AC68U with Merlin 378.51 - 52_2 , losing access to USB storage drives

[RMerlin]

I've went back to Asus default
Version 3.0.0.4.378.4585
just for checking. The first improvment is that scan of the disk does not stop at 40% anymore and finishes succesfully. Till now all looks fine , will see how long it lasts.

That's because stock firmware uses the slower Paragon driver for NTFS management, which means it also has a different tool for checking the ntfs filesystem integrity, while I'm using the faster Tuxera driver in all ARM-based routers (Asus only use it for the AC87 and AC3200).

 

[bugmenotplz]

Hi, can it be that something changed after RT-AC68U_3.0.0.4_376.49_5 and next versions with the driver? As then I started to notice this behavior.

 

[RMerlin]

Hi, can it be that something changed after RT-AC68U_3.0.0.4_376.49_5 and next versions with the driver? As then I started to notice this behavior.

I haven't made any change in a while to the Tuxera driver and userspace tools.

 

[defcon]

I signed up for an account just for this. I have a Western Digital 4TB external that has issues, it keeps saying filesystem errors, I ran windows ckdsk utility as well as ran crystal disk info and have no issues with the drive and mounting it within windows. Also no problems mounting the drive on stock firmware or my e4200. Mine it runs a scan then mounts it after 5 minutes or so. I can provide logs. Also would it be better to format a hard drive as ext3/4? If possible if merlin can improve the drive mounting code that would be great.

Router RT-AC68R/U

 

[RMerlin]

I signed up for an account just for this. I have a Western Digital 4TB external that has issues, it keeps saying filesystem errors, I ran windows ckdsk utility as well as ran crystal disk info and have no issues with the drive and mounting it within windows. Also no problems mounting the drive on stock firmware or my e4200. Mine it runs a scan then mounts it after 5 minutes or so. I can provide logs. Also would it be better to format a hard drive as ext3/4? If possible if merlin can improve the drive mounting code that would be great.

Router RT-AC68R/U

NTFS driver is closed source, nothing I can do about it.

Using a native Linux filesystem is always better.

 

[Apple3141592]

I have given up for now at using the AC68U with storage drives. I moved my drives to a mini-ITX based PC I use for my TV.

However one point I noticed is that the AC68U created some secondary folders on my drive for caching image files etc. minidlna and another folder. When I went to delete the folders and extra files to clean up the drive, I found I couldn't. The path length/file name combination exceeded the file system maximum limit. I had to rename the folders to single chars to be able to delete the folders and files. My point, is that perhaps the AC68U screws itself by creating excess deep folder structures that exceed max character lengths when people have relatively long file structures. The result could be that the AC68U can't deal with the new folder structures and spins on some functions that can't manipulate the resulting files that are deep in.

That is about it for my observations.

 

[RussellInCincinnati]

For the USB 3.0 dock that you mentioned, how do the 2 mapped drives appear within the Router Share? As far as mapping to them do they appear as the normal drive names just as if they were individually mapped to the two USB ports?
However it would still be nice if the AC68U actually supported the features that were claimed and sold.

Thanks

The 2 mapped drives in the USB 3 dock that I mentioned, appear in the Merlin menus exactly as if they were plugged directly into a USB port or an invisible USB hub. In general USB devices do not appear differently when they are indirectly and successfully connected to the router. That is to say I have never seen any reference to a hub of any kind from within the router menus. The only thing visible these days when there are multiple devices in a USB port is the little number (like 2 or 3) that appears in the main Merlin screen reflecting the number of registered USB devices on the port.

 

[RussellInCincinnati]

I have given up for now at using the AC68U with storage drives. I moved my drives to a mini-ITX based PC I use for my TV.

From RMerlin: "Using a native filesystem is always better."

Apple, my new observation of the last couple of weeks is to now prefer EXT4 format (example Linux format) drives, rather than NTFS, for the Merlin Linux routers. For example have solved a heavy usage occasional-corruption problem with one client by switching their main storage device from NTFS to EXT4. My earlier preference for NTFS was based only on the fact that peak read speeds are SLIGHTLY higher (i.e. NTFS reads are not real-world-noticeably higher) with Merlin routers. Was way over-thinking that "detectable" advantage of NTFS.

