Use a expired SLES with OpenSUSE repositories

Last week, I hit a wall when my SUSE Linux Enterprise Server license expired, stopping all repository access. Needing PostgreSQL urgently, I couldn’t wait for SUSE to renew my license and had to act fast.
I chose to disable every SLES repository and switched to the openSUSE Leap repository. This worked flawless and made my system usable in very short time. This is why I wanted to make a short blog about it:

# First, check what repos are active with:
$ sudo zypper repos

# In case you only have SLES-Repositories on your system you can disable all of them at once. Otherwise you will be spammed with error messages when running zypper. To disable all repos in one shot, use:
$ sudo zypper modifyrepo --all --disable

# Now we come to the fun part. Depending on what minor version of release 15 you use, it is needed to change it inside the repository link. In my case I'm using 15.6:
$ slesver=15.6 && sudo zypper addrepo http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/leap/$slesver/repo/oss/ opensuse-leap-oss

# Now we only need to refresh the repositories and accept the gpg-keys:
$ sudo zypper refresh

# From now on we can install any packages we need without ever having to activate the system.

Disclaimer

This guide shows you how to swap out the paid SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) repositories, which are professionally managed and maintained by SUSE, for the open-source openSUSE Leap repositories. A community of volunteers, with some help from SUSE, drives and supports the openSUSE Leap repositories. But they lack the enterprise grade support, testing, and update guarantees provided by SLES. By following these steps, you will lose access to SUSE’s official updates, security patches, and support services tied to your expired SLES license. This process converts your system into a community supported setup, which may not align with production or enterprise needs. Proceed at your own risk, and ensure you understand the implications. Especially regarding security, stability, and compliance. To stay up to date with security announcements on OpenSUSE you can subscribe here.