YaST in this version has no function for updating the repository with new packages. I'm trying to install Zypper manually with .rpm, but I'm getting bogged down in a giant list of dependencies (naturally, that's what package managers are supposed to help you avoid).

It all boils down to rpmlib(PayloadIsLzma)

Apparently, all my RPMs are compressed with LZMA but I don't have what it takes to uncompress them. Supposedly if I update RPM I can fix that... anyone know where I can find an rpm file for RPM?

Or maybe there's a better way to do this (short of updating the system to a new version which I'll be doing in a few months but can't do at this time).

I remember this issue, new versions of rpm are backwards compatible (supporting either compression method), but you're trying to install a newer rpm on an older system. Your choices are pretty much: get an older version of the rpm, rebuild the src.rpm yourself or upgrade the OS

cheers

Thanks for the suggestions. I've found other info suggesting that it is a bad idea to do an extensive software modification like this on a live system. As a young sysadmin I hate to say no, but I may just have to tell the user that this isn't possible right now (I'm ultimately trying to install ns-2 and it refuses to work with the 64 bit X11 libraries).