[FS#120] opkg fails with Out of memory on a device with 32 MB of RAM

[LEDE Bugs]

The following task has a new comment added:

FS#120 - opkg fails with Out of memory on a device with 32 MB of RAM
User who did this - cypa (cypa)

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same problem on TP-LINK TL-WR741ND v5 r2244

unable to download 
root at k16:/tmp# opkg install libpthread
Installing libpthread (1.1.15-1) to root...
Downloading http://downloads.lede-project.org/snapshots/targets/ar71xx/generic/packages/libpthread_1.1.15-1_mips_24kc.ipk.
Collected errors:
 * xsystem: wget: vfork: Out of memory.
 * opkg_download: Failed to download http://downloads.lede-project.org/snapshots/targets/ar71xx/generic/packages/libpthread_1.1.15-1_mips_24kc.ipk, wget returned -1.
 * opkg_install_pkg: Failed to download libpthread. Perhaps you need to run 'opkg update'?
 * opkg_install_cmd: Cannot install package libpthread.
root at k16:/tmp#
and install any package, even smallest one
root at k16:/tmp# OPKG_USE_VFORK=1 opkg install libpthread_1.1.15-1_mips_24kc.ipk 
Collected errors:
 * gz_open: fork: Out of memory.
 * pkg_init_from_file: Failed to extract control file from libpthread_1.1.15-1_mips_24kc.ipk.
root at k16:/tmp#
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More information can be found at the following URL:
https://bugs.lede-project.org/index.php?do=details&task_id=120#comment903