Asus XT8 HW1 & HW2 Asus-wrt Merlin GNUton

[dwl99]

I have bought a pair of XT8 routers and was hoping to flash them with Asus-wrt Merlin GNUton. I noticed on the Asus firmware download page there is different firmware for HW1 and HW2 versions. I believe the XT8 firmware file for the XT8 is RT-AX95Q_3004_388.6_0-gnuton1_puresqubi.w. Does anyone know if this will work with both HW versions? Thanks

 

[dwl99]

Update - I just noticed in another thread that it's only for HW1.

 

[SDGTR]

New XT8 owner here. I've read through whatever posts I've been able to find and am still not sure if a Merlin FW for the XT8 V2 is still in the works or if I should not plan on it.

Any info?

 

[L&LD]

Home | Asuswrt-Merlin

asuswrt-merlin.net

Don't plan for it.

But do check what @GNUton offers with his RMerlin forks.

 

[SDGTR]

Home | Asuswrt-Merlin

asuswrt-merlin.net

Don't plan for it.

But do check what @GNUton offers with his RMerlin forks.

I think I found the forks you're talking about.

asuswrt-merlin.ng

Extends the support of Asus Merlin firmware to more routers

gnuton.github.io

The XT8 is mentioned but it doesn't say anything about V2 and everything I've been able to find indicates that this is only for V1.

Just for my own curiosity, is there a technical reason why a FW for V2 is not feasible?

 

[L&LD]

Yes, technically, different hardware.

 

[SDGTR]

Yes, technically, different hardware.

Right, I was just wondering if there's something about the different hardware or the way the firmware is written that makes it technically not possible to write a 3rd party FW for this hardware.

Are certain things encrypted, proprietary, or locked out in the V2 hardware that are accessible with V1, or something like that? Merlin FW is available for many different Asus devices, most having different HW, so I'm just curious as to why a FW can't be made for V2. I just wonder whether it's just a matter of not enough user demand for it or an actual technical reason.

I really like what I've seen with the Merlin FW and if the XT8 V2 will never have this FW available for it, in the future I may consider buying a single mesh unit of another model that does support Merlin and turn my current main XT8 into just another node.

 

[Tech9]

that makes it technically not possible

It is possible, but Asuswrt-Merlin is one man project. The developer decides which models to support. XT8 is in category "less popular" and "mid-range".

 

[L&LD]

It's not that it is technically not possible. It is because it requires real work to add another model to what Eric (RMerlin) supports.

There are many things that are closed source in Asuswrt, even for supported models (mostly because the SoC is mostly closed source), but Asus does provide RMerlin some perks (i.e. GPL downloads) for the models he does support.

The user demand is (inevitably) there. The hours in a single day for a single Dev aren't.

The most stable AiMesh setups are identical model routers running identical firmware (don't believe the myth that nodes 'should run stock', even if they can). Proceed accordingly.