If you’re anything like me, you were looking forward to the release of ubuntu 12.10 (and PHP 5.4).

Perhaps you got so excited that you upgraded all your installations, only to find some of your php applications weren’t quite ready yet. Bummer.

Luckily, you can downgrade PHP without downgrading Ubuntu. Because PHP 5.3 is no longer in the ubuntu repositories for quantal quetzal, it’s a bit trickier. Don’t worry, though, your friends on the ubuntu forums have made it easier. Emil Terziev has adapted a script by Ruben Barkow to add the old php repositories, uninstall php and related tools, then reinstall the prior versions.

#!/bin/bash
#
# Original for 5.3 by Ruben Barkow (rubo77) http://www.entikey.z11.de/
# release 1 PHP5.4 to 5.3 by Emil Terziev ( foxy ) Bulgaria

# Originally Posted by Bachstelze http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=9080474#post9080474
# OK, here's how to do the Apt magic to get PHP packages from the precise repositories:

echo "Am I root?  "
if [ "$(whoami &2>/dev/null)" != "root" ] && [ "$(id -un &2>/dev/null)" != "root" ] ; then
echo "  NO!

Error: You must be root to run this script.
Enter
sudo su
"
exit 1
fi
echo "  OK";

#install aptitude before, if you don`t have it:
apt-get update
apt-get install aptitude
# or if you prefer apt-get use:
# alias aptitude='apt-get'

# finish all apt-problems:
aptitude update
aptitude -f install
#apt-get -f install

# remove all your existing PHP packages. You can list them with dpkg -l| grep php
PHPLIST=$(for i in $(dpkg -l | grep php|awk '{ print $2 }' ); do echo $i; done)
echo these pachets will be removed: $PHPLIST
# you need not to purge, if you have upgraded from precise:
aptitude remove $PHPLIST
# on a fresh install, you need purge:
# aptitude remove --purge $PHPLIST

#Create a file each in /etc/apt/preferences.d like this (call it for example /etc/apt/preferences.d/php5_2);
#
#Package: php5
#Pin: release a=precise
#Pin-Priority: 991
#
#The big problem is that wildcards don't work, so you will need one such stanza for each PHP package you want to pull from precise:

echo ''>/etc/apt/preferences.d/php5_3
for i in $PHPLIST ; do echo "Package: $i
Pin: release a=precise
Pin-Priority: 991
">>/etc/apt/preferences.d/php5_3; done

echo "# needed sources vor php5.3:
deb http://bg.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise main restricted
deb-src http://bg.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise main restricted

deb http://bg.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates main restricted
deb-src http://bg.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates main restricted

deb http://bg.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise universe
deb-src http://bg.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise universe
deb http://bg.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates universe
deb-src http://bg.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates universe

deb http://bg.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise multiverse
deb-src http://bg.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise multiverse
deb http://bg.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates multiverse
deb-src http://bg.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates multiverse
deb-src http://bg.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ natty-backports main restricted universe multiverse

deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-security main restricted
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-security main restricted
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-security universe
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-security universe
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-security multiverse
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-security multiverse

deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu natty partner

deb http://extras.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise main
deb-src http://extras.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise main

deb http://bg.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-backports main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://bg.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-backports main restricted universe multiverse

deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu precise partner
deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu precise partner

" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/precise.list

aptitude update

apache2ctl restart

echo install new from precise:
aptitude -t precise install $PHPLIST

# at the end retry the modul libapache2-mod-php5 in case it didn't work the first time:
aptitude -t precise install libapache2-mod-php5

apache2ctl restart

Save the above code as php5_4_downgrade_5.3.sh or download the original file from this thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2074178

To run the script, open a terminal where you saved it, and run the following

chmod +x php5_4_downgrade_5.3.sh;
sudo ./php5_4_downgrade_5.3.sh

Keep in mind that this will uninstall your new version of PHP and restart the apache webserver. Enjoy your freshly old version of PHP, and upgrade your code so you can run PHP 5.4 as soon as possible!