diff --git a/develop/protobuf/protobuf.conf b/develop/protobuf/protobuf.conf
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..40996d549
--- /dev/null
+++ b/develop/protobuf/protobuf.conf
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+# --- SDE-COPYRIGHT-NOTE-BEGIN ---
+# This copyright note is auto-generated by ./scripts/Create-CopyPatch.
+#
+# Filename: package/.../protobuf/protobuf.conf
+# Copyright (C) 2013 The OpenSDE Project
+#
+# More information can be found in the files COPYING and README.
+#
+# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+# the Free Software Foundation; version 2 of the License. A copy of the
+# GNU General Public License can be found in the file COPYING.
+# --- SDE-COPYRIGHT-NOTE-END ---
+
+autogen=1
+
+# protobuf includes a copy of gtest which itself provides a configure
+# script that is called right after the one from the toplevel directory.
+# When providing a config.cache file this second configure call fails,
+# telling that CFLAGS and CXXFLAGS haven't been set in the config cache.
+# Initializing them in the environment solves the issue.
+var_append configprefix ' ' "CFLAGS= CXXFLAGS="
+
+if atstage cross; then
+	# use the natively build protoc we installed at stage 0
+	var_append extraconfopt ' ' "--with-protoc=$arch_target-protoc"
+fi
diff --git a/develop/protobuf/protobuf.desc b/develop/protobuf/protobuf.desc
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..50643ce3e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/develop/protobuf/protobuf.desc
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+[COPY] --- SDE-COPYRIGHT-NOTE-BEGIN ---
+[COPY] This copyright note is auto-generated by ./scripts/Create-CopyPatch.
+[COPY]
+[COPY] Filename: package/.../protobuf/protobuf.desc
+[COPY] Copyright (C) 2013 The OpenSDE Project
+[COPY]
+[COPY] More information can be found in the files COPYING and README.
+[COPY]
+[COPY] This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+[COPY] it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+[COPY] the Free Software Foundation; version 2 of the License. A copy of the
+[COPY] GNU General Public License can be found in the file COPYING.
+[COPY] --- SDE-COPYRIGHT-NOTE-END ---
+
+[I] Google's data interchange format
+
+[T] Protocol Buffers are a way of encoding structured data in an efficient
+[T] yet extensible format.
+[T] Google uses Protocol Buffers for almost all of its internal RPC protocols
+[T] and file formats.
+
+[U] http://protobuf.googlecode.com/
+
+[A] Google, Inc.
+[M] The OpenSDE Community <list@opensde.org>
+
+[C] extra/library
+
+[L] BSD
+[S] Stable
+[V] 2.5.0
+[P] X ??---5---9 200.000
+
+[D] 852423575 protobuf-2.5.0.tar.bz2 http://protobuf.googlecode.com/files/