| 27 May 2025 |
 matthewcroughan - nix.zone | 🙈 | 10:34:51 |
 uep | not readily. it's a linux kernel but mikrotik has opinions about what that actually means, and of course all the interesting stuff for a device like this is the control plane for the switch chip | 10:39:43 |
| uep | Mikrotik do one thing really well, though, and that's somehow have iike a hundred different products with every permutation of chip and cpu, that all work on the same software release and are supported for a very long time | 10:40:54 |
| matthewcroughan - nix.zone | I'm sadly just not interested unless it runs a kernel and software I can compile | 10:41:24 |
| matthewcroughan - nix.zone | I don't give in to anything else, to give in for a managed switch would just be embarassing | 10:41:47 |
| matthewcroughan - nix.zone | it's clearly good hardware | 10:42:08 |
| uep | yeah, valid.. i gave in on that point a long time ago when the alternative was cisco or hp | 10:43:55 |
| matthewcroughan - nix.zone | Yeah, I don't see the point in giving in since I'm not doing some for-profit thing | 10:44:19 |
| matthewcroughan - nix.zone | this is just for a hackspace network | 10:44:23 |
| uep | and i had a bunch of procurve switches for a long time that were very very noisy | 10:44:34 |
| uep | good riddance to that | 10:44:45 |
| matthewcroughan - nix.zone | There are so many aliexpress 10G SFP+ switches | 10:51:35 |
| matthewcroughan - nix.zone | surely one of them must have a FOSS OS | 10:51:59 |
| matthewcroughan - nix.zone | Tp-link tl-st1008f still looks like the best option | 10:52:46 |
 Tom | I currently see two devices in the OpenWrt Table of Hardware with more then two SFP+ Ports:
https://toh.openwrt.org/?columns=VIRT_edit,brand,model,version,cpu,cpucores,cpumhz,flashmb,rammb,sfp_plus_ports,wlan24ghz,wlan50ghz,wlan60ghz,wlan600ghz,detachableantennas,VIRT_firm,firmwareopenwrtinstallurl,firmwareopenwrtupgradeurl,devicepage,VIRT_hwdata,oemdevicehomepageurl,wikideviurl,owrt_forum_topic_url,picture
I can't say hoewer wheter those would be a good choice. And you must make sure to get the correct revision. Or a revision which is close enough so that you can get support going via a PR. | 10:53:45 |
| matthewcroughan - nix.zone | Oh that's a nice website I didn't know existed | 10:54:13 |
| matthewcroughan - nix.zone | Yeah it's either the XikeStor or the TP Link TL-st1008f | 10:55:30 |
| uep | i suspect the closest you'll get is something openflow.. with a fairly dumb embedded switch data plane, and offloading all the policy and control plane | 10:57:43 |
| matthewcroughan - nix.zone | How do I search for something I can buy there? | 10:58:33 |
| uep | no idea, sorry. i'm not even sure it's still really a thing | 10:59:02 |
| matthewcroughan - nix.zone | https://www.reddit.com/r/networking/comments/1ffjpsp/openflow_in_2024/ | 10:59:41 |
| matthewcroughan - nix.zone | tbh the mikrotik box does look really good, I would get it if I thought there was a reasonable chance that it'd run FOSS in the future | 11:00:32 |
| matthewcroughan - nix.zone | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34730933 | 11:02:34 |
| matthewcroughan - nix.zone | I also hate RouterOS | 11:02:40 |
| matthewcroughan - nix.zone | Bah, I just can't | 11:02:57 |
| matthewcroughan - nix.zone | The good switches that allegedly run openwrt aren't actually available anymore anywhere other than aliexpress | 11:06:02 |
| uep | question, especially if you're only looking at like 4 ports: do you actually need a managed switch? | 11:07:13 |
| matthewcroughan - nix.zone | I would prefer 8, but yeah I don't really want it to be managed, the issue is that I only see managed as an option | 11:07:35 |
| Tom | In reply to @matthewcroughan:defenestrate.it
The good switches that allegedly run openwrt aren't actually available anymore anywhere other than aliexpress They probably where never really available anywhere else ... | 11:07:49 |
| uep | the unmanaged dumb ones will often pass vlan tags happily, or you can vxlan, as long as all the hosts are smart enough to deal with that | 11:08:57 |
