Asuswrt-Merlin 3.0.0.4.246.20 is out

[RMerlin]

Howdy folks,

The initial plan was to have this next release based on the 3.0.0.4.260 sources, but since the GPL release has been delayed, I decided to go ahead and release this new version with the 246 base. You can download it from Github (they will be mirrored to my website later).

The main highlights of this new release:

• LED control (aka Stealth Mode): this is a new option available under Tools -> Other Settings which let you disable all LEDs on your router. Ideal for folks who have their router in a place where the LEDs can be annoying (such as a bedroom or the living room). While it's also possible to selectively turn a LED on or off (except for the LAN ones which are all tied together), I haven't had the time to document this properly just yet - I will eventually document it more in details on the Wiki.
• Improved Wifi status icon. The green Wifi icon at the top of the webui will now change to a half-lit icon if only one of the two radios are enabled. You can also see the state of both radios by hovering over the icon.
• Major improvements in SMB file sharing and FTP transfer rate. Measured tests showed up to 25%-30% improvement in transfer speed. In my own test setup here, copying a file from an HDD plugged to the router's USB port improved average speed from 11 MB/s to over 14 MB/s.
• Various bugfixes (some of which Asus has also fixed in their own build 260, such as the DMZ field not letting you remove an existing IP). The one main bug that remains in my build but has been fixed by Asus in 260 is the IPTV/L2TP issues experienced by users of some russian ISPs.

For those wondering, the RT-N66U release still uses the same wireless driver as 220.xx and 246.19b, as this has proved to be the most stable for the majority of users. I will re-evaluate the situation once Asus releases a new firmware based on a newer driver version.

Also note that for the time being, only N66U and AC66U are available. The N16 will require more time due to some of the low-level changes this new version brings.

As usual, the full changelog can be found on http://www.lostrealm.ca/asuswrt-merlin/changelog.txt.

The next release will probably mostly focus on integrating the next GPL release from Asus, and fixing issues introduced by the new features brought by this release. As usual there is no ETA, it will depend on when Asus does their own release, what bug reports come in from this release, and what free time I have available to work on it.

 

[lfbb]

Merlin, there's a typo in the lostrealm page: "ASUS RT-N66U 3.0.0.3.246.20"

My brother is playing COD Black Ops II in the PS3. Just waiting for him to finish to flash the new version.

Thanks

- lfbb

 

[RMerlin]

Thanks for the heads up. My laptop keyboard skills aren't that good

 

[jerry6]

Working well , thanks

 

[bluepoint]

My son thank you too for the stealthy lights and PS3 stable gaming.

 

[rusty4036]

Installed this earlier, my partner loves you for the stealth options!

Would it be possible to set a time for lights to come on and off (off during sleep time)?

Also whats the possibility of porting a tomato style bandwidth monitoring tool over to Merlin? I'm happy to pay you to add this or even be pointed in the right direction to attempt this myself.
Thanks for your efforts, even if you say no to all my questions!

 

[RMerlin]

Installed this earlier, my partner loves you for the stealth options!

Would it be possible to set a time for lights to come on and off (off during sleep time)?

Also whats the possibility of porting a tomato style bandwidth monitoring tool over to Merlin? I'm happy to pay you to add this or even be pointed in the right direction to attempt this myself.
Thanks for your efforts, even if you say no to all my questions!

Scheduled LEDs control can be achieved through scripting, as described here in this tracker entry (I still need to clean up the instructions and put them on the Wiki).

Bandwith monitoring should already be pretty much the same as in Tomato (I even already added the monthly page that was missing in Asus's firmware). Go to Traffic Manager -> Traffic Mionitor. Then use the dropdown menu to select daily/monthly traffic reports.

Unless you are thinking about something else or from a Tomato fork?

 

[rusty4036]

Scheduled LEDs control can be achieved through scripting, as described here in this tracker entry (I still need to clean up the instructions and put them on the Wiki).

Bandwith monitoring should already be pretty much the same as in Tomato (I even already added the monthly page that was missing in Asus's firmware). Go to Traffic Manager -> Traffic Mionitor. Then use the dropdown menu to select daily/monthly traffic reports.

Unless you are thinking about something else or from a Tomato fork?

Sweet, I'll look into that guide and have a play

The Bandwidth monitoring I was hoping for was per user bandwidth instead of total per network adapter.
Thanks again

PS I just come from TomatoUSB and its got wireless dropping issues, your builds have always been stable for me
Rob

 

[Tartarus]

I just installed this on my RT-N66U and have a weird issue with the jffs partition.

I enabled jffs and set it to be formatted at the next reboot. After rebooting I copied some files to the jffs partition, but upon next reboot the partition was empty (except for the scripts and configs dirs). I made sure that it wasn't still set to format the partition (which it wasn't anymore) and tried rebooting again. Same result. I have now tried a few times, but every time I reboot the jffs partition is cleared.

