Wily digikam fails to start with symbol lookup error

I suggest you report a bug. Wily is not ready and not stable.

Yes, I get the same error.

When started from the command line:

$ digikam
digikam: symbol lookup error: /usr/lib/libkexiv2.so.11: undefined symbol: _ZN5Exiv213XmpProperties10registerNsERKNSt7__cxx1112basic_stringIcSt11char_traitsIcESaIcEEES8_
$

I did an upgrade from 15.04, not a clean install.

I did more digging and had to manually downgrade libexiv2-14 from the ppa version to the Wily version, now everything is fine. There are a few other ppa versions of files that remained installed that don't yet appear to be causing any issues--but if they arise, I'll manually downgrade them too.

Yes, correct, me too!

How do you do a manual downgrade of libexiv2-14?

using apt-get (or alternatively aptitude) is the way I do it. From the apt-get man page:

"A specific version of a package can be selected for installation by following the package name with an equals and the version of the package to select. This will cause that version to be located and selected for install. Alternatively a specific distribution can be selected by following the package name with a slash and the version of the distribution or the Archive name (stable, testing, unstable)."

I'm sure there's a way from one of the graphical tools (e.g. Muon) too, but I never use them.

I tried all that several times. I keep getting the same result.
digikam
digikam: symbol lookup error: /usr/lib/libkexiv2.so.11: undefined symbol: _ZN5Exiv213XmpProperties10registerNsERKNSt7__cxx1112basic_stringIcSt11char_traitsIcESaIcEEES8_

uname -a
Linux woctxphotog-Satellite-C55D-B 4.2.0-17-generic #20-Ubuntu SMP Thu Oct 22 16:48:33 UTC 2015 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

dpkg -l digikam*
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name Version Architecture Description
+++-==========================================-==========================-==========================-=========================================================================================
ii digikam 4:4.12.0-0ubuntu5 amd64 digital photo management application for KDE
ii digikam-data 4:4.12.0-0ubuntu5 all digiKam architecture-independant data
un digikam-doc <none> <none> (no description available)

dpkg -l libkexiv2*
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name Version Architecture Description
+++-==========================================-==========================-==========================-=========================================================================================
un libkexiv2-11 <none> <none> (no description available)
ii libkexiv2-11v5 4:15.08.2-0ubuntu1 amd64 Qt like interface for the libexiv2 library
ii libkexiv2-data 4:15.08.2-0ubuntu1 all Qt-like interface for the libexiv2

what version of libexiv2-14 do you have installed? (note not libkexiv, but libexiv)

dpkg -l libexiv2-14
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name Version Architecture Description
+++-==========================================-==========================-==========================-=========================================================================================
ii libexiv2-14:amd64 0.25-vivid~ppa2 amd64 EXIF/IPTC metadata manipulation library

That's the problem. see the "vivid~ppa2"? downgrade it to the universe version of the package (0.25-1ubuntu1).

Ok how do I do that, I thought I knew but everything I have tried did not work.

