I am sure there are more. It just doesn't seem ready for general release, compared to 16.04. But I can't reinstall 16.04 without a functioning USB port, so I guess I am stuck with it for the time being…

[chimak111]

Have you installed the updates you posted earlier?

I don't know what this Yubikey is all about, but I doubt it's wifi-dependent. Seeing as how you can access the internet through a wired connection, I don't quite see your issue re. "I am locked out of ALL my email accounts, bank accounts, etc. and have bills due soon that I have to pay electronically."

18.04 works brilliantly for me.

[Snowhog]

Is this the same as "Driver Manager" in System Settings, or is it something different?

Driver Manager hangs on "Collecting information about your system" and never displays anything else…

Sorry. Yes, Driver Manager. The 'hanging' is a know/reported issue, and there is a solution/work around for it. See https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...l=1#post385556

[jpc2769]

Which updates are you referring to? The one I mentioned in my wifi post? That update took me from "wifi not connecting" to "wifi device apparently nonexistent."

I use a password manager called KeepassXC, it stores all my passwords. I generated very strong passwords and use this to store them rather than trying to remember a few dozen strings of 20-25 random ASCII characters. I use the Yubikey to unlock it, it fits in the USB port. Upon upgrade to 18.04, the Yubikey is no longer recognized, which means I cannot open the password storage and use it to log in to my email accounts, bank accounts, medical provider web platform, etc. etc. So yes, I am locked out of ALL my email accounts and most of my other online acc, save this one and a couple of others that don't have any personal information on me and whose passwords I store in the browser.

I am very happy that 18.04 works "brilliantly" for you. It does not work great for me, nor for a large number of other people, judging by the number of posts I have seen on Ubuntu Forum, Reddit, etc.

[jpc2769]

Sorry. Yes, Driver Manager. The 'hanging' is a know/reported issue, and there is a solution/work around for it. See https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...l=1#post385556

I looked at that post from 2016, I tried "ubuntu-drivers devices" in the terminal as they suggested, it paused for a bit but didn't say anything…

[Snowhog]

"..it paused for a bit but didn't say anything..."

Meaning, you were returned to the command prompt? What about trying the 'list' command:

list: Show all driver packages which apply to the current system.

ubuntu-drivers list

[jglen490]

Yesterday I upgraded to 18.04.

So far, my wifi is completely broken, I have no audio, and I cannot use my yubikey to access my password database so I am locked out of email and everything else (which I need email to reset the passwords). Basically it has crippled my ability to work, and I am not sure I will be able to pay my bills without access to my bank accounts. I am sure there are plenty of other issues as well, I just haven't discovered them yet.

How can I revert to 16.04?

If we can start from the beginning, did you do a direct upgrade to 18.04, or a clean install of 18.04? For the past several years, the clean install process seems to work better. That being said, unless you have some unusual hardware, it would be odd to lose that much functionality in an upgrade of any kind.

In answer to your question, it is possible to go back to 16.04, but a clean install is the most direct and reliable way to do that. An ISO of the latest 16.04 that you had (i.e., 16.04.4 or 16.04.5) previously is available from the Kubuntu download page and is still supported for another couple of years.

To continue with your current problem, when you reboot, do you see any hardware errors (i.e., specific to USB devices) either during the boot or if you use dmesg with grep? Can you copy and paste back the results of

inxi -Fxz

in a code box? And just to cover all the bases, if you downloaded an 18.04 ISO, did you check the SHA256 sum?