we finally tagged wr-switch-sw-v4.0-rc1 and made an official release.

What is it?

• wr-switch-sw

It is the package for the complete “firmware” that runs in a white
rabbit switch. It includes all the ARM software in source form, the
LM32 binary for the PLL code built from source in wrpc-sw, the
complete gateware for the switch, built from other ohwr repositories.

• v4.0-rc1

Release Candidate 1 for the upcoming official 4.0. Please note that
you are not expected to deploy this version on the accelerators, because
some details need final fixings, as well as thorough test in diverse
conditions.

The “files” tab of ohwr includes pre-built binaries for installation,
and the manual built from the officially-tagged commit. We urge people
to rebuild, rather than using the prebuilt binaries, after running
“make menuconfig” in the main source directory so to select the
proper network addresses for syslog and similar things.

The main news items in the release are

• new gateware with better performances and vlan support
• per-port statistic counters
• ppsi as a default ptp daemon
• a new and better filesystem setup in nand (ubi/ubifs)
• a completely new installation, cleaner and easier
• on-the-field update is built in (but we miss the UI part)
• WR information is exported through snmp and a special mib file
• the boot loader supports the new dataflash chip (next production batch)
• remote syslog support

The package is documented, with some shortcuts due to time constraints,
but this is not a news item.

We’d love both power users and normal people to test this new release,
reporting any issue and requesting any code merge (please rebase over
rc1 and test internally before asking for a merge). For example
the new web interface commits by 7S are not merged yet, but I really want
them in v4.0. I apologize for not being able to review them yet.

So we are now heading towards a great and strong wr-switch-sw-v4.0, to
be release before the end of the month, unless something catastrophic
happens. I welcome any feedback, suggestion and patched during these
final weeks.