Release Asuswrt-Merlin 386.9 is now available for AC models

predatorz · Jan 11, 2023

AC88U: Dirty upgrade from 386.7_2, so far stable.
Running for 4 days 5 hour(s) 42 minute(s) 52 seconds

DarkKnight75 · Jan 11, 2023

4+ days...running smooth!!!!

C3S4RM3W · Jan 11, 2023

I see that the ROG UI is also included with GT models, so I tried it, and works well, but is there any way to disable the URL redirection to asusrouter.com? the router.asus.com redirect toggle doesn't seem to work.

userlee5267 · Jan 11, 2023

What is a dirty upgrade. I did mine from routers main menu?.. took me to merlin website I clicked my routers file and uploaded that way. Is that a dirty upgrade. It was telling me there was a update so followed the instructions

visortgw · Jan 11, 2023

userlee5267 said:
What is a dirty upgrade. I did mine from routers main menu?.. took me to merlin website I clicked my routers file and uploaded that way. Is that a dirty upgrade. It was telling me there was a update so followed the instructions

Upgrading without factory reset and reconfiguration from scratch.

userlee5267 · Jan 12, 2023

visortgw said:
Upgrading without factory reset and reconfiguration from scratch.

Is it okay to upgrade from within to routers menus?. Seems to be running ok?

PeterR · Jan 12, 2023

userlee5267 said:
Is it okay to upgrade from within to routers menus?. Seems to be running ok?

Yes it's OK, however if you start getting problems/errors then a factory reset and re-configure is recommended (this is a clean upgrade).

JackZhao · Jan 12, 2023

Is there some one happened like my AC66UB1 with issue of low NVRAM after dirty update?

bennor · Jan 12, 2023

JackZhao said:
Is there some one happened like my AC66UB1 with issue of low NVRAM after dirty update?

Several of us (see my post here) have experienced that low NVRAM message after the 386.9 (Alpha, Beta, final) firmware update. The workaround is to perform a hard factory reset and reconfigure the router from scratch. Disconnect any attached USB drive before the hard reset, copy down all your settings (some will screen capture each GUI page) before the hard reset, don't import a saved configuration file post hard reset. RMerlin explained the reason/cause for low NVRAM issue post 386.9 update previously in the Beta thread:

RMerlin said:
Low nvram notification is nothing new, and is becoming increasingly common for that old model as it's running out of nvram space with every new firmware adding new nvram settings. It's part of why Asus is leaving it on the 386 branch most likely, as 388 probably adds even more nvram settings.

This 9 years old model is starting to show its age, with Asus having added lots of new features to it since its initial launch in 2013.

I might have to start considering removing some things from the RT-AC68U to save some nvram space. Reducing the number of OpenVPN clients would be such a thing, as each client consumes around 1 KB of nvram even while not in use.

JackZhao · Jan 12, 2023

bennor said:
Several of us (see my post here) have experienced that low NVRAM message after the 386.9 (Alpha, Beta, final) firmware update. The workaround is to perform a hard factory reset and reconfigure the router from scratch. Disconnect any attached USB drive before the hard reset, copy down all your settings (some will screen capture each GUI page) before the hard reset, don't import a saved configuration file post hard reset. RMerlin explained the reason/cause for low NVRAM issue post 386.9 update previously in the Beta thread:

Thanks very much for your help. I do have some DHCP reservation and OpenVPN configurations. Will do a hard factory reset and I believe it would work.

Paxsat · Jan 12, 2023

Paxsat said:

script openvpn-event not run if vpn_client1_status change 1 to 2 or 0

Code:

#!/bin/sh
logger "PAX VPN LOG 1.$1 2.$2 3.$3 4.$4 5.$5 6.$6"
if [ "$1" == "tun11" -a "$6" == "init" ]
then
   logger "VPN disattiva Fermo Trasmissione.."
   /opt/etc/init.d/S88transmission stop
fi

if [ "$1" == "tun11" -a "$6" == "" ]
  then
    logger "VPN attiva avvio Trasmissione"
    #ControlloFIX
    if [ -f /tmp/FIXtransmission ]; poi
      logger "FIX trasmissione gia' applicata"
    else
      logger "attivo FIX memoria Trasmissione"
       # FIX: demone di trasmissione

......

