[nmglug] How to safely replace a Buster/stable package with a Stretch/oldstable package and maintain it?

[Tom Ashcraft]

Greetings Debianistas,

Clementine audio/music player version 'clementine/bionic 
1.3.1+git276-g3485bbe43+dfsg-1.1build1 amd64' used by Ubuntu 18.04 
flavors works perfectly for my particular needs.

However, on two older laptops for which I most value Clementine's 
abilities for downloading podcasts, the slightly newer/different 
Clementine version 'clementine/stable 1.3.1+git609-g623a53681+dfsg-1 
amd64', which is supplied by the default repos for Debian 10 
stable/Buster and antiX 19 (a lightweight Debian derivative), always 
fails with respect to the Music > Add Podcast > iTunes Search option.

I currently spend about half my time living in a location where the only 
access to the internet I have is through occasional infrequent use of 
WiFi supplied by the public library (now closed and only through an 
office window and apparently restricted hours due to Covid 19).  So I 
really want to be able to conveniently grab new episodes of particular 
podcasts using these two reliable and infrequently updated Debian machines.

By way of additional context and perspective, my Android/F-Droid phone 
app, AntennaPod, which has an Add Podcast > iTunes Search functionality 
similar to Clementine, always works fine (though with more limited speed 
and storage capability than the laptops.) So, although I won't entirely 
rule it out, I don't expect the iTunes Search problem lies directly or 
solely with iTunes or the current anti-competitive (and perhaps 
understandable) machinations of Apple.

It happens that Clementine version '1.3.1+git276-g3485bbe43+dfsg-1', the 
version provided for Ubuntu 18.04 flavors (less the .1build1 suffix), 
appears to be exactly the same as that listed at 
https://packages.debian.org/stretch/clementine as the version formerly 
provided by Debian for oldstable/Stretch.

So, in theory it seems probable that I ought to be able to simply 
replace the Buster version of Clementine with the Stretch version so as 
to obtain the full functionality I have under Ubuntu in Debian.

People usually seem to complain that the problem with Debian is the 
default preference for older packages, but in this case the problem 
seems to be exactly the other way around.

General Linux and Ubuntu information I've found suggests that it is a 
reasonable possibility to restrict the use of certain packages to older 
or specific versions of software, but I've yet to locate official Debian 
sources that provide direct confirmation or clearly applicable 
instruction for my case.  All the wiki.debian.org instructions seem to 
be geared to using the occasional newer 'sid' or 'testing' version in 
'stable' installations.

Of course, if I can get the Stretch version of Clementine installed in 
Buster, I want to do it in the safest and most maintainable way so that 
nothing is liable to break.

Any advice or suggestions?

Thanks,

Tom




-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.nmglug.org/pipermail/nmglug-nmglug.org/attachments/20200514/8729c8f1/attachment.html>