SmartSDR v1.1.2 Issue/Resolution Update

Steve-N5AC

WHAT HAPPENED?
Yesterday evening we released SmartSDR v1.1.2, a maintenance release with several important fixes and a few new features.  The release was tested both internally and externally before we put it up on the FlexRadio Community website.  Tim Ellison, our Customer Experience Manager, watches closely after releases to verify that the installations are proceeding smoothly and that there are no issues.  A little over an hour after the release, Tim had four customers that had radios that would not boot after upgrading.  We immediately pulled the release from the Internet and advised everyone not to install if they had not already done so.

WHY DID IT HAPPEN?
Before we release a software update, our Alpha team and many internal people have tested the release.  We also install every release on a radio again after final packaging verify that there are not issues with the installation.  A change to our build process to consolidate software that is shared between the FLEX-6500 and FLEX-6700 was planned as both a quality and performance improvement.  By doing this, we can create releases more quickly and the size of the installer is smaller due to the sharing of common code.  This change was planned to be implemented after the release of v1.1.2 but was accidentally implemented before the release.  This change adversely affected the FLEX-6500.

WHAT'S BEING DONE?
After the problem was detected, our staff quickly investigated and found the source of the problem.  To verify that we had correctly identified the source, we put a radio in our office through the same procedure you as a customer will go through -- installing the failed software and then recovering the radio.  We also verified that software without this problem installs and runs correctly.  By this time, it was around 10:30PM Central time.  We then contacted each customer that had entered a help desk ticket with the problem (10 customers at that time) and gave them an option to recover their radio right then or wait until tomorrow.  All customers preferred to wait until the next day for recovery.  We will be working with each customer to recover their radio today as it is convenient for them.

HOW WILL THIS BE AVOIDED IN THE FUTURE?
We take seriously our responsibility to provide you with software upgrades that install and run correctly.  Our build and test process is thorough, but in this instance the build change was not tested due to its early implementation.  Since the build process is generally identical, we have been testing on only one model to verify proper release operation.  We have now changed the process to require a test on all models before a release to avoid this kind of issue.  We also found another issue during the investigation what could have caused problems for customers upgrading from a much earlier release so we have also added a test to verify upgrades from older releases.

We value your business and as fellow hams we understand that you need to be able to depend on your radio.  We work every day to provide you with the best experience we can and we sincerely appreciate your business.

A corrected release, v1.1.3, will be posted this afternoon.

Steve