Solved 3004.388.8_* LAN clients connection problem

[Deleted member 48162]

Hello community!
Following advice of RMerlin himself to whom I send my deepest respect by the way I post question:
I've had "dirty" upgrade from ASUS-Merlin version 3004.388.7_0 to *.388.8_beta1 and aferwards to *.388.8_2 with absolutely same result - internet connection is established by the RT-AX68U (my router) which receives internet and is able to execute all 'Network tools' commands as 'ping', 'traceroute' and 'nslookup'. Nevertheless no internet connection is distributed towards LAN clients (desktop, mobile, etc.). I've noticed README file from *.388.8* firmwares that have mentioned VPN killswitch issue. But my VPN-client has killswitch feature OFF. Now I had to rollback every of above mentioned updates down back to *388.7_0 (Fri Apr 26 18:22:46 UTC 2024 merlin@39d8452 build as it is marked by Merlin). Is there a chance to update *388.7_0 to *388.8* without doing 'Factory reset'?

 

[eibgrad]

Seems to me you've answered your own question. You tried a dirty upgrade and it failed. As we all know, dirty upgrades are always a roll of the dice. And sometimes you're just going to come up snake eyes and be forced to do a clean upgrade. Doesn't mean the problem is guaranteed to go away. It could be unrelated to the dirty vs. clean issue. But as long as you insist on a dirty upgrade, you'll be questioning that decision w/ this and every future problem. So in the end, it's IMO that dirty upgrades just aren't worth the supposed savings. You can either pay the piper now or later.

 

[Ripshod]

I had to reset and start again when moving from 388.7 to the 388.8 beta, so I'm not surprised at all.

 

[Deleted member 48162]

Seems to me you've answered your own question. You tried a dirty upgrade and it failed. As we all know, dirty upgrades are always a roll of the dice. And sometimes you're just going to come up snake eyes and be forced to do a clean upgrade. Doesn't mean the problem is guaranteed to go away. It could be unrelated to the dirty vs. clean issue. But as long as you insist on a dirty upgrade, you'll be questioning that decision w/ this and every future problem. So in the end, it's IMO that dirty upgrades just aren't worth the supposed savings. You can either pay the piper now or later.

Since *388.5* every upgrade was done "dirty" not without problems, but it could be managed somehow up to the present.

 

[Deleted member 48162]

I had to reset and start again when moving from 388.7 to the 388.8 beta, so I'm not surprised at all.

Of you mean reboot before upgrade - that has been done.

 

[Deleted member 48162]

Seems to me you've answered your own question. You tried a dirty upgrade and it failed. As we all know, dirty upgrades are always a roll of the dice. And sometimes you're just going to come up snake eyes and be forced to do a clean upgrade. Doesn't mean the problem is guaranteed to go away. It could be unrelated to the dirty vs. clean issue. But as long as you insist on a dirty upgrade, you'll be questioning that decision w/ this and every future problem. So in the end, it's IMO that dirty upgrades just aren't worth the supposed savings. You can either pay the piper now or later.

Duly noted, sir!

 

[Ripshod]

Of you mean reboot before upgrade - that has been done.

Reset, as in Factory Reset. You've been dodging the bullet for so long it may have finally caught you.

 

[Deleted member 48162]

"Dirty" indeed was the root of all troubles!
Now *388.8_2 is up and running smooth.
Following this advice on the re-flashing procedure I've managed it up and running. With some renewed settings. Such as: setting VPN-client, DDNS, Port Forwading for some long overdued applications, leaving OFF by default options in Internet -> NAT Passthrough: RTSP Passthrough, H.323 Passthrough, SIP Passthrough (required by VPN Provider) and Trend Micro left without adjustment in OFF state.
Thus Factory reset is a MUST for my case!