Am now feeling that my endorsement of NTFS was foolish, it's better for the Merlin Linux routers to use somewhat more fault tolerant, pounded-the-farthest-way-into-the-Linux-distros-for-years formats like EXT4 rather than NTFS. You MIGHT want to use the free Minitool Partition Wizard on one of your Windows machines to format yourself an EXT4 drive and give it one more chance in your Merlin router.

At one time thought it would be irritating to not be able to plug an EXT4 storage device into some nearby Windows machine for troubleshooting/repairing the file system. But have finally wised up and realized that as a "best practice" we should not depend on troubleshooting a defective device to keep us out of trouble. Clients should have enough backups that there is no tragedy in just (presumably extremely occasionally) reformatting a "defective" storage device and restoring its contents from the latest snapshot. If that's not a good enough plan, then just install
http://www.ext2fsd.com/
on any Windows machine you want to use to look at an EXT4 format drive. If that's not good enough, just boot Ubuntu Linux from a spare flash drive:
http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/create-a-usb-stick-on-windows

Anyway have switched all my important Merlin storage users to EXT4.

Agreed that it is silly to expect anything but the most basic utility from a WiFi router as a storage manager, considering that far more capable NAS devices are buyable in the $60-$150 range (used/new). The only reason that am using storage devices off of my Merlin routers is to save a few watts of electricity for clients that only have the simplest demands on their network storage.

To repeatedly pound on that point, the only good reason can think of to REGULARLY use Merlin 10-watt routers as NAS devices is an ecological one, to save energy. That's a good reason, but it's about the only one unless someone else can think of any. If you're not in it for the energy savings, and you're using the storage daily and continuously, and you could afford one of these high-end routers (compared to all the $15-$40 dollar ones out there), how is it not worth it to you to buy a dirt cheap/used NAS box that has much more storage utility?

 

[bugmenotplz]

Well, one week has passed, all seem fine 'till now, the writing issue did not occured again. Writing and reading speed seem a bit lower indeed but I trade a little speed for reliability.

 

[defcon]

After formatting NTFS to ext4 I no longer have issues mounting drives. Anyone that has issues I highly suggest it. I used gparted to shrink the drive then created a ext4 partition and moved all my data to there overnight. My drive partitions now mount instantly. And are readable from windows with smb.

 

[bean_drew]

Well, I found this thread investigating a similar problem, under somewhat different conditions. As the symptoms appear much the same, it might be related. I didn't think to record specifics (ie. screenshot CPU usage graph or scan report) at the time, and it's now back to normal.

I'm running Merlin 380.59 on an AC3200, with a 5TB WD external drive on the USB3 port, formatted HFS+ (not NTFS).

I use the drive as a media server - and yesterday, my "Music" folder was empty, when browsed through the network. All the other directories on the drive were accessible as normal, but somehow the contents of that directory wouldn't show up. The Music folder has about 26 first-level sub-directories (ie. the alphabet, not every letter its own folder), and thousands of sub folders beyond that.

I attempted to run a drive-scan through the Asus/Merlin web interface, and it stalled at 40% - would not progress further or abort properly, but did show some scan results when I clicked out of the page and back to it.

After reading this post, I checked the CPU activity, and the two cores were swapping a 100% load - such that the usage graph showed two zig-zagging lines in opposite to each other - one would go up and the other would go down, on and on.

After triggering a router reboot through the web interface everything is, for now, back to normal.

A long-time Merlin user, I just upgraded from an N66U and so didn't run the stock Asus firmware for any length of time to comment on its stability vs. the Merlin build. I also changed the drive from a 2TB NTFS to the 5TB HFS+ at the same time I swapped the router. I never had any trouble with network drive stability on the N66U.

So, there's still some ghost in the system causing comorbid symptoms: disappearing folders (independent of drive format), scans stalling at 40% and CPU maxing.