IS my problem or asus merlin bug?

I haven't received any comments, so I don't know whether to work. Can anyone log the vpn events and figure out if it's just not working in my router (ac5300) or is it a common error.

chongnt · Jan 12, 2023

Paxsat said:
IS my problem or asus merlin bug?

I haven't received any comments, so I don't know whether to work. Can anyone log the vpn events and figure out if it's just not working in my router (ac5300) or is it a common error.

No issue with AC86U on 386.9.
Can you toggle your vpn connection and check the syslog messages?

Code:

Jan  7 11:47:56 RT-AC86U-DBA8 openvpn-event: Started [tun11 1500 1586 10.7.0.2  init]

ColinTaylor · Jan 12, 2023

Paxsat said:
IS my problem or asus merlin bug?

I haven't received any comments, so I don't know whether to work. Can anyone log the vpn events and figure out if it's just not working in my router (ac5300) or is it a common error.

Nothing has changed.

I don't know what you're trying to do but the following line will never be true because $6 (script_context) will only ever contain "init" or "restart":

Code:

if [ "$1" == "tun11" -a "$6" == "" ]

Reference Manual For OpenVPN 2.4 | OpenVPN

Because OpenVPN tries to be a universal VPN tool offering a great deal of flexibility, there are a lot of options on this reference page for OpenVPN 2.4

openvpn.net

kaikaun · Jan 12, 2023

I cannot flash 386.9 over 386.7_2 on my RT-AC88U through the web interface. I get the following error message:

To comply with regulatory amendments, we have modified our certification rule to ensure better firmware quality. This version is not compatible with all previously released ASUS firmware and uncertified third party firmware. Please check our official websites for the certified firmware.

I have checked that the SHA256 checksum on the trx file is correct. I am uploading the firmware over wifi, if that matters. How can I fix this problem?

bennor · Jan 13, 2023

kaikaun said:
I am uploading the firmware over wifi, if that matters. How can I fix this problem?

As a troubleshooting step, try upload over a wired connection from a computer connected directly to the router (don't go through an extender or mesh node). Also, disconnect any USB drives attached to the router. And as an troubleshooting step, disconnect all other devices connected to the router other than the single wired computer used to update the firmware, disconnect any AiMesh nodes, and disconnect the WAN ethernet cable to isolate the router.

kaikaun · Jan 13, 2023

bennor said:
As a troubleshooting step, try upload over a wired connection from a computer connected directly to the router (don't go through an extender or mesh node). Also, disconnect any USB drives attached to the router. And as an troubleshooting step, disconnect all other devices connected to the router other than the single wired computer used to update the firmware, disconnect any AiMesh nodes, and disconnect the WAN ethernet cable to isolate the router.

I tried everything except direct wired connection, and it didn't work. However, what did work was performing the update over 2.4 GHz wifi instead of 5 GHz. That's actually really weird, but I guess all's well that ends well.

Natty · Jan 13, 2023

Dirty-ish update from 386.7_2 to 386.9 on RT-AC66U B1. Power switch restart before and after f/w upgrade, but no factory reset. I'm using router mode with 3 wireless guest networks and two non-guest wireless networks. There are around 20 DHCP address reservations. Not using any VPN or any customisations or external USB drives. After the update, RAM usage was about the same at 70MB with plenty of spare RAM. NVRAM I had not checked before the update, but after the update it climbed slowly from 65301MB to 65495MB (without me changing any settings), so it now has 41 bytes spare and is 99.9% full.

