[Photonicat 2] >= 2026-06-15 r7714 Cannot install third-party .apk packages (opkg kept instead of apk)

First, thanks for moving the base system to OpenWrt 25.12 (base system & LuCI 25.12 in r7714/r7715, firewall switched to fw4 in r7720). Coming from the old 23.05 base, this is a great step - much better support for modern software and packages.

One issue with the current builds: PhotonicatWrt still ships opkg as the package manager, while upstream OpenWrt 25.12 has standardized on apk (Alpine Package Keeper).

Upstream OpenWrt 25.12 has standardized on the apk package manager, so external repositories now publish their packages in .apk format. These packages are correct for the Photonicat 2 by architecture (aarch64), but the firmware still ships opkg, which only handles .ipk. The formats are incompatible, so a matching package fails to install.This causes real friction with third-party repositories and precompiled packages.

Request: In a next 25.12-based release of PhotonicatWrt, please switch the firmware to use apk as the default package manager (matching upstream OpenWrt), so that prebuilt .apk packages from external repos (including official OpenWRT repo) can be installed normally — and to unify the package-installation approach with current OpenWrt versions.

Hello,

We will switch the package manager to APK in next release.

Thanks for the update!
Could you please let us know if there's an estimated timeline for the next release that will include these and the other changes?

Hi,
We may release next version in 3 months.

That's a bit disappointing. Three months is a rather long timeline

Since this version doesn't include the standard OpenWrt 25 package manager, users are having difficulties installing additional packages not available in the PhotonicatWRT repository.
The router recommends upgrading to the latest Photonicat version (based on Openwrt 25), which leads to a poor user experience.