to get rid of version 1.7 - start yast, go to the entry for digikam and click on the version tab and select one of the other entries to get a different version installed.
Actually it is pretty easy, remove the repo, then update all packages unconditionally. That will return everything to the way it was. It will of course take a while, but it is easily done.
My guess is that you might need to upgrade the whole desktop rather then just some random packages. You did not say what version of KDE you are running.
I am running the new test version (m5) at the moment but I going to re-install 11.3 (with the 4.5.4 repo). I will see how I get on updating to digikam 1.7 and post back.
I have a copy of the previous version of digikam (before 1.7) and can always email this to you if need be.
I always have problems with that.
How do you upgrade KDE safely? Last time i did it, the repos got messed up. I kinda think i had two kde versions running since all devices were double.
So how can i do that safely without messing up the system. Factory is, i assume, not the one you want. Right now i have just KDE 4.4.4 (standard).
Not sure if that was to my response, but i think i had the problem because of Factory.
I will try again. I checked my repositories and there is no KDE in it. So i guess i should be fine.
I suffered a similar meltdown a few weeks back, trying to load DigiKam 1.6 at a time when it was only available in the Factory repo. That version was compiled under kde4.6beta1 but loading digikam this brought in only the dependencies it needed, resulting in a broken KDE. I finished upgrading to 4.6beta1 but it was a bit too unstable for my liking.