Release ASUS ZenWiFi XT8 Firmware version 3.0.0.4.386.48706 (2022/05/03)

[Raven76]

settings? environment? personally I don't enable 160Mhz for the wireless backhaul, only 80MHz because I don't want to use DFS channels which seem to be unreliably available in my case.... still, early days for this firmware version

yep, perhaps the settings... I don't use 160mhz too (only 80), and I use fixed channels (6 for 2.4, 36 for 5-1 and 100 for 5-2)

 

[RogerSC]

Oh really? Nice to hear. Asus says you have to put the node within 3 meters.

I think that's just to make things more bullet-proof for the user. The first time that I brought up the ZenWiFi with wireless backhaul, I had the nodes close to each other. That worked well. Once I had the remote node in place about 40' away, thought I'd just take a shot at bringing the mesh back up with the remote node in place. This has worked every time since then...I think it may take a few more seconds to find the remote node, but can't even say that definitively. Just that I've had no problems with the router finding the remote node 40' away *smile*. Makes me happy not having to disassemble things, but as they say, "your mileage may vary".

 

[karma]

yep, perhaps the settings... I don't use 160mhz too (only 80), and I use fixed channels (6 for 2.4, 36 for 5-1 and 100 for 5-2)

yeah, i use fixed channels as well (specially for 2.4ghz because I don't want it to interfere with zigbee), the choice of channels is of course very environment dependent.

 

[stga77]

Updated this morning but my Sonos system did not like this update at all.
Back on 42095

 

[Raven76]

Update on a location with 2 XT8s... no problems and no issues, so far... but I'm still monitoring…
If all ok I'll upgrade another place with 4 more XT8s...

Updated my second XT8s mesh system (4 routers)... no problem at all!

 

[tcn]

Moved to GNUton’s release; will stick with his releases from now on. If anyone can make this piece of junk better it’s anyone lese than Asus and besides, GNUton and Merlin are doing a terriffic job.

 

[bradbort]

Just did a dirty update on the main and node. They are hard wired together. Uneventful. Seems totally clean at this point. The wifi for the clients seemed to come back much faster than in previous updates. I had to manually install the update. Even though I had auto enabled, it was not seeing it, perhaps because I had the beta installed?

 

[TMcC]

Just did a dirty update on the main and node. They are hard wired together. Uneventful. Seems totally clean at this point. The wifi for the clients seemed to come back much faster than in previous updates. I had to manually install the update. Even though I had auto enabled, it was not seeing it, perhaps because I had the beta installed?

Yeah, you have to manually update from a beta release.

 

[goggleeyes]

Moved to GNUton’s release; will stick with his releases from now on. If anyone can make this piece of junk better it’s anyone lese than Asus and besides, GNUton and Merlin are doing a terriffic job.

Hi - whats this then, a new firmware for the XT8? If so you got a link -TIA

 

[nickwp001]

Updated my main router and 2 nodes yesterday. Main router had no issues. One access point only gets a weak signal now and the other access point is stuck in a boot loop. I've tried installing an earlier version on the boot looping node but nothing seems to fix the boot loop problem. Did I brick my xt8?

 

[Dodgydrains]

Hi - whats this then, a new firmware for the XT8? If so you got a link -TIA

This is here:

Release Stable: 386.5_2-gnuton0 · gnuton/asuswrt-merlin.ng

GNUton's Asus Merlin changelog Date: March 26, 2022 Release: 386.5_2-gnuton0 NEW: Added support for ZenWifi AX (X8)/RT-AX95Q NEW: Added support for TUF-AX5400

github.com

File name is: RT-AX95Q_386.5_2-gnuton0_cferom_puresqubi.w

 

[areyouben]

I have just bought an XT8 and during its first setup it said there was a new firmware update available. Not knowing of these issues, I agreed to the update. During the setup of the system, I encountered many issues with the node. At first I thought these were caused by the backhaul not functioning properly. As I live close to an airport, radar forces my routers to get off the DFS channels. This was the main reason to buy the XT8 as it can use an ethernet backhaul. So I connected the node to the main AP with an ethernet cable, but still no luck. The node was constantly resyncing with the main AP (flashing blue light) and the wireless signal, especially both 5G networks, wouldn’t come up from the node. The main AP functioned as expected. When the wireless signal had come up from the node, no client could connect to it. It would give me a message that the wifi password was invalid. The last thing I tried to check whether these issues were hardware or software related, was changing the node and main AP and setting things up once again. The same issues appeared. I found on this forum your thread and it all appeared to me I needed to downgrade this thing to some firmware version way long ago. So it’s now on 42095 and works like a charm. Max. Internet speed in the entire apartment.

