Announcement: 3006 progress report - it's a go

[jetpack42]

This is very exciting news. I got into this hobby by using AsusWRT-Merlin, and I continue to learn more every day while using your firmware. Thank you for your dedication to the project and your community.

 

[roscoe211]

A good time to donate!

 

[DJones]

I’m excited for this news. This is a major Win for features. SDN would be awesome, for the GT-AX11000 (I assume it will as it’s a higher end HND model); I won’t be super disappointed if it doesn’t, as Proxmox or Pfsense/Opnsense can serve this functionality for me, but makes life simpler to route it all into one machine that serves my main firewall/adblocker.

 

[Diveblaster]

Hi everyone,

I have been working on the 3006 integration for a couple of weeks now, and I am finally at a point where I am able to confirm that Asuswrt-Merlin will proceed with integrating the 3006 code in the future. That will include the full VLAN and SDN integration (which has been the biggest obstacle during that 3006 integration, and there is still plenty of work left to do to finalize that integration). There are still a significant number of issues to be resolved at this time, but it's working well enough that I can expect to be able to address most of the remaining issues.

For those unfamiliar with Guest Networking Pro/SDN, this means you can, for example, create a new Guest Network on a separate VLAN, assign an OpenVPN client to it, and every wireless clients that connect to that Guest Network will automatically be routed through that VPN. I have that part (mostly) working by now. One of the big problems was that Asus' own OpenVPN code is closed source, so I had to reimplement the integration between the two, by reusing pieces of the VPN Fusion code.

I am not able to provide any timetable at this point as a lot of work is still required to finalize things. My ToDo list keeps growing faster than the rate at which I am ticking completed tasks off it. How long it will take will depend on the issues encountered, how much time I will be able to devote to it, etc...

Also, I don't want to announce yet which models will be supported (either old or new ones). The latter will depend on Asus' own timetable in providing GPLs for these models. That means I don't know either which Wifi 6 models will be moved to the 3006 codebase, or what would be the timetable for these migrations. Again, that will depend on Asus' own timetable. For now, I am working on only one specific model, with other GPLs to be expected from Asus "in the future". All I can say at this time is that it's highly likely that there will be Wifi 7 models supported by Asuswrt-Merlin. These will be announced at a later time. As usual, I don't want to announce any model being supported until I actually have it running myself.

The original plan remains: 386 will be in limited support until the end of 2024, while 3004.388 will remain fully supported. 3006.102 will be developped in parallel, for the models that will be supported by that specific codebase. Also, I don't intend to support a model on two different codebases. That means once I migrate a model to 3006, I will no longer support it on the 3004 codebase. It's unknown yet if I will fully match Asus' own migration there, or if I will keep Wifi 6 models longer than them on the 3004 codebase. This will be decided once we get there, based on how stable the 3006 codebase will be at that point.

The 3006 integration is the hardest one I've had to do so far. It's a lot more work than even the 370 migration where Asus added their first ARM-based devices, and introduced Trend Micro's BWDPI engine. The overall codebase was much smaller and much simpler back then. The SDN functionality alone is made of multiple thousands of lines of code, which I had to figure out at least well enough to be able to interface with it. At least at this point it's now advanced enough for me to be confident that what's left to do is in the realm of the doable. But it's going to take more time.

Ur god given gift to the common people
Thx for everything you do!!!
Dive

 

[maxbraketorque]

ExpertWifi runs Asuswrt - same firmware as every other models.

Fascinating. Apparently a different UI and some different FW features for these models?

 

[RMerlin]

Fascinating. Apparently a different UI and some different FW features for these models?

Yes. They developped a different UI style for it, and implemented a user-configurable dashboard to replace the dashboard used by the ROG UI.

 

[maxbraketorque]

Yes. They developped a different UI style for it, and implemented a user-configurable dashboard to replace the dashboard used by the ROG UI.

Are you able to activate ExpertWifi features on non-expert routers, and if yes, will ASUS allow it?

 

[torstein]

Oh wow i had no idea how good looking ExpertWiFi is! Here's hoping Rmerlin finds a way to implement it for the rest of us.

 

[RMerlin]

Are you able to activate ExpertWifi features on non-expert routers, and if yes, will ASUS allow it?

How about I focus on getting 3006 basic features working before I worry about potential additionnal features that may or may not be compatible...

 

[maxbraketorque]

How about I focus on getting 3006 basic features working before I worry about potential additionnal features that may or may not be compatible...

Sure. Just getting the inevitable question out there.

 

[brodas]

Thanks Merlin

 

[dave14305]

I have been working on the 3006 integration for a couple of weeks now, and I am finally at a point where I am able to confirm that Asuswrt-Merlin will proceed with integrating the 3006 code in the future.

At this point, are you doing this work in a new git branch, or a new git repo?

 

[Analog-1]

Indeed. I wonder how many of us would buy Asus routers were it not for Eric’s selfless devotion to this project. I do hope Asus realises this and appreciates the contribution he must make to its bottom line.

While I am sure Asus does appreciate RMerlin's work one must remember 99% of Asus router owners have never heard of RMerlin or any other third party firmware. In fact most never even update firmware on home routers from the time of purchase.

 

[eightiescalling]

While I am sure Asus does appreciate RMerlin's work one must remember 99% of Asus router owners have never heard of RMerlin or any other third party firmware. In fact most never even update firmware on home routers from the time of purchase.

I don't necessarily disagree with the sentiment but by their nature, they are more likely consumers going for whatever is cheapest/happens to be available rather than repeat customers specifically choosing Asus higher end models. (I'd also say more likely customers with a higher support overhead so high cost to Asus over the life of the consumer/Asus relationship)

Never underestimate the value of loyal repeat customers.

 

[jerry6]

thanks been running your FW from day one , have bought hundreds of Asus routers for me and others , Im sure there are others that have done the same , all because of your stable easy to use FW . You should be in the Asus hall of fame .
Thanks even if my routers don't make it to 3006

 

[RMerlin]

At this point, are you doing this work in a new git branch, or a new git repo?

I cloned the current repo to a temporary private repo since I frequently do commit rewrites as I clean things up throughout development. Once that's ready, I will have a 3006 branch created on the current public repo containing the changes. That wiill leave us with the three branches:

386_x
master (388)
3006

 

[m0rF1uS]

Just for additional clarification …. VLANs in the new branch are going to be available only for the routers that already support them /meaning the PRO models/ and not the rest?
Or this is something that will be determined on a later stage depending on what models get this branch…

 

[RMerlin]

Just for additional clarification …. VLANs in the new branch are going to be available only for the routers that already support them /meaning the PRO models/ and not the rest?
Or this is something that will be determined on a later stage depending on what models get this branch…

The 3006 firmware and its features will only be available on models that will use the 3006 firmware. That means it will be the same models as with the stock firmware. Everything else will remain on the 3004.388 codebase, with the same features as before.

 

[shabbs]

Great update @RMerlin - appreciate the insight and the hard work.

 

[Ceejus]

For those unfamiliar with Guest Networking Pro/SDN, this means you can, for example, create a new Guest Network on a separate VLAN, assign an OpenVPN client to it, and every wireless clients that connect to that Guest Network will automatically be routed through that VPN.

While I have this functionality on my BE98 Pro, I haven't used it yet. I'm a bit confused by the ability to create multiple VLANs without also creating subnets to map to them 1:1. Won't having multiple VLANs in a single subnet cause issues?