Installing old version 7 does not work correctly

Software
1

I was recently upgraded by Ubuntu’s automatic updates from KiCad version 7 to version 8. I have been trying to go back to version 7.

This is because version 8 was not usable - every time I tried to move a component KiCad froze for about 5 seconds. I would love to debug so I can use the latest and greatest but I am on a deadline.

I can usually revert by adding the ppa for an older version and deleting config settings, and this seems to be the consensus from the forum as well.

However, after switching to the KiCad 7 repository, running “sudo apt purge kicad” and deleting the settings in the .config/kicad folder, I end up with a version of KiCad 7 that expects KiCad 8 libraries and exhibits the same usability issues as KiCad 8 does.

What do I need to do, to completely purge KiCad and go back to version 7?

2

It’s a common problem when using Wayland, or bad GPU drivers. If that’s the case, try switching to X11 session.

3

Even though this was not what I was looking for in the original post, it quickly solved the problem.

For others who run across this, I un-commented one line in /etc/gdm3/custom.conf and KiCad no longer hangs.

Thank you dsa-t!

Here is the line:

[daemon]
#Uncomment the line below to force the login screen to use Xorg
WaylandEnable=false

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