The new settings backup CFG file from 386.9 is 65,544 bytes in size, while from 386.7 it was 62,472 bytes. I'm worried that some settings may start dropping across reboots e.g. if I add any more DHCP reservations. Could that hapen? Will NVRAM gain more free space if I factory reset and manually re-make all settings (ugh.. please, no), or, noting earlier comments, have we 99.9% reached the end of the road with RT-AC66U B1 on Asuswrt-Merlin?

Natty · Jan 13, 2023

I just noticed that the low NVRAM warning is working. A flashing alarm bell icon in the webgui gives the following message:
Your router is running low on free NVRAM, which might affect its stability.
Review long parameter lists (like DHCP reservations), or consider doing a factory default reset and reconfiguring.
Review System Information now
The observations and questions in my prevous post remain valid. Is there a way to take the pain out of factory reset and reconfigure? Will it make any difference? @JackZhao did it make any difference for you?

bennor · Jan 13, 2023

Natty said:
I just noticed that the low NVRAM warning is working. A flashing alarm bell icon in the webgui gives the following message:
Your router is running low on free NVRAM, which might affect its stability.
Review long parameter lists (like DHCP reservations), or consider doing a factory default reset and reconfiguring.
Review System Information now

See above, others have received the same warning. I commented in post #89 above that some of us have received that warning with the Alpha and Beta 386.9 firmware. My post #89 above has RMerlin's response why one receives that low NVRAM message on the older AC series units. One workaround to resolve that low NVRAM message is to do a hard factory reset and reconfigure the router manually from scratch.

Some general suggestions when hard resetting are:

Remove any attached USB hard drive before updating the firmware.
Do not upload any saved router config file(s) from previous firmware versions after firmware update.
Some take screen captures of each page's settings prior to firmware update to refer to when manually reconfiguring.
Some use YazDHCP to save their DHCP reservations prior to firmware update and restore YazDHCP and import those saved exported DHCP reservations after manually reconfiguring.

maxbraketorque · Jan 13, 2023

bennor said:
See above, others have received the same warning. I commented in post #89 above that some of us have received that warning with the Alpha and Beta 386.9 firmware. My post #89 above has RMerlin's response why one receives that low NVRAM message on the older AC series units. One workaround to resolve that low NVRAM message is to do a hard factory reset and reconfigure the router manually from scratch.

...

I've been going through the nvram list on an AC68U running 386.9, and by far the majority of space used is taken up by nvram variable names rather than nvram variable values. I've manually pruned out all the old stuff that is known to be no longer stored in nvram, I've deleted almost all of the entries in the custom_clientlist, and I've trimmed the length of entries such as the ciphers used for the 5 VPN clients, and my AC68U is still at 651xx bytes. The top 3 nvram settings using the most space are:

931 nc_setting_conf
573 rc_support
164 subnet_rulelist

All of these are necessary variables that are going to be approximately this length. And as can be inferred from this list, my custom_clientlist and my dhcp_staticlist are both less than 164 bytes in length. So I am dubious that a hard factory reset will alleviate the low nvram issue on routers with 64 kB of nvram.

Since my AC68U is not hitting the limit, I have no reason to go through the hassle of doing a hard reset to see if it makes a difference, but I would love to be proven wrong if someone is willing to do a hard reset, reconfigure for operation, and then check nvram usage.

I suspect that the nvram space issue with 64 kB nvrams is going to best be resolved by @RMerlin trimming down some of his nvram entries. Dropping the number of supported VPN clients from 5 to 3 on 64 kB nvram routers would free up ~1600 bytes of space by allowing the nvram variable names for two VPN clients to be removed from nvram. That's not a lot of added space, but for those people who want to fill out their custom_clientlist and/or specify DHCP reservations, this is a helpful increase in free space. And I would argue that with nvram so close to the limit, it would be impossible to configure 5 VPN clients without overrunning the nvram space limit.

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Release Asuswrt-Merlin 386.9 is now available for AC models

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