xserver-xorg-core upgrade broken

This morning I installed a new version of xserver-xorg-core on my Ubuntu desktop and so did my colleage Alexis, he then restarted his computer only to find that X11 (the Windowing System) would not start and was giving an error of: (EE) No devices detected. Fatal server error: no screens found There is a bug report in the Ubuntu bug database about this: https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/xorg-server/+bug/57153 The easiest way to fix this is to download the previous version of the package and install it. The packages are in http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/x/xorg-server/ and I have a tinyurl to the i386 binary http://tinyurl.com/hshot, version 1.0.2-0ubuntu10.1 as 1.0.2-0ubuntu10.3 is broken. Here is how to downgrade, the stuff I type is in bold: Ubuntu 6.06.1 LTS oucs-matthewb tty1 oucs-matthewb login: buckett Password: Last login: Tue Aug 22 10:00:09 2006 on pts/0 Linux oucs-matthewb 2.6.15-26-686 #1 SMP PREEMPT Thu Aug 3 03:13:28 UTC 2006 i686 GNU/Linux The programs included with the Ubuntu system are free software; the exact distribution terms for each program are described in the individual files in /usr/share/doc/*/copyright. Ubuntu comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by applicable law. No mail. 1 failure since last login. Last was Tue 22 Aug 2006 10:01:12 BST on pts/0. buckett@oucs-matthewb:~ $ cd /tmp buckett@oucs-matthewb:/tmp $ wget http://tinyurl.com/hshot --10:01:34-- http://tinyurl.com/hshot => `hshot' Resolving tinyurl.com... 85.255.210.131, 195.66.135.131 Connecting to tinyurl.com|85.255.210.131|:80... connected. HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 301 Moved Permanently Location: http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/x/xorg-server/xserver-xorg-core_1.0.2-0ubuntu10.1_i386.deb [following] --10:01:34-- http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/x/xorg-server/xserver-xorg-core_1.0.2-0ubuntu10.1_i386.deb => `xserver-xorg-core_1.0.2-0ubuntu10.1_i386.deb' Resolving gb.archive.ubuntu.com... 82.211.81.182 Connecting to gb.archive.ubuntu.com|82.211.81.182|:80... connected. HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK Length: 3,529,260 (3.4M) [application/x-debian-package] 100%[====================================>] 3,529,260 9.78M/s 10:01:34 (9.78 MB/s) - `xserver-xorg-core_1.0.2-0ubuntu10.1_i386.deb' saved [3529260/3529260] buckett@oucs-matthewb:/tmp $ sudo dpkg -i xserver-xorg-core_1.0.2-0ubuntu10.1_i386.deb dpkg - warning: downgrading xserver-xorg-core from 1.0.2-0ubuntu10.3 to 1.0.2-0ubuntu10.1. (Reading database ... 107659 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to replace xserver-xorg-core 1:1.0.2-0ubuntu10.3 (using xserver-xorg-core_1.0.2-0ubuntu10.1_i386.deb) ... Unpacking replacement xserver-xorg-core ... Setting up xserver-xorg-core (1.0.2-0ubuntu10.1) ... Maybe this might help someone, you will continue to be prompted to upgrade to the broken version but hopefuly Ubuntu will soon produce a fixed version and you should be able to skip the broken version. The way to check what version you are uprgading to is to use the Update Manager (in Administration menu).