Asus RT-AC-88U Merlin 361.1 beta 2 big problem

[jcga]

Hello everyone,

I'm a long time basic user of alternative Merlin firmware for my Asus router and for the first time I have uploaded a beta firmware (361.1 beta2). My router is working but I'm not able anymore to access my router web page. I can see the login/password page but after entering correct items, the page remain blank, that means I can not change anything on my router anymore.
I have the asus android app too on my phone but when trying to access my router, I got the message " impossible to connect to your router !

So I'm completely stuck by now. Is ther a way (for a noob like me) to reload the prvious firmware release

Any help will be greatly appreciated
Best regards from France
Jean Claude

 

[wesbez]

Check the change log. Helps to read it before install.

”NOTE: Some users upgrading might have to go through some
database maintenance on first boot, which means the
router might be slower or have a non-responsive webui
for a while.
This can take anywhere from 5 minutes up to an hour,
depending on your model, just give it time to complete
the process”

 

[ColinTaylor]

There's no such thing as release 361.1, I guess you mean 386.1?

 

[jcga]

Yes, sorry it's 386.1 beta 2

 

[L&LD]

@jcga, be patient, and if your network continues to give you issues on RMerlin 386.1 Beta 2 or later, be sure to follow the suggestions below to get your router and network back to a good/known state.

New M&M 2020

 

[boylee]

ax86u - still having same problems as with beta1... takes an age to establish a wan connection but once done nothing connects as if the connection speed is being throttled to death. can't run a speedtest as connection with anything is impossible. back to stock & everything functioning as before.

wan connection automatic ip...

 

[Unisoft]

No issues at all with WAN speed on my two AX86U routers. On a 350mbps service which is over provisioned by ISP but sold as that, get around 386mbps on average.

I did a full factory reset by flashing to beta2, then holding WPS button whilst turning router on and waiting for powerlight to go out, and then reset again.
I then enter all details by hand again and don't use a backup settings file. I also reset the JFFS partition too just to be sure.

You may have been possibly affected by MTU setting - reports that it's no longer set, although was still 1500 for me.

 

[boylee]

thanks @Unisoft, had performed a factory reset but not the hard boot & manual entry as you have done... will give that a crack later...

 

[jcga]

@jcga, be patient, and if your network continues to give you issues on RMerlin 386.1 Beta 2 or later, be sure to follow the suggestions below to get your router and network back to a good/known state.

New M&M 2020

Not having access to router config web page, it's was not possible to do anything. So, the only solution I've found was to use the "emergency restore" firmware to re load previous version and I did all config settings manually. All is working now but lesson taken, I will not load beta firmware anymore...

 

[L&LD]

You don't need to access the GUI to reset the router. Use the WPS or the Reset Pin methods (WPS is my preference).

RMerlin Beta firmware is great. You just need a couple of more real-world lessons to be a pro with them.

 

[jcga]

I admit to be a noob and I'm a great fan of Merlin alternative firmware that I use for years but maybe I was not clear enough because English is not my native language. WPS or Reset was of no help for me to be able to access the GUI interface again. I had to to go Asus emergency restore utility

 

[L&LD]

If the firmware restoration utility worked, you were doing those other resets wrong.

If you're having trouble logging into the router, try router.asus.com instead of assuming an IP address of the reset router.

 

[boylee]

thanks @Unisoft, had performed a factory reset but not the hard boot & manual entry as you have done... will give that a crack later...

ax86u - got beta2 to take 2nd attempt - as before, did a factory reset & installed beta2 - no hard reboot required... had to fiddle with smb settings to get apps working thou as follows:
kodi - set simpler share naming to yes (this caused a conflict with win10 mapping resolved as below)
win10 - mapped new network drive using ip address & connect using different credentials (later found win10 could detect router & mapping in usual way possible - maybe new f/w needed time to bed in)

 

[boylee]

btw, is it usual for router to run at 95%+ ram usage (ax86u)?

 

[L&LD]

@boylee I'm not really following what you have done to set up the router. Compare to what I suggest for a stable install in the link below. With no scripts running, there should be about 500MB RAM free as shown in the GUI. With scripts, the router can run with as little as 12MB free, as shown in the GUI (but with a 2GB swap file created).

New M&M 2020

 

[boylee]

thanks @L&LD, i'll have a look at your set-up... thou even with asus f/w ram usage was 95%+ - could it be the router (ax86u)?

 

[L&LD]

It's not the router. RAM usage isn't an issue on these routers. The OS will free up RAM as needed. And unused RAM is wasted RAM.

If you're maxing out the RAM on stock Firmware, at defaults, I believe either it is set up incorrectly, or, that firmware version may be an issue. Either way, a full reset is needed to rule those possibilities out.

When you're doing a full reset, and when you're testing afterward, do not plug in anything to the router except for the device you're connecting with. Do not plug in any USB drives. Do not plug in previously used, USB drives used for amtm + Entware + swap file + scripts, which were not formatted on a PC to NTFS, first.

Go slow, testing as you go, and rebooting and retesting with each change, and you will undoubtedly find which process, option, or feature you use that utilizes all the RAM.

 

[boylee]

thanks, will closely monitor... noticed cpu @100% all 4 cores & ram @ 96%, rebooted now cpu @ 0% & ram @ 48%.. these are indeed strange times...

 

[L&LD]

No, again, they're not. RMerlin himself has commented on how much work is done, internally, after flashing to this firmware. Give it time to do what it needs to do.

 

[boylee]

hmm, thanks @L&LD, i followed your setup & the router was behaving as expected - ram steady at 48%, cpu spiking to 50% but normally 0-5%... however got up this morning & found ram back at 97% with nothing else changed... rebooted & ram settles back to 48%... any thoughts what could be causing this behaivour?