When tracking down why my ipks aren't working with `inherit bin_package` I think I discovered a bug with bitbake not supporting the different forms of ipk that are allowed. This code appears to expect the ipk to be an `ar` format. https://github.com/openembedded/bitbake/blob/06aa6c292813a28c84736193b550fb2d18884d43/lib/bb/fetch2/__init__.py#L1575 Based on the opkg code, an ipk can be several forms: https://git.yoctoproject.org/opkg/tree/libopkg/opkg_archive.c#n505 It would be ideal to support all the forms available on a platform (if the compression is present).
The bitbake fetcher does not support ipk new formats yet. Could you work on and send a patch.
Move to need info.
I'm not sure how "new" this feature is - https://git.yoctoproject.org/opkg/commit/libopkg?id=44ad8888728959ea0c9eedddeff449b8112e01f5 shows the ipk package structure has existed in the current form since 2016, if not before. My expectation is that the forms libopkg support should all be supported by bitbake unless there is a reason why that's technically impossible. These are both yocto hosted projects.
The bitbake fetcher only supports the older format. Someone who uses the newer format and fetching will have to submit a patch. No one plans to work on this in the short term so set to 5.99.