Additional package repositories
You are extremely likely to have issues with updates in future. You must be confident to resolve these.
If you experience breakages, your openSUSE distribution and openSUSE itself should not be blamed.
Try to hold back your updates of packages so it can sync with upstream or rollback.
- For official repositories (OSS, non-OSS, Update, Update-Non-OSS) and semiofficial repositories (including KDE, GNOME and Java repositories), see Package repositories.
- For information on how to add package repositories see Add package repositories.
- For new Linux and openSUSE users, it is recommended to use the four default repositories: OSS, Non-OSS, Update and Update-Non-OSS. Later on when you familiarize yourself with package management you can add more repositories, such as Packman.
- Please make sure that you actually need a specific repository instead of blindly adding it. More repositories equates to more complexity in terms of software management, which means you will need some experience to avoid problems with your openSUSE operating system. In extreme cases system failure can occur. Please ask for help in #opensuse on Libera.chat or any of the available communication channels if you are unsure about how to add a repo or are unsure about how to install software from a repo.
Popular external repositories
Packman
Packman offers various additional packages for openSUSE, especially but not limited to multimedia related applications and libraries that are on the openSUSE Build Service application blacklist. It's the largest external repository of openSUSE packages. Packman is comprised of the following four repositories:
- Essentials: provides codecs and audio and video player applications, to fulfill the most essential needs
- Multimedia: contains many more multimedia related applications
- Extra: additional non multimedia related applications, mostly network related
- Games: obviously, games
The repositories above may be added individually be appending their name to the end of the URLs below. The latter three repositories are built upon Essentials and as such it must be added to utilize them.
Only Essentials:
Version: Tumbleweed Packman Essentials (for all supported architectures)
sudo zypper ar -cfp 90 'https://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/misc/packman/suse/openSUSE_Tumbleweed/Essentials/' packman-essentials
Version: Leap Packman Essentials (for all supported architectures)
sudo zypper ar -cfp 90 'https://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/misc/packman/suse/openSUSE_Leap_$releasever/Essentials' packman-essentials
Packman is a frequent source of issues with updates. You will experience issues and must be confident to resolve these.
If possible, only add the essentials repository.
All of Packman:
Version: Tumbleweed All of Packman (for all supported architectures)
sudo zypper ar -cfp 90 'https://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/misc/packman/suse/openSUSE_Tumbleweed/' packman
Version: Leap All of Packman (for all supported architectures)
sudo zypper ar -cfp 90 'https://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/misc/packman/suse/openSUSE_Leap_$releasever/' packman
zypper dup:
After adding packman repository be sure to switch system package to those in packman as a mix of both can cause a variety of issues.
Version: all Packman
sudo zypper dup --from packman --allow-vendor-change
Version: all Packman-Essentials
sudo zypper dup --from packman-essentials --allow-vendor-change
To pick a mirror near you, please consult the mirror list on the Packman site.
VLC VideoLan client
VLC Repositories for openSUSE contains all the required libraries that are not shipped with original openSUSE.
Version: Tumbleweed https://download.videolan.org/pub/vlc/SuSE/Tumbleweed/
Version: Leap https://download.videolan.org/pub/vlc/SuSE/$releasever/
AMD fglrx Catalyst video drivers
Proprietary drivers for AMD FGLRX video cards. See the AMD install HOWTO.
NVIDIA drivers
Proprietary drivers for NVIDIA video cards. See the NVIDIA install HOWTO.
Google Software Repositories for Linux
Google's repo Site for: Google Chrome, Google Earth, Google Music Manager, Google Voice and Video Chat, Google Web Designer, etc.
Version: All https://www.google.com/linuxrepositories/
Popular Build Service repositories
The openSUSE Build Service contains a large variety of additional repositories.
Apache
openSUSE Build Service Repository for the Apache HTTP server. See the guides at Apache.
Version: Tumbleweed https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Apache/openSUSE_Factory/
Version: Leap 15.x https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Apache/openSUSE_Leap_$releasever/
Version: SLE 15 SP6 https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Apache/SLE_15_SP6/
Apache modules
Third-party Apache modules built for the Build Service Apache.
Version: Tumbleweed https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Apache:/Modules/Apache_openSUSE_Factory/
Version: Leap 15.x https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Apache:/Modules/openSUSE_Leap_$releasever/
Third-party Apache modules built for the standard distro Apache.
