What are other Update repositories for?

Question

The two standard update repositories included with an openSuse installation are:

repo-update               | Main Update Repository                              | Yes     | (r ) Yes  | Yes     | http://download.opensuse.org/update/leap/15.2/oss
repo-update-non-oss       | Update Repository (Non-Oss)                         | Yes     | (r ) Yes  | Yes     | http://download.opensuse.org/update/leap/15.2/non-oss

I wanted to install flatpak and it wasn't included in any of the standard OpenSuse repositories, yet is included in this "standard" one:

https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/openSUSE:Leap:15.2:Update/standard/openSUSE:Leap:15.2:Update.repo

I'm wondering how I am to easily distinguish between the two repositories. Why is there another update repository containing different packages that is called "standard"?

Edit: Attempting to refresh the repository, the following error occurred:

Retrieving repository 'Online updates for openSUSE Leap:15.2 (standard)' m[error]
Repository 'Online updates for openSUSE Leap:15.2 (standard)' is invalid.
[openSUSE_Leap_15.2_Update|http://download.opensuse.org/update/leap/15.2/oss/] Valid metadata not found at specified URL
History:
 - File './repodata/52abefe790b7ec6458fe16d156d257fd9c71239c804b1276d350c7e4ef2bf33a-primary.xml.gz' not found on medium 'http://download.opensuse.org/update/leap/15.2/oss/'
 - Can't provide ./repodata/52abefe790b7ec6458fe16d156d257fd9c71239c804b1276d350c7e4ef2bf33a-primary.xml.gz
 

Answer 1

I wanted to install flatpak and it wasn't included in any of the standard OpenSuse repositories

This is weird as confirmed on Flatpak website (https://flatpak.org/setup/openSUSE/) and openSUSE website (https://software.opensuse.org/package/flatpak).

Flatpak is part of the openSUSE Leap 15.2 official update repository, that is supposed to be activated by default.

What version of openSUSE do you actually use ? Leap 15.2 ? Maybe you removed this repository in the past, or you inactivated it ?

I'm wondering how I am to easily distinguish between the two repositories.

You can check Yast software repositories or zypper repos --detailsto quickly see what repositories you have and which ones are activated.

For a given package, Yast or zypper info flatpak (or any other package name) will tell you which repository it comes from.

Why is there another update repository containing different packages that is called "standard"?

I couldn't tell "why" :-) but per openSUSE documentation (https://en.opensuse.org/Package_repositories) this update repository is indeed what I would expect for Leap 15.2, beside OSS and Non-OSS. And it is intended to be a "Repository of official security and bugfix updates for OSS packages. "

What I would do :

• Check in Yast or zypper repos --details that the update repository is present and enabled. For Leap 15.2, the URI field should be http://download.opensuse.org/update/leap/15.2/oss/. Enable (sudo zypper modifyrepo --enable alias-of-the-repo) or add it if needed.
• Remove the repo you've manually added if you added one, because it probably duplicates with the one initially provided.
• Refesh all your repos with sudo zypper refresh
• Try to install flatpak from your repository with Yast or sudo zypper install flatpak
• If it doesn't work, update your post here with the error message that you obtain.
• Once flatpak is installed, don't forget to provide it with some flatpak repositories too, for example flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo to add Flathub.