in reply to DBD-Oracle missing via PPM?
Try another repository ;-)
ActiveState still distribute DBD::Oracle and can be found here <http://www.activestate.com/packages/DBD-Oracle.ppd>. It has been a long time since I last used ActivePerl, but doesn't it come with a ppd utility? If so, you should be able to install the above ppd via that if you are still unable to get it via ppm.
In Section
Seekers of Perl Wisdom