 

[nickwp001]

I have just bought an XT8 and during its first setup it said there was a new firmware update available. Not knowing of these issues, I agreed to the update. During the setup of the system, I encountered many issues with the node. At first I thought these were caused by the backhaul not funtioning properly. As I live close to an airport, radar forces my routers to get off the DFS channels. This was the main reason to buy the XT8 as it can use an ethernet backhaul. So I connected the node to the main AP with an ethernet cable, but still no luck. The node was constantly resyncing with the main AP (flashing blue light) and the wireless signal, especially both 5G networks, wouldn’t come up from the node. The main AP functioned as expected. When the wireless signal would have come up from the node, no client could connect to it. It would give me a message that the wifi password was invalid. The last thing I tried to check whether these issues were hardware or software related, was changing the node and main AP and setting things up once again. The same issues appeared. I found on this forum your thread and it all appeared to me I needed to downgrade this thing to some firmware version way long ago. So it’s now on 42095 and works like a charm. Max. Internet speed in the entire apartment.

Where did you find 42095? I can't find it anywhere.

 

[areyouben]

I found it in another thread on this forum

https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/wireless/ZenWiFi_XT8/FW_ZENWIFI_XT8_300438642095.zip

So this is for the XT8. It’s not visible in the list of firmwares on Asus’ website but this link still works. Be sure that your system is not built in 2022 (see back label) as then this firmware cannot be installed.

 

[arubinst]

This is here:

Release Stable: 386.5_2-gnuton0 · gnuton/asuswrt-merlin.ng

GNUton's Asus Merlin changelog Date: March 26, 2022 Release: 386.5_2-gnuton0 NEW: Added support for ZenWifi AX (X8)/RT-AX95Q NEW: Added support for TUF-AX5400

github.com

File name is: RT-AX95Q_386.5_2-gnuton0_cferom_puresqubi.w

I tried installing the official update again and got the same flashing blue light.

Then I installed this merlin release... so far so good!

 

[mbordere]

No issues upgrading a mesh with 2 nodes through the Android app (wired backhaul, 160Mhz disabled)

 

[pmiller]

I'm also getting the fast blue blink of death on my node :/ This is what I see in the logs

May  8 17:05:13 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(527): eth4: Auth 1A:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX, status: Successful (0), rssi:0
May  8 17:05:13 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(537): eth4: ReAssoc 1A:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX, status: Successful (0), rssi:-65
May  8 17:05:13 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(508): eth5: Disassoc 1A:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX, status: 0, reason: Disassociated because sending station is leaving (or has left) BSS (8), rssi:0
May  8 17:05:13 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(508): eth5: Disassoc 1A:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX, status: 0, reason: Disassociated because sending station is leaving (or has left) BSS (8), rssi:0

What does "Disassociated because sending station is leaving (or has left) BSS (8), rssi:0" even mean?

 

[Raven76]

Perhaps the problem is the 160Mhz band... many of us without any issue have disabled it (and use max 80mhz)

 

[acc3d]

I'm also getting the fast blue blink of death on my node :/ This is what I see in the logs

May  8 17:05:13 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(527): eth4: Auth 1A:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX, status: Successful (0), rssi:0
May  8 17:05:13 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(537): eth4: ReAssoc 1A:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX, status: Successful (0), rssi:-65
May  8 17:05:13 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(508): eth5: Disassoc 1A:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX, status: 0, reason: Disassociated because sending station is leaving (or has left) BSS (8), rssi:0
May  8 17:05:13 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(508): eth5: Disassoc 1A:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX, status: 0, reason: Disassociated because sending station is leaving (or has left) BSS (8), rssi:0

What does "Disassociated because sending station is leaving (or has left) BSS (8), rssi:0" even mean?

I did a dirty update from 3.0.0.4.386_46061, which ran for months without issue. Same lines in my log. Router is working fine after updating, but the node (hard-wired bachkhaul) won't let any WiFi clients connect (they say incorrect password). Tried factory resetting the node but no improvement.

Should I just factory reset the router as well and start from scratch? Ugh.

 

[pmiller]

Perhaps the problem is the 160Mhz band... many of us without any issue have disabled it (and use max 80mhz)

Thanks for the tip but unfortunately that didn't work for me.