this should work... apt-get install libexiv2-14=0.25-1ubuntu1

I think I found out how, but if I do I lose all this
libexiv2-14 will be removed with configuration
amarok will be removed
amarok-utils will be removed
apturl-kde will be removed
baloo-utils will be removed
calligra-libs will be removed
darktable will be removed
digikam will be removed
dolphin-plugins-bazaar will be removed
dolphin4 will be removed
entangle will be removed
exiv2 will be removed
ffmpegthumbs will be removed
gimp-lensfun will be removed
gimp-ufraw will be removed
gnome-color-manager will be removed
gwenview will be removed
hugin will be removed
hugin-tools will be removed
k3b will be removed
k3b-i18n will be removed
kamera will be removed
katepart will be removed
kde-baseapps-bin will be removed
kde-runtime will be removed
kde-telepathy-declarative will be removed
kdeconnect will be removed
kdegraphics-strigi-analyzer will be removed
kdelibs5-dev will be removed
kdelibs5-plugins will be removed
kdemultimedia-kio-plugins will be removed
kdesudo will be removed
kdoctools will be removed
kfind will be removed
kio-audiocd will be removed
kio-extras will be removed
kio-mtp will be removed
kipi-plugins will be removed
kmix will be removed
kmymoney will be removed
konq-plugins will be removed
konqueror will be removed
konqueror-nsplugins will be removed
konsole4-kpart will be removed
kpart-webkit will be removed
krdc will be removed
krita will be removed
ksnapshot will be removed
ksystemlog will be removed
ktorrent will be removed
kubuntu-desktop will be removed
kubuntu-full will be removed
kxmlkipicmd will be removed
language-pack-kde-en will be removed
libakonadi-calendar4 will be removed
libakonadi-contact4 will be removed
libakonadi-kcal4 will be removed
libakonadi-kde4 will be removed
libakonadi-kmime4 will be removed
libakonadi-socialutils4 will be removed
libbaloowidgets4 will be removed
libgexiv2-2 will be removed
libk3b6 will be removed
libk3b6-extracodecs will be removed
libkabc4 will be removed
libkalarmcal2 will be removed
libkatepartinterfaces4 will be removed
libkblog4 will be removed
libkcal4 will be removed
libkcalutils4 will be removed
libkcddb4 will be removed
libkdcraw23 will be removed
libkde3support4 will be removed
libkdepimdbusinterfaces4 will be removed
libkdewebkit5 will be removed
libkemoticons4 will be removed
libkexiv2-11v5 will be removed
libkf5filemetadata-bin will be removed
libkfile4 will be removed
libkfilemetadata4 will be removed
libkgapi2-2 will be removed
libkhtml5 will be removed
libkimproxy4 will be removed
libkio5 will be removed
libkipi-dev will be removed
libkipi11 will be removed
libkmanagesieve4 will be removed
libkmediaplayer4 will be removed
libknewstuff2-4 will be removed
libknewstuff3-4 will be removed
libknotifyconfig4 will be removed
libkonq-common will be removed
libkonq5abi1 will be removed
libkonqsidebarplugin4a will be removed
libkontactinterface4 will be removed
libkparts4 will be removed
libkpeople4 will be removed
libkpimidentities4 will be removed
libkpimtextedit4 will be removed
libkpimutils4 will be removed
libkprintutils4 will be removed
libkrossui4 will be removed
libktexteditor4 will be removed
libktnef4 will be removed
libktorrent-l10n will be removed
libktorrent5 will be removed
libktpcommoninternalsprivate8 will be removed
libktploggerprivate8 will be removed
libktpmodelsprivate8 will be removed
libktpwidgetsprivate8 will be removed
libkutils4 will be removed
libkvkontakte1 will be removed
libkxmlrpcclient4 will be removed
libmailtransport4 will be removed
libmicroblog4 will be removed
libokularcore6 will be removed
libplasma3 will be removed
libreoffice-kde will be removed
libstreamanalyzer0v5 will be removed
libsyndication4 will be removed
okular will be removed
okular-extra-backends will be removed
phatch will be removed
phatch-cli will be removed
plasma-scriptengine-javascript will be removed
python-pyexiv2 will be removed
python3-pykde4 will be removed
rapid-photo-downloader will be removed
shotwell will be removed
showfoto will be removed
skanlite will be removed
sweeper will be removed
ubuntu-release-upgrader-qt will be removed
ufraw-batch will be removed

Awesome Thank You That Just Made My Day:) I spent all weekend and you just helped me that quick. Thank you so very much.

Glad to have helped!

Now one more issue just popped up, can you help with why digikam crashes on export or save?

I'd suggest opening a different question on that. I haven't experienced any crashes on export/save. But do check for any additional ppa packages that are still installed and downgrade them if so. (apt list --installed | grep ppa)

Ok Thank You