How to "reverse-backport" a package available on earlier Ubuntu distribution to later Distribution?
Matthew Martinez 
There are 4 packages I am using on 12.04 which are not available on 12.10:
- xkcd-browser ;-)
- cuttlefish
- bluphone
- xserver-xorg-input-synaptics (it allows for touchpad rotation that could go along screen rotation with randr)
Is there any way of more-or-less automatic reverse-backporting?
(I know, that one "solution" is to wait. But unless I know for how long I should do it, it doesn't solve anything.)
Update:
The process involving the packportpackage illustrated below on example "xkcd-browser" doesn't work for none of the 4 packages; however the error report seems to be different for each item.
backportpackage -b -d quantal -w .
1 Answer
Sometimes, you can just install straight from the PPA, or even a .deb file. However, if that doesn't work, then it's likely that it won't work at all, especially if the package relies on GTK or anything in the GNOME stack. If you do manage to get something installed, it's pretty likely that it will not work as expected (and may even cause issues in other applications). This is due to incompatibilities between GTK and GNOME versions.
A quick search shows that the XKCD browser may not be updated for a while. The linked AU question does provide a possible solution, but again, it may cause other issues. Cuttlefish is reported to work on 12.10 if you use the .deb file.
Blubphone and xserver-xorg-input-synaptics are worth trying, as they probably have their own interface, or aren't dependent on the Gnome/GTK stacks.
To find out if a given piece of software works on a given version of Ubuntu, I generally have good luck with searching Google with something like "ubuntu [version] [software name]".
