Several steps are outdated with the new 21 release, e.g. there no longer exists a "physical settings" tab.
Many of the steps could be significantly cleaned up: "Click “IPv6 Settings” tab and set everything to “disabled" There appear to be two options there to change to disabled.
Also, is step 6 still necessary? My router on a fresh install of 21 lists a pair of VLANs as well. And there's ambiguous hardcoded help text under that field in Luci that's just bananas. This seemed much more straightforward in older versions.
that's due to the upgrade to DSA onboard switch software control, so the interface was also changed.
That's why there is the warning infobox at the top
If you edit the page please just add a "from 21.xx release" paragraph with the new instructions because the older info is still correct for older releases.
yeah, technically there are now 3 primary variations;
existing / pre 21.02.0
post 21.02.0 with swconfig (much similar to above but not all)
post 21.02.0 with DSA
i'd anticipate at least two revisions worth ( around 21.02.2 ) of time for enough documenters to have first hand experience / time to update the online (sub)materials to cover the newer variations...
although for dumb-ap, disable dhcp usually works pretty well for me...
I left in steps and notes that were necessary in the old page, but I also added a lot of specific locations and labels from v21. I think it's fairly easy to locate those on older versions.
What are the swconfig and DSA differences? I'm using an R7800 which isn't on DSA yet, I think.
It's at Network -> Interfaces -> Devices, click Configure... on br-lan:
Specifies the wired ports to attach to this bridge. In order to attach wireless networks, choose the associated interface as network in the wireless settings.
... which as with most hints is easy to understand if you already know what it's talking about. And the first sentence is fine. But the "attach wireless networks..." phrasing, in the context of the previous version of the dumb-ap guide that led me here, it just took me a lot longer to understand what it meant.
Here are some of the thoughts I had trying to figure out that message before I got it: What wireless settings? Attach like attach how? Which associated interface? Which "network"? That's a broad term here. I specifically left the Interface tab and now I'm on the Device tab, why are you talking about associated interfaces? Where are the interfaces even associated with the devices? In the drop down list, I see Ethernet switches and VLANs. Does that have something to do with the help message?
As a programmer I have enough familiarity with networking to get by but not a lot at my fingertips. I do this setup on my router at home once a year or three, and it's a few hours to spin back up on the various terminology and trial and error in getting things working, so anywhere things can be clearer I always appreciate.
I mean, I can leave in a copy of the old instructions for pre-21 and remove the post-21 steps from the new instructions?
Re the DSA vs swconfig, nothing on the Switch menu seems to need changing and at least in default 21, the LAN interface and the br-lan device are all configured to not need any changes, so maybe there aren't any DSA/swconfig setting differences for this use case?
No it's Ok like this. You have added the parts that differ in the steps. Most of the differences happen if you have a device using DSA switch and your device does not.
If that is what you see, your device is still using swconfig.
Devices with DSA simply DO NOT have the old "Switch menu" and it's all handled by the Network --> Interfaces --> Devices tab with a different interface
while the graphical sections may seem similar to you, there are differences in the underlying
/etc/config/network sections if you were to document the same thing from the command line
there are likely valid alternate views on this but personally (at least short term) I feel
having dedicated separate sections is the way to go here
########################## section 1 - 21.02 and dsa
(the next guys text here)
########################## section 2 - 21.02 and swconfig
(your text here)
########################## section 3 - pre 21.0.2
(pre existing text here)
if section 1 and 2 can be consolidated in the future somewhat
then great... but initially this is going to be the clearest
way forward imho
