388.9_alpha1 Firmware for RT-AX58U, GT-AX11000, and GT-AXE11000

[aex.perez]

View attachment 64658

A few minutes ago, took a bit on the AX88u and was prompted to manually reboot, then WAN/DHCP took a awhile to grab an IP Address (ISP DHCP Error from the router, so claimed) but it did evemtually got it.

Noticed the device icons were updated on the AiMesh devices, and need to check why the wifi devices that typically bind to the nodes haven't (yet)?

Now for the testing to commence...

Odd, many devices on the nodes not connecting, redid the setup on the bulbs and Echo's and SSID password says it's wrong. Yet on the phone, same password, same SSID's, roaming between rooms, connects fine. Need to check the Amazon devices on the Router WiFi and the Nest Thermostats on the Router and the other on the Node and if both are connected. Thw Smartbed connected fine same SSID and password though. Have reboot the nodes and restarted WiFi as well.

Fun times

 

[aex.perez]

Odd, many devices on the nodes not connecting, redid the setup on the bulbs and Echo's and SSID password says it's wrong. Yet on the phone, same password, same SSID's, roaming between rooms, connects fine. Need to check the Amazon devices on the Router WiFi and the Nest Thermostats on the Router and the other on the Node and if both are connected. Thw Smartbed connected fine same SSID and password though. Have reboot the nodes and restarted WiFi as well.

Fun times

Gonna play a little more as once I turned Roaming assistant on the professional tab(s) more of the devices started up on the router, even though the nodes are much closer. Even with that, to get one of the Thermostats to connect to a node, I had to get on the SmartConnect SSID as the 5Ghz and 2Ghz wouldn't connect. Even as one of the Echo pops says conected during setup, still shows up as disconnected and can't find the MAC on the Router or Nodes. The one in the next room connect to the router even as the node is about a foot away. Going to revert back on the nodes first if I can't fix this, then router if that doesn't fix it.

Fortunately I've got a backup of the Router and nodes if I need to do more than reverting back release.

Haven't tested other features as those are on the router, and gotta get past the devices not connecting on the nodes

 

[ExtremeFiretop]

Gonna play a little more as once I turned Roaming assistant on the professional tab(s) more of the devices started up on the router, even though the nodes are much closer. Even with that, to get one of the Thermostats to connect to a node, I had to get on the SmartConnect SSID as the 5Ghz and 2Ghz wouldn't connect. Even as one of the Echo pops says conected during setup, still shows up as disconnected and can't find the MAC on the Router or Nodes. The one in the next room connect to the router even as the node is about a foot away. Going to revert back on the nodes first if I can't fix this, then router if that doesn't fix it.

Fortunately I've got a backup of the Router and nodes if I need to do more than reverting back release.

Haven't tested other features as those are on the router, and gotta get past the devices not connecting on the nodes

Sounds like a very similar experience to me with my GT-AXE11000 as a node.

In the end for stability I downgraded back to 388.8.4 and factory reset the node and re-paired it to the primary, and then finally did a backupmon restore to restore my JFFS how it was previously.

Devices connecting normally again. I thought I'd try alpha2 and maybe update the parent considering it had a new alpha and see if it smoothed things over but not yet unfortunately.

 

[aex.perez]

Sounds like a very similar experience to me with my GT-AXE11000 as a node.

In the end for stability I downgraded back to 388.8.4 and factory reset the node and re-paired it to the primary, and then finally did a backupmon restore to restore my JFFS how it was previously.

Devices connecting normally again. I thought I'd try alpha2 and maybe update the parent considering it had a new alpha and see if it smoothed things over but not yet unfortunately.

Sounds like I'm on the same path, just reverted back on one node, can SSH in but on the Gui shows as down and still on the Alpha. likely going to be the same on the second node. After reverting that one back though I'll restart the roter on the Alpha as a last attempt to see if the nodes connect before resorting to the factory reset and repairing the nodes. Otherwise I'l likely wind up doing all of them and a restore to get back where I was.

As my wife (thankfully she's out) don't do the crime if you can't do the time
and a least the wired devices on the nodes work fine...

Also the password on the nodes isn't working, though on the router it is, should've been fine but also should have been my first clue...

 

[aex.perez]

Nodes gone, factory reset and restore in my immediate future. But at least all the devices are connecting, at least the ones in range of the router.

So the revert the router and restore or put everything on the Alpha and and reset/readd the nodes.

Likely revert based on time, but we'll see...

 

[aex.perez]

Nodes gone, factory reset and restore in my immediate future. But at least all the devices are connecting, at least the ones in range of the router.

So the revert the router and restore or put everything on the Alpha and and reset/readd the nodes.

Likely revert based on time, but we'll see...

Interesting, revert and restore sort of. Router and nodes back on revert. But wired devices on the nodes showing up as if connected to the router. Not all the WiFi devices are back, but it seems on a quick review all the setting are. DHCP on the WAN got an address much quicker though. But WiFi devices that would conect via a node, still not connecting. Gonna reboot the nodes first before doing more drastic measures.

 

[aex.perez]

Even after reverting, restoring and rebooting everything if a device is bound to a node, it won't connect. Only two of the many devices are connecting through a node, the rest connect via the router, using the same SSID and password no less. Going to try setting one or two of them up again to see if they connect but likely going to have factory reset them, re-add them and see if any devices will connect to them before trying to bind them to a node again. Unfortunately the restores for those won't be good anymore but at least their node so it's not too bad.