Version: Tumbleweed https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Apache:/Modules/openSUSE_Factory/
Version: Leap 15.x https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Apache:/Modules/openSUSE_Leap_$releasever/
Apache PHP modules
There are variants. See the LAMP guide, for a separate page which will guide you to the correct PHP repository.
If you use the Build Service Apache from above, you'll find the right mod_php for your system here.
Extensions:
Version: Tumbleweed https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/server:/php:/extensions/openSUSE_Factory/
Applications:
Version: Tumbleweed https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/server:/php:/applications/openSUSE_Tumbleweed/
Other HTTP Servers
openSUSE Build Service Repository for other HTTP servers (Nginx, Lighttpd, ...).
Version: Tumbleweed https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/server:/http/openSUSE_Tumbleweed/
Database Servers
openSUSE Build Service Repository for other Database servers (SQL and NoSQL: MySQL, MongoDB, etc.)
Version: Tumbleweed https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/server:/database/openSUSE_Tumbleweed/
Games
openSUSE:Games is a very active packaging project
Version: Tumbleweed https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/games/openSUSE_Tumbleweed/
Version: Tumbleweed https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/games:/tools/openSUSE_Tumbleweed/
Mozilla
Most recent versions of Firefox, Thunderbird, Seamonkey, etc.
Version: Tumbleweed https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/mozilla/openSUSE_Tumbleweed/
Science
Software for engineering and natural science. See Portal:Science.
Version: Tumbleweed https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/science/openSUSE_Tumbleweed/
Version: SLE 15 SP5 https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/science/SLE_15_SP5/
Wine
Most recent versions of Wine.
Version: Tumbleweed https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Emulators:/Wine/openSUSE_Tumbleweed/
Version: SLE 15 SP2 https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Emulators:/Wine/SLE-15-SP2/
Less popular Build Service repositories
You may end up, at some point, wanting to install a package that is not available in either the official repositories or third party repositories - coming from openSUSE (or any other software vendor) development projects. And you also may have looked for flatpaks, appimages, snaps, or any other means to get your hands on this specific piece of software you're after, but didn't find any. Then you come to software.opensuse.org or build.opensuse.org or else, make a search for the software you're after and find out that some Open Build Service home repository provides it. Now, feeling all that temptation, you would think "Great, after turning over every stone, I finally found an RPM package for the software I desperately need. Let's see how do I install this thing!", right? But don't! Just don't go ahead and add this OBS home repository casually, without any considerations.
Unless you know what you're doing - and most users won't, due to technical knowledge barriers - and can inspect the RPM spec file of the package looking for security flaws that could put your system in danger - here, the main concern is not even with what exactly the software you're after does, but the RPM package itself, whether it was somehow suspiciously modified. Or someone you trust very dearly that can do that for you. Or you have the knowledge to set up an environment where you can test those RPM packages mitigating any damage it could inflict upon your system in the unfortunate event you end up installing malicious packages. Please refrain yourself from using such repositories!
The main purpose for home projects is to serve as a place for the OBS users to experiment without the fear of breaking anything important. For anything more serious, like providing proper packages to end-users, the official repositories are the best place to host packages. That being said, if at this point you still want to install those RPM packages coming from personal home repositories, you can do as you wish. As long as you understand the risks it involves and accept them, no one can stop you from doing so. But remember, in the event anything bad happens to your system because you installed RPM packages from such repositories, there would be no one else to blame but yourself.
There's one good thing you could do for packages like this, though. You could try to contact the person who made the package, and ask them to try to get the package in the official openSUSE repositories. The usual package development workflow to get a package added to openSUSE:Factory - the main openSUSE project; its tested version is known as Tumbleweed (the openSUSE rolling release distribution), and openSUSE Leap (the openSUSE stable release distribution) is branched off of it - is to first get the package added to some development project after meeting the minimum openSUSE packaging standards. Once the package lives in a proper development project, the next step is to try to push it to "Factory" - where additional standards may have to be met.
All of this won't happen overnight, of course, but will ensure that the package gets passed through openSUSE's integration, and quality assurance tests - even through security scrutiny when applicable -, thus minimizing the likelihood of users running into issues, which is a good thing for everybody.