I can copy packages to /home/packages but they never show up in
> the GUI, so I cant install them.
Maybe I am just to stupid to find the button where I can install packages stored locally on the RaQ.
If you click on any of the Patch links (Sun, Third Party) in the BlueLinQ area, there's an "install manually" option. If you click on that, you should see two choices: URL or "Browse"... if there are any .pkg files in /home/packages, the third option to install them _should_ show up.
If it's not appearing, I'm not sure what could be broken... I know that there was a patch for the Qube which allowed signed PKGs to appear. I don't think the 550 has the problem, but I don't have one to try it out...