Release ASUS ZenWiFi XT8 Firmware version 3.0.0.4.388.21099 (2022/10/03 )

[Chippy_boy]

Somewhat unrelated, a couple of months or so back, I decided to get off the Asus firmware merry-go-round and front my network with a pfsense firewall/router and consign my XT8's to mesh duties only. Thereby eliminating - or at least reducing - the need to keep updating the XT8's to keep up to date with security patches.

My whole system - XT8 plus 3 x XT8 nodes plus some other access points - has now been "up" for 58 Days 19 Hours 15 Minutes 44 Seconds. With not a single glitch in that time. This is with Asus FW 3.0.0.4.386_48706.

The total cost has been about £150 for a cheap fanless Intel J4125 box with some ram and an SSD. pfsense is of course free. It was an absolute doddle to set up, is miles more configurable and powerful, and almost certainly more secure too. I heartily recommend this approach. Devices like the XT8 are great when they work, but trying to cram router/dhcp server/switch/firewall/wireless access point duties into a single box and regularly updating it without breaking something, seem beyond Asus' ability.

 

[KoubaDZ]

Hi guys,

I just set up three XT8s in my flat. Main XT8 acting as router, and 2 XT8s acting as APs. I upgraded to this firmware as soon as I set everything up. It's been running alright so far (in terms of speed) but the whole system disconnects once every night (always around midnight / 1am). I imagine it's the main XT8 (router mode) that is disconnecting. Any ideas guys? I thought about downgrading but was worried that it would introduce other problems...

 

[L&LD]

Welcome to the forums @KoubaDZ.

If you didn't do a full reset to factory defaults after flashing the firmware you are currently using, you have done things in the wrong order.

You may want to do a full reset to factory defaults now, and then minimally and manually configure the router to secure it and connect to your ISP.

This is the best way to get the router/network to a good/known state before you start any serious troubleshooting.

 

[KoubaDZ]

Welcome to the forums @KoubaDZ.

If you didn't do a full reset to factory defaults after flashing the firmware you are currently using, you have done things in the wrong order.

You may want to do a full reset to factory defaults now, and then minimally and manually configure the router to secure it and connect to your ISP.

This is the best way to get the router/network to a good/known state before you start any serious troubleshooting.

Thanks L&LD, I'll certainly give that a shot. I've seen at least two or three different ways of 'Factory Resetting' on this forum, can I ask which method you utilise?

 

[OzarkEdge]

Thanks L&LD, I'll certainly give that a shot. I've seen at least two or three different ways of 'Factory Resetting' on this forum, can I ask which method you utilise?

Reset FAQ
Reset button/webUI Restore/node removal - clears settings in NVRAM; reboot restores fw defaults from CFE (fw defaults)
Hard Reset via WPS button/webUI Restore+Initialize - also clears data logged in /jffs partition (fw defaults+clear logs)

o Remove nodes from AiMesh to Reset, wait
o Restore+Initialize root node to Hard Reset, wait
o Configure root node from scratch; do not Restore from .cfg file

OE

 

[L&LD]

[Wireless] ASUS router Hard Factory Reset | Official Support | ASUS Global

 

[mountain_man]

If doing the factory reset after updating firmware, do you need to reset SSID, PW and any port forwarding? Any other settings that are a pain to update after factory reset?

 

[OzarkEdge]

If doing the factory reset after updating firmware, do you need to reset SSID, PW and any port forwarding? Any other settings that are a pain to update after factory reset?

When you reset the firmware to its default settings, you are wiping any configuration you have done to the firmware. So yes, you will need to recreate everything from scratch. You can restore a saved configuration, but this will defeat the reset to the firmware's default settings. Restore is best used to revert to a known good configuration of the same firmware that created the saved .cfg file.

OE

 

[mountain_man]

Thanks yea figured I'd have to redo all of that stuff. I'll try a few more options before factory reset. Just turned of QoS and 160 backhaul. Maybe that will improve something. Thanks again

 

[RogerSC]

Thanks L&LD, I'll certainly give that a shot. I've seen at least two or three different ways of 'Factory Resetting' on this forum, can I ask which method you utilise?

The WPS button method on each node (turn off power, press/hold WPS button, turn power back on, release WPS button and turn power off again after green light stops flashing, wait a few seconds, turn power back on, easy-peasy *smile*) works well for me. In fact, I found that this fixed the problem that I was seeing after the firmware upgrade from "386" to "388" firmware family.

Also easy to get the mesh up and running again after factory reset using the "new network" function on the Asus Router smart phone app, then do fine tuning using the web admin interface.

Have had 160MHz. backhaul channel width turned on the whole time since the factory reset several days ago, very stable using the new UNII-4 5GHz. channels (control channel 149).

 

[toaruScar]

I suspect that as well. I created a swap file on an external storage. Now I'm waiting to see if this helps the router run longer, and if that swap file gets used up too.

After giving it a 1GB swap file, my main router has been running for 4 days. The router usually freezes and restarts within 2 days without a swap file.
The usage of the swap file (reported by free) has been growing steadily over the past 4 days. Now it's at 70MB.

