How do I specify an alternate/additional package source for `apt-get`?

Question

I need to install an older version of gcc on Ubuntu 10.04 (Beta 2); and I'm told I can install a previous package. At present, I can't compile version gcc-3.3.x, and I'm looking to install a package.

How do I instruct apt-get to pull stuff from previous Ubuntu archives?

Answer 1

/etc/apt/sources.list is the file you want.

However due to binary compatibility you're likely to have issues going back more the a release or two.

I don't have any Ubuntu machines to hand, but on Debian gcc-3.3 is in Etch (circa Q1 2007 as a legacy compiler), and gcc-3.4 is in Lenny (circa mid-2009 ditto).

If it's C your best bet is to simply install an old system and build on that. If it's C++ you're likely out of luck due to binary compatability changes.

Answer 2

Binary packages need to have matching (or equivalent) libc versions. So taking a binary package built against libc 2.2 and running it on a system with libc 2.7 isn't going to work.

You could take a source package and rebuild it. Here is an outline of what to do for a GCC corss-compiler for an ARM processor target from Ubuntu, you should be able to adapt that general process.

Another option would be to build GCC C/C++ 3.3.6 from the original source yourself.

I just noticed that it appears that Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx has a package called gcc-3.3 which should be available for you to install.