I'm a new OpenWRT user running on x86. My first install was 25.12.0 rc4. I've since upgraded to 25.12.0 rc5 then 25.12.2. Both through Attended Sysupgrade with owut configured to maintain partitioning.
I've been running 25.12.2 for almost a week now and just noticed there are Package updates in the Software/Updates area of Luci. They're mostly for Luci and a couple for DDNS.
Everything seems to be running fine. I'm just surprised to see so many available package updates after a recent system upgrade. Is this normal and am I okay to run the updates or did something go sideways when I updated to 25.12.2?
It is okay to use asu/OWUT to upgrade, but do not upgrade packages in-place.
Upgrading packages (via the CLI opkg upgrade/apk upgrade commands or the LuCI Upgrade... button) can result in major problems. It is generally highly discouraged, unless you know what you are doing or if there is specific instruction to do so.
The former are fixed to a release, so you will never, for example, upgrade kmod-mt7915e, as that's locked to the specific kernel version. Find all these at https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/25.12.2/targets/x86/64/ in the kmods/ and packages/ directories, they're cast in concrete and will never change.
Side question that is somewhat relevant: If a package is updated on the master branch, when would they then be added to the openwrt-25.12 branch? For example, in the changes made to the LuCI themes, I know they have been merged, and I see luci-theme-bootstrap has been rebuilt a few times since, but I can't see that the changes have actually been applied yet.
When somebody actively backports the new changes from master to the stable release branch... Bug fixes get backported quickly, but style changes might never be backported.
There is both the resource question of who does the backporting, but more importantly, the less changes there are in stable branch, the less there are chances of breakage. (Vanilla minor version upgrades for packages are typically harmless, but if there are config changes or logic changes in the package files, it is quite possible that there would be visible effects for users.)
Ah, understood. So theoretically, I would need to wait for the next major release (after 25.12) to see those changes?
Otherwise, if I were to propose wanting to request the recent commits in luci/themes in the master branch to be added to the openwrt-25.12 branch for the sake of minor visual bug fixes to the themes for all users (which would be a positive visual effect), who would I ask?
Or it is a blanket "we don't fix minor visual bugs, we just wait for the next major release" rule?
Just remember, that there are only volunteers like you and me here. There is no paid staff in OpenWrt.
You could backport the changes to 25.12 by yourself, test them, and then author a pull request in Github.
Other option might be to check from the commit log the user who did the original changes, and then try to ask him. (I tend to backport my own changes, if I assess them to be safe enough)
Also good to understand that we have already seen "javascript style changes" etc. getting backported too quickly and then causing errors also in 25.12 (or 24.10). It is better to let changes mature a bit in master, and only then backport them.
I’ll have a think and see what I do, as all I have done are CSS file commits that would theoretically be safe to apply, compared to any script modifications,
You have greatly explained everything. Thank you for taking the time to do that.
You can also run your own version with patches.
So overtime you have ensured their are no issues at least with your setup. And yes, at best you can help out with back ports but again don't rush things to fast.
Thanks for that. I think I will do so and replace the CSS file(s) in the theme folders on my install, so that I also have the ability to provide further reasoning that it wouldn't cause any issues when I do a pull request to the openwrt-25.12 branch later.