Fri Oct 14 19:38:03 CST 2022
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:        510084     408188     101896      12040      10780      29504
-/+ buffers/cache:     367904     142180
Swap:       999996        152     999844
Fri Oct 14 22:13:42 CST 2022
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:        510084     426320      83764      12068      12560      44240
-/+ buffers/cache:     369520     140564
Swap:       999996       3156     996840
Sat Oct 15 02:40:36 CST 2022
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:        510084     425828      84256      14072       7668      48280
-/+ buffers/cache:     369880     140204
Swap:       999996       4940     995056
Sat Oct 15 10:17:44 CST 2022
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:        510084     417728      92356      15408       6316      44164
-/+ buffers/cache:     367248     142836
Swap:       999996      13132     986864
Sat Oct 15 13:39:55 CST 2022
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:        510084     425316      84768      16912       6704      49112
-/+ buffers/cache:     369500     140584
Swap:       999996      13128     986868
Sat Oct 15 23:36:39 CST 2022
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:        510084     424344      85740      19544       6472      52696
-/+ buffers/cache:     365176     144908
Swap:       999996      22160     977836
Sun Oct 16 23:49:59 CST 2022
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:        510084     424924      85160      22064       6684      53212
-/+ buffers/cache:     365028     145056
Swap:       999996      36468     963528
Mon Oct 17 08:22:15 CST 2022
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:        510084     423992      86092      23980       7472      57140
-/+ buffers/cache:     359380     150704
Swap:       999996      44720     955276
Tue Oct 18 06:30:05 CST 2022
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:        510084     430964      79120      28560      11268      87860
-/+ buffers/cache:     331836     178248
Swap:       999996      72748     927248

It's growing at the rate of 10-20MB per day. Note that on my AX88U, the swap file has never been used beyong 5MB.

Also ps reports that a process called conn_diag is using ever-increasing amount of RAM.

 

[Dodgydrains]

If you are experiencing lockups with this FW, Asus have released a beta to test

https://uktechhub.com/download/21288/

This is a Beta Firmware, maybe untested, so Usual UKTH Terms and Conditions apply, (see top of his Forum)

Credits to UK Sentinel from his forum:

ASUS ZenWiFi AX Whole Home Tri-Band Mesh WiFi 6 System - UKTechHub

UKTechHub ASUS ZenWiFi AX Whole Home Tri-Band Mesh WiFi 6 System

uktechhub.com

388.21099 has or will be pulled by Asus

​

 

[nbl]

I’m thinking about installing this firmware after running gnutron’s latest – is it possible to run AdGuard home on this firmware? I have it installed on my current firmware and would prefer to keep using it instead of running it on a separate machine.

 

[Dodgydrains]

I’m thinking about installing this firmware after running gnutron’s latest – is it possible to run AdGuard home on this firmware? I have it installed on my current firmware and would prefer to keep using it instead of running it on a separate machine.

If you are thinking of installing 388.21099 then I would say hold off as Asus have confirmed it is buggy

 

[nbl]

If you are thinking of installing 388.21099 then I would say hold off as Asus have confirmed it is buggy

I saw there was a beta that potentially fixed reported issues

 

[Dodgydrains]

I saw there was a beta that potentially fixed reported issues

Yes, try the beta I shared above but please be aware of the following:

This is a Beta Firmware, maybe untested, so usual UKTH Terms and Conditions apply

 

[RogerSC]

If you are experiencing lockups with this FW, Asus have released a beta to test

https://uktechhub.com/download/21288/

This is a Beta Firmware, maybe untested, so Usual UKTH Terms and Conditions apply, (see top of his Forum)

Credits to UK Sentinel from his forum:

ASUS ZenWiFi AX Whole Home Tri-Band Mesh WiFi 6 System - UKTechHub

UKTechHub ASUS ZenWiFi AX Whole Home Tri-Band Mesh WiFi 6 System

uktechhub.com

388.21099 has or will be pulled by Asus

​

Interesting...this new firmware isn't labeled as Beta, version number starts with "3." instead of "9.". Took a bit of digging to get there. I'm hoping that the firmware will observe the locale in which it's installed and do the right thing for the US region. Going to wait a few minutes on this one *smile*.

21099 hasn't been buggy for me yet, anyways...been waiting for the other shoe to drop, but it's been fine. After almost 5 days, no problems. Want to be ready, though, if something does happen. And 21099 is still available on the Asus firmware download site that I get to.

 

[Dodgydrains]

Interesting...this new firmware isn't labeled as Beta, version number starts with "3." instead of "9.". Took a bit of digging to get there. I'm hoping that the firmware will observe the locale in which it's installed and do the right thing for the US region. Going to wait a few minutes on this one *smile*.

21099 hasn't been buggy for me yet, anyways...been waiting for the other shoe to drop, but it's been fine. After almost 5 days, no problems. Want to be ready, though, if something does happen. And 21099 is still available on the Asus firmware download site that I get to.

Is your setup with 2 XT8's?

 

[Enlightener]

I haven't had any problems with 21099, and have had it running since three days after release here. I run it on 2 XT8.
However, I am a compulsive updater and tried out the beta, 21268.
21268 was very weird for me. The router updated perfectly fine, but the node got stuck in a boot loop alternating between shining blue and blinking blue. I tried reinstalling 21268 through rescue mode after every reset method known to man, but the same problem occured again. The even weirder part is that seconds after going back to 21099 through rescue mode on the node it just connected back to the AI mesh automagically! That is even though I made the router forget the node and the node was reset in every way I know.

Everything has been running smoothly the last few hours with the router on 21268 and the node on 21099.

 

[RogerSC]

Is your setup with 2 XT8's?

Yes, two XT8's.