How to install Overleaf CE with older LaTeX kernel?

[michael1006]

A paper I'm writing needs to use the Springer Nature LaTeX Template.

On overleaf.com, it works fine. That reports LaTeX kernel version: 2023-11-01.

On Overleaf CE which I installed a couple of months, ago, it has 100+ errors, images all floating to the end of the PDF, it's a mess. That reports LaTeX kernel version: 2024-11-01.

I vaguely understand that the template is very sensitive to which version of the kernel is being used. (Using just a standard article documentclass, Overleaf CE works great -- so this is very template-specific.)

For me to get this paper to compile locally, it seems like I need to install an older version of Overleaf CE. Does anyone know if that's possible? It is as simple as running:

sudo git clone https://github.com/overleaf/toolkit.git /opt/overleaf-toolkit

against a specific older commit? I'm just confused because in GitHub, there are no releases and no tags, just commits. I can't find any kind of release history for Overleaf CE?

[michael1006]

I think I've found the release history for 4.x.x here, where 4.0.1 says "TeX Live 2023 is now the default version for instances not running Sandboxed Compiles." In contrast, in the release history for 5.x.x, it says "TeX Live 2025 is the new default image when not using Sandboxed Compiles in Server Pro."

So for the most recent version of the 4.x.x line, I see that it says:

Server Pro 4.2.9
Release date: 2025-03-21
Server Pro Image ID: dcfa08126e52
Community Edition Image ID: 8fda0e836de1
Git Bridge Image ID: 59a17a340612
This is a security release, we updated internal dependencies used by SAML integration.

So I guess I'm wondering, what does that Community Edition Image ID mean, how do I use it?

[mserranom]

So I guess I'm wondering, what does that Community Edition Image ID mean, how do I use it?

This is the Docker Image ID. Since Docker doesn't have a clear concept of versions (docker uses "tags" instead, which are not immutable) we use the Image ID to unambiguously identify a version.

If you're not fiddling with image names you don't really have to worry about that, updating config/version to 4.2.9 should just work.

[michael1006]

Thank you Miguel! Finally got it to work.

Turns out all the variable names in config/variables.env also had to be renamed from the newer OVERLEAF_ to the older SHARELATEX_, but a simple find-and-replace fixed that -- just leaving this here in case anyone else wants to do the same and comes across this thread. (First I'd tried an older version of overleaf-toolkit where they were still SHARELATEX_, but seems it had bugs you've fixed since then, so find-and-replace was the way to go.)