Suse RPM List

For Mandrake it is easy to get additional rpms for a number of pet projects out there: just go to PLF. The "Penguin Liberation Front" does host all the extra packages that the commercial vendor does not redistribute - either caused by license problems or just because it is too specialized e.g. with bioinformatics and chemistry applications. There are strong signs that Mandrake employees contribute to PLF all by themselves: many of them have a personal favorite for some reason and if the company policy does throw it out of the core CD set (and disables it as well for the contrib/* section of their download server) then they just move it over to PLF where it can continue to be downloaded.

That makes Mandrake essentially to bring it all: you will first look at the core packages, then at the contrib packages, then at the plf packages. If you are a packager (whatever that may be) then you can just submit your stuff to mandrake and announce on the cooker list. The package will be moved to one of the three sites - to find a mandrake add-on package is an easy thing: I do not quite remember to have been out to rpmseek (and if it was then it was not successful). My mirror of the three package sites had all the mandrake rpms there were out there.

Debian is a bit similar as they tend to host all packages right on their main download server (atlast in the experimental subsection) - that is atleast true for all the minor and specialized projects. It takes a while however to find packages that are dubbed patent-encumbered or license-restricted. However, queries for such packages pop up often in official newsgroups, so it is almost easy to find a host for them that can be added as an apt source (even for those that are not listed in some faq).

All that is different with suse - the suse newsgroups and mailinglists are about boring. I do not remember anyone to put an annoucement for a new rpm package online. There is no public mailinglist where one can submit even requests for new packages (debian does have a wishlist policy and mandrake has a clubmember wishlist). There is no hint in any faq that points you to third parties redistributing packages not hosted by suse. And even if you do find one of those extra sites then they do not have a submit channel either as they are just personal websites that redistribute what they are interested just on their own. There is no collaborative effort in add-on packages for suse.

However, some of the (originally) one-man sites are quite big, so let's list some of them. - The biggest ist certainly the packman archive (do not confuse that with the pacmansoftware used by archlinux or the pacmanclone of the preinternet game). Find it at

http://packman.links2linux.de/
or check their linux news page at
http://www.links2linux.de/

The updates on their page trickle in rather slowly. The next biggest (originally) one-man site is the guru rpm site - the packman archive does have the advantage that it hosts its software in the very same format that is used by the YAST tool, so you can just add it as another source. The Guru rpm archive is quicker but he seems to prefer apt4rpm. Find it at:

http://linux01.gwdg.de/~pbleser/

If you look closer then you will notice that about all add-on packages for suse are hosted on the ftp.gwdg.de but this is not a site being managed by some central authority instead it has room for for personal subdirectories. You can walk through those subdirectories looking for a package but in a lot of cases you will know for which suse version it is - and it can not be just added as an update source. By some reverse lookup it seems that most packagers tend to enlist their add-on package for apt4rpm - the guru rpm site has a stepbystep page to install it at ~pbleser/article/install_apt4rpm.php

What else? Hmmm, www.planetsuse.org, susefaq.sourceforge.net/ and if the apt-rpm does not give you any packages, have a little thought about this one: examples/sources.list.FTP and the item "suser-guru" in the list.
and the jpackage documentation is outdated, just use
rpm http://mirrors.sunsite.dk generic free devel