[ 386.4 alpha Build(s) ] Testing available build(s)

[Clark Griswald]

Yeah, that's a boatload of fixes... hmmm...

Boatload
I wasn't concerned, until Boatload size was reached

 

[capncybo]

Boatload
I wasn't concerned, until Boatload size was reached

I suppose ignorance is Bliss... I'm just gonna ignore everything LOL

 

[mikezilla2]

Any hints on features or Fixes we Can look forward to in the Up and coming releases ?

or subjectively is merlin the best Firmware?

im using the most current stable listed on merlins site for my AX88 and i like it because its like stock but a few Extras ( or at least it was)

might Switch out for a 6 port nuc of Sorts soon

 

[Make WiFi Great Again]

I would bet it's Trendnet getting their knickers in a twist over 3rd party firmware installs for non Asus routers and not Broadcom's fault.
The reason I say this is that most of the Broadcom stuff is already out in the wild if you know where to look and would be impossible to kill now.... Why would Broadcom complain about this leak when there are countless other leaks. If you take AsusWRT-Merlin firmware and stick it on a netgear router you are just taking broadcom software from 1 router and replacing it with nearly identical Broadcom software.

Trendnet OTOH, I don't know much about their stuff because I try to stay away from entity's like them. But it seems to me they sure do like their IP, and rightfully so. Since Trendnet is not included with Netgears, then taking it from Asus-Merlin and putting it on netgear is something that never suppose to happen. It's their IP they can dictate whatever they want. I have no problem with that.

But I do have to ask myself, did Asus pay Trendnet to let them include their stuff in Asus's firmware, or did Trendnet pay Asus to put their stuff in Asus firmware? Neither would surprise me as I can imagine both benefit from the deal.

Maybe I am wrong, maybe not. Maybe it's both of them LoL. Either way I don't fault them for trying to protect something they made

Does anyone know if you can compile the firmware without the Trendnet stuff? Obviously compiling without the Broadcom bits would not work so well. At that point you might as well install OpenWRT on it and ignore the wireless bits and use it as a wired only router (which I did on an AC68U btw and does work beautifully - you folks would not believe how much samba performance improved, hint, it tripled!!) but you lose WiFi for good.

 

[Jaime Alvarez]

Won't be a problem. I did receive a first cleaned up GPL archive a few weeks ago for one specific model, and it was fully buildable. That's part of why it's taking so long to get cleaned GPLs, Asus's engineers need to ensure that it's still buildable. That sometimes mean rewriting some Makefiles.

Thank you Eric. What you said makes me think that the legal issues have already been addressed by this cleanup process.

So it is only a matter of time and resources to complete the same work for the other models?

 

[pirx73]

all licensing issues are resolved to the satisfaction of the complainee.

Some GPL-troll? Stallman devotee? Seems that this person(s) is/are doing it deliberately.

whole-hearted endorsement of the AX68

I also endorse AX68 wholeheartedly

OTH i just checked ASUS support page for my router and:

RT-AX68U｜WiFi Routers｜ASUS Global

WiFi 6 router, free network security, easy setup, fast wifi with no dead zone, mesh WiFi support, free VPN, parental controls, nice design, 802.11ax technology

www.asus.com

2021/10/25
ASUS RT-AX68U Firmware version 3.0.0.4.386.45911

 

[JWoo]

Someone expressed concern some days back about reverting back to Asus official firmware in order to be current on patches for security vulnerabilities. Well, looking at the latest RT-AX68U release from Asus, there are security patches that were released 6 years ago that Asus did not apparently provide until yesterday. The average age of the patches is about 3+ years. So if anyone is counting on the stock firmware to keep them current on security patches, that myth has been busted.

 

[JWoo]

I would bet it's Trendnet getting their knickers in a twist over 3rd party firmware installs for non Asus routers and not Broadcom's fault.
The reason I say this is that most of the Broadcom stuff is already out in the wild if you know where to look and would be impossible to kill now.... Why would Broadcom complain about this leak when there are countless other leaks. If you take AsusWRT-Merlin firmware and stick it on a netgear router you are just taking broadcom software from 1 router and replacing it with nearly identical Broadcom software.

Trendnet OTOH, I don't know much about their stuff because I try to stay away from entity's like them. But it seems to me they sure do like their IP, and rightfully so. Since Trendnet is not included with Netgears, then taking it from Asus-Merlin and putting it on netgear is something that never suppose to happen. It's their IP they can dictate whatever they want. I have no problem with that.

But I do have to ask myself, did Asus pay Trendnet to let them include their stuff in Asus's firmware, or did Trendnet pay Asus to put their stuff in Asus firmware? Neither would surprise me as I can imagine both benefit from the deal.

