Documentation for DSA? (Avoiding "OpenWrt 21.02 broke my router")

[Rich Brown]

Hello Fernando and all,

Thanks for the note. To make it easier for everyone to review these documents, I have moved them to the User Guide on the wiki. 

You can now read the DSA Networking home page, with links to the other pages at: 

https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/network/dsa/start

Rich

> On Jul 30, 2021, at 10:20 AM, Fernando Frediani <fhfrediani at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hello Rich
> 
> I share the same concerns you have and think that it is necessary to take more take in both pushing something new to users without a proper way for them to fully understand the effects or without a clear transition mechanism that can make that more gradual. Even for newer and cool technology it is necessary to be careful regarding the significant changes thinking from the users perspective.
> Thanks for the contribution vi the documentation which certainly can help but it is still necessary to inform users better in order to avoid events like this.
> 
> Fernando
> 
> On 30/07/2021 11:13, Rich Brown wrote:
>> Folks,
>> 
>> I'm writing to the OpenWrt-Adm list because I haven't heard much response from the OpenWrt-devel list.
>> 
>> I am concerned about the state of DSA documentation. When 21.02 ships, DSA will roll out to roughly half of the devices supported by OpenWrt. Yet I have not seen much written about the incompatibilities between swconfig and DSA configuration files.
>> 
>> My big concern: People upgrade to 21.02, their networking isn't working, and the Forum (or Slashdot) lights up with "OpenWrt 21.02 broke my router" posts.
>> 
>> Maybe it's all going to be OK. Maybe I'm getting panicky for no reason. But this is an incompatible upgrade for many people. If there are cases that cannot be converted automatically, we are going to have a big support load. And if there's no documentation, we're sunk...
>> 
>> I know the state of the majority of DSA pages in the wiki. (I started to write/edit a couple of them, but realized that I didn't know enough. So they're at best, incomplete, if not entirely wrong...)
>> 
>> I sent these notes to the openwrt-devel list:
>> 
>> DSA Documentation Status: http://lists.openwrt.org/pipermail/openwrt-devel/2021-July/035954.html
>> 
>> DSA Mini-Tutorial (only started): http://lists.openwrt.org/pipermail/openwrt-devel/2021-July/035854.html
>> 
>> Supporting DSA on the Forum: http://lists.openwrt.org/pipermail/openwrt-devel/2021-July/035942.html
>> 
>> It's my hope that someone who has the time and knowledge will follow up on them. (I'm ENOTIME, and don't know enough, anyway.) Or re-assure me that everything is OK.
>> 
>> Thanks.
>> 
>> Rich
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> 
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