Got to revert my signature as well...

 

[aex.perez]

Even after reverting, restoring and rebooting everything if a device is bound to a node, it won't connect. Only two of the many devices are connecting through a node, the rest connect via the router, using the same SSID and password no less. Going to try setting one or two of them up again to see if they connect but likely going to have factory reset them, re-add them and see if any devices will connect to them before trying to bind them to a node again. Unfortunately the restores for those won't be good anymore but at least their node so it's not too bad.

Got to revert my signature as well...

That was real funky.

So factory reset was a breeze, left the nodes wired, removed them from the Gui, WPS reset, and searched under AiMesh. Easily found them and added, kept same IP and everything, could SSH right in with the prior settings (even kept the router password this time). Now the funky part, devices that would not conect or refused too, instantly reconnected as soon as the nodes (both) were reset. I could even bind devices again and they reconnected quickly moving to the node I selected to put them on. An Echo device I moved next to the router would only connect after resetting the nodes, sure it would configure but would never actually connect same with other IoT devices...

All on Merlin 388.4, including re-adding to AiMesh which I winced at having to factory reset but after this, piece of cake. Was honestly very painless, unlike others have posted.
AMTM and scripts not withstanding, but that a quick thing to setup again. Including that I'm about 98% of the way there, next up BACKUPMON, MerlinAU (1.40), and scMerlin x2

Just cleaning up now, everything were it should be and updated signature...
Good exercise and refresher!

 

[stealurkill]

Smooth upgrade to 3004.388.9_alpha2-g848412c9ca on RT-AX88u
Thanks RMerlin

edit: My Windows SSH client get error after this update "LIBSSH2 returned LIBSSH2_ERROR_KEX_FAILURE

Mar 25 07:32:56 RT-AX88U dropbear[203312]: Exit before auth from <192.168.1.xx:49xxx>: No matching algo kex

SSH from my android works fine, Will test another SSH client on my computer (SmarTTY may be outdated)

edit1: SmarTTY update was available and now works again

What update for SmarTTY are you referring to? i have used it for years but 3.0 is the newest that I know and that was released in 2017.

 

[Zastoff]

What update for SmarTTY are you referring to? i have used it for years but 3.0 is the newest that I know and that was released in 2017.

Downloaded SmartTTY-3.3.msi
When i check the file it was created 2022-05-06
SmarTTY Download

 

[jsbeddow]

Downloaded SmartTTY-3.3.msi
When i check the file it was created 2022-05-06
SmarTTY Download

I too had used SmartTTY for quite a while, but found some serious issues that made me move on to other SSH clients a couple of years ago, see here:

Release - PATH not being set in SSH sessions

Currently running 388.2_2 on an RT-AX88U and I've been having a weird issue where no commands work in an SSH session unless I input the command below...

www.snbforums.com

 

[aMiCRoDev]

Is there git tag or git branch for this alpha1 build inside: https://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin.ng

 

[dave14305]

Is there git tag or git branch for this alpha1 build inside: https://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin.ng

From the 3004.388 branch.

GitHub - RMerl/asuswrt-merlin.ng at 848412c9ca2bf8ba8442521258d15582124ce154

Third party firmware for Asus routers (newer codebase) - GitHub - RMerl/asuswrt-merlin.ng at 848412c9ca2bf8ba8442521258d15582124ce154

github.com

 

[aMiCRoDev]

From the 3004.388 branch.

GitHub - RMerl/asuswrt-merlin.ng at 848412c9ca2bf8ba8442521258d15582124ce154

Third party firmware for Asus routers (newer codebase) - GitHub - RMerl/asuswrt-merlin.ng at 848412c9ca2bf8ba8442521258d15582124ce154

github.com

What is the main branch containing the "latest and greatest" code base?
It seems master branch is behind this git commit.

 

[RMerlin]

What is the main branch containing the "latest and greatest" code base?
It seems master branch is behind this git commit.

None. Development has to be split accross multiple parallel branches due to Asus themselves having split branches internally. So, the branch to use depend solely on the model you are building.

3004..388: Wifi 6 devices (except BCM4912 devices that are being migrated to 3006)
3006.102: Wifi 7 devices
3006.102-wifi6: WIfi 6 devices based on BCM4912

For now, I only use master to merge component updates, which get cherry-picked by other branches. Right now, nobody should be building from that branch.

Look at the tools/build-all.sh script for more details.

 

[aMiCRoDev]

Thank you for the information.

One maybe stupid question:
The Difference between WiFi6E and WiFi7 is only in the protocol and not in the HW itself (at least to my knowledge). Does this mean that a WiFi6e router (for example, AXE11000) can be updated to a WiFi7 router with new firmware?

 

[Analog-1]

Does this mean that a WiFi6e router (for example, AXE11000) can be updated to a WiFi7 router with new firmware?

NO. Even if that was possible Asus would have to recertify the router for 7 and that's not going to happen.

 

[RMerlin]

The Difference between WiFi6E and WiFi7 is only in the protocol and not in the HW itself (at least to my knowledge).

No, completely different hardware. Need to handle a different radio modulation, scheduler, even encryption methods are different.

 

[jksmurf]

I didn't see a closed thread notification but would I be right to be reasonably confident we can assume this alpha is superseded by the beta of the same FW designation?

 

[visortgw]

I didn't see a closed thread notification but would I be right to be reasonably confident we can assume this alpha is superseded by the beta of the same FW designation?

Absolutely!