Maybe I am wrong, maybe not. Maybe it's both of them LoL. Either way I don't fault them for trying to protect something they made

Does anyone know if you can compile the firmware without the Trendnet stuff? Obviously compiling without the Broadcom bits would not work so well. At that point you might as well install OpenWRT on it and ignore the wireless bits and use it as a wired only router (which I did on an AC68U btw and does work beautifully - you folks would not believe how much samba performance improved, hint, it tripled!!) but you lose WiFi for good.

Personally, I would rather have the Merlin firmware without the Trend Micro software. The black box of Trend Micro SW is probably as or more concerning than the alleged benefits it provides.

 

[shabbs]

Someone expressed concern some days back about reverting back to Asus official firmware in order to be current on patches for security vulnerabilities. Well, looking at the latest RT-AX68U release from Asus, there are security patches that were released 6 years ago that Asus did not apparently provide until yesterday. The average age of the patches is about 3+ years. So if anyone is counting on the stock firmware to keep them current on security patches, that myth has been busted.

Yeah, would love to know how they prioritize those... but I think the concern (for me) would be anything immediate/zero day that is super critical like a Meltdown or Spectre. But if I'm honest, I'm likely too lazy to revert and would just continue rolling with the Asuswrt-Merlin build.

 

[JWoo]

Yeah, would love to know how they prioritize those... but I think the concern (for me) would be anything immediate/zero day that is super critical like a Meltdown or Spectre. But if I'm honest, I'm likely too lazy to revert and would just continue rolling with the Asuswrt-Merlin build.

Ditto. I would also stick with the Merlin build as it has features I use not available in the stock firmware. As food for thought, many of the vulnerabilities require access or events that are unlikely to happen in real life. And in some cases the fixes for the vulnerabilities either don't work or cause unwanted side effects. Intel rolled out 3 or 4 microcode updates for Spectre before getting it just so. And that was an extremely high profile vulnerability.

 

[RMerlin]

And some of these fixes have been present in my firmware for months already, like all of those related to curl or OpenVPN.

 

[jerry6]

And some of these fixes have been present in my firmware for months already, like all of those related to curl or OpenVPN.

really sad to hear this FW might be coming to an end I've been using it from close to day one . Whatever happens thank you for the years of great solid secure FW . And good luck whatever you do in the future

 

[Jeffrey Young]

really sad to hear this FW might be coming to an end I've been using it from close to day one . Whatever happens thank you for the years of great solid secure FW . And good luck whatever you do in the future

On the horizon

Why no new Merlin firmware?

We have a first batch (plus the RT-AX86U that was received a while ago).

www.snbforums.com

 

[JWoo]

And some of these fixes have been present in my firmware for months already, like all of those related to

really sad to hear this FW might be coming to an end I've been using it from close to day one . Whatever happens thank you for the years of great solid secure FW . And good luck whatever you do in the future

Not sure why some are inferring that the AsusWRT-Merlin project is coming to an end. I don't have any inside knowledge of the Asus situation but my understanding of the posts is that:
- Asus has had difficulty in releasing GPL source code and compiled modules on a timely basis, which has delayed new builds
- Merlin posted a while back that he had upgraded his servers and that he has largely automated / scripted his build process
- From many years of personal experience working in the tech sector, my take (again from these posts) is that Merlin has a positive relationship with Asus and Asus treats him as a trusted partner

I think we can all agree that many things have been in turmoil since COVID-19 started in 2020. Many large tech companies have had employees working from home since 2020 and a lot of the large tech companies won't have people fully back in the office until 2022. There are chip shortages, resource shortages and many logistics issues these days in tech that have been pervasive for least the last 10 - 12 months. With that in mind, speaking for myself only, I do not find it surprising at all that Asus has had a challenging time of it.

Like a lot of you, I have used the AsusWRT-Merlin firmware on many different Asus routers and for a long time. And I only buy Asus routers because of the AsusWRT-Merlin firmware. Thinking about this positively, my personal outlook is that Asus will probably figure out sooner than later how to get their deliverables to @RMerlin and I would suspect they also see a lot of value in their partnership with Merlin and all of us. I can only imagine how crappy and feature-poor their firmware would be without this project.

 

[visortgw]

We need to remain patient — First Batch of 45581 GPLs!

 

[RMerlin]

Off-topic discussion moved to its own thread.

 

[DiGz_Au]

Testing new build for ax86u as we speak.

 

[bluepoint]

@RMerlin
386.4 Alpha2
RT-AX88U

Oct 31 23:29:52 dnsmasq[2327]: started, version 2.84 cachesize 1500

Shouldn't it be version 2.86?

 

[DiGz_Au]

@RMerlin
386.4 Alpha2
RT-AX88U

Oct 31 23:29:52 dnsmasq[2327]: started, version 2.84 cachesize 1500

Shouldn't it be version 2.86?

Also 2.84 on ax86u

 

[Alaska99]

On my AX88u alpha 2 crash my router in reboot loop when I setup my PPOE Wan connection....