Snapshot builds evolve quickly, and that sets time limits to install new packages. If you ever get the kernel dependency error:
# opkg install tailscale
Installing tailscale (1.72.1-r1) to root...
Downloading https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/packages/aarch64_cortex-a53/packages/tailscale_1.72.1-r1_aarch64_cortex-a53.ipk
Collected errors:
* pkg_hash_check_unresolved: cannot find dependency kernel (= 6.6.52~de4052b9bf53ceed6a5d84135bb4f6bd-r1) for kmod-tun
* satisfy_dependencies_for: Cannot satisfy the following dependencies for tailscale:
* kernel (= 6.6.52~de4052b9bf53ceed6a5d84135bb4f6bd-r1)
* opkg_install_cmd: Cannot install package tailscale.
there is no need to upgrade and can be worked around.
In /etc/opkg/distfeed.conf, we have(for the foss build)
src/gz openwrt_core https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/targets/qualcommax/ipq807x/packages
src/gz openwrt_base https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/packages/aarch64_cortex-a53/base
src/gz openwrt_kmods https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/targets/qualcommax/ipq807x/kmods/6.6.51-1-45634c8621725df6ea20fc891f3b84cb
src/gz openwrt_luci https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/packages/aarch64_cortex-a53/luci
src/gz openwrt_packages https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/packages/aarch64_cortex-a53/packages
src/gz openwrt_routing https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/packages/aarch64_cortex-a53/routing
src/gz openwrt_telephony https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/packages/aarch64_cortex-a53/telephony
The first line, openwrt_core includes some important packages along with all latest kmods and the openwrt_kmods line is the kmod feed
matching current running system, opkg gets two entries for each kmod once the snapshot is outdated, throws error when trying to install (newer) kmods from openwrt_core.
For most packages, take tailscale for example
#update opkg database
opkg update
#remove the openwrt_core entry
rm /var/opkg-lists/openwrt_core*
#now install, it will complete without error
opkg install tailscale
#restore
opkg update
A little tricky for package in openwrt_core feed, say qosify.
#update opkg database
opkg update
#find package dependcy kmod
opkg info qosify
#Depends: libc, libbpf1, libubox20240329, libubus20231128, libnl-tiny1, kmod-sched-cake, kmod-sched-bpf, kmod-ifb, tc
#get these kmods properly installed
rm /var/opkg-lists/openwrt_core*
opkg install kmod-sched-cake kmod-sched-bpf kmod-ifb
#add openwrt_core back and install
opkg update
opkg install qosify