Here are the nvram options related to jffs:

admin@(none):/jffs# nvram show |grep jffs
size: 44112 bytes (21424 left)
jffs2_on=1
jffs2_exec=
jffs2_size=8519680
jffs2_format=0

Mount shows that the partition is indeed mounted:

admin@(none):/# mount |grep jffs
/dev/mtdblock4 on /jffs type jffs2 (rw,noatime)

Any suggestions as to what is causing this?

 

[RMerlin]

I just installed this on my RT-N66U and have a weird issue with the jffs partition.

I enabled jffs and set it to be formatted at the next reboot. After rebooting I copied some files to the jffs partition, but upon next reboot the partition was empty (except for the scripts and configs dirs). I made sure that it wasn't still set to format the partition (which it wasn't anymore) and tried rebooting again. Same result. I have now tried a few times, but every time I reboot the jffs partition is cleared.

Here are the nvram options related to jffs:

admin@(none):/jffs# nvram show |grep jffs
size: 44112 bytes (21424 left)
jffs2_on=1
jffs2_exec=
jffs2_size=8519680
jffs2_format=0

Mount shows that the partition is indeed mounted:

admin@(none):/# mount |grep jffs
/dev/mtdblock4 on /jffs type jffs2 (rw,noatime)

Any suggestions as to what is causing this?

No idea. Try disabling it, rebooting, re-enabling and setting it for formatting, and rebooting twice. After that create a test file, and reboot another time. If your test file is still missing, then something else must be going on with your router.

 

[mikeg]

I upgraded my AC66U from Asus .260 to this new .20 today. The only thing I have found
is that the 5 GHz bands signal is lower than the .260 with tile e samte TX settings.
Tried to clear tge nvram after the upgrade but that does not solve the issue.
Looks like I will have to wait for the new Broadcom drivers to see if this issue will be solved.
Thanks for your work RMerlin !

 

[RMerlin]

I upgraded my AC66U from Asus .260 to this new .20 today. The only thing I have found
is that the 5 GHz bands signal is lower than the .260 with tile e samte TX settings.
Tried to clear tge nvram after the upgrade but that does not solve the issue.
Looks like I will have to wait for the new Broadcom drivers to see if this issue will be solved.
Thanks for your work RMerlin !

Are you using a fixed channel? If it's set on "Auto", it might have changed to a different channel, which could explain the change in signal strength.

I don't remember if the driver was changed between 246 and 260 for the AC66U (I don't think it did, but I only really checked for the RT-N66U), but I know that a newer driver will be coming in the near future, which will hopefully improve performance in general.

 

[mikeg]

Are you using a fixed channel? If it's set on "Auto", it might have changed to a different channel, which could explain the change in signal strength.

I don't remember if the driver was changed between 246 and 260 for the AC66U (I don't think it did, but I only really checked for the RT-N66U), but I know that a newer driver will be coming in the near future, which will hopefully improve performance in general.

I have a fixed channel set as earlier f7w. I can just notice that according to inSSIDer I have s signal strenth which is 15 dBm lower than earlier f/w.
Regarding the newer driver I asked Jeremy at Asus about this but did not get any specific date for this new driver.

 

[rxu]

For me, with .20 FW WPS button doesn't toggle WiFi on/off despite "WPS Button behavior" is set to "Toggle Radio". Tried to restore settings to factory default and then to restore back to saved settings, and it didn't help.

 

[RogerSC]

For me, with .20 FW WPS button doesn't toggle WiFi on/off despite "WPS Button behavior" is set to "Toggle Radio". Tried to restore settings to factory default and then to restore back to saved settings, and it didn't help.

Hmmm...WPS button works fine for me, although I had to press it longer than just press and release. Had to hold it for a few seconds to see the wireless radio light go out (and I did verify that wireless went off as well *smile*).

 

[Tartarus]

No idea. Try disabling it, rebooting, re-enabling and setting it for formatting, and rebooting twice. After that create a test file, and reboot another time. If your test file is still missing, then something else must be going on with your router.

Thanks for the suggestion, but unfortunately it didn't work. Never had that problem with the previous version. When I get the chance I'll try to downgrade and see if the problem still persists.

 

[RMerlin]

Hmmm...WPS button works fine for me, although I had to press it longer than just press and release. Had to hold it for a few seconds to see the wireless radio light go out (and I did verify that wireless went off as well *smile*).

Indeed, you have to hold it for at least one second, then release it, and wait - it might take 1-2 additional seconds before the radio turns themselves off.

 

[mikeg]

I have a fixed channel set as earlier f7w. I can just notice that according to inSSIDer I have s signal strenth which is 15 dBm lower than earlier f/w.
Regarding the newer driver I asked Jeremy at Asus about this but did not get any specific date for this new driver.

Got an update from Jeremy about the new drivers for AC66U :
Just to let you know, we are close to releasing new drivers for the AC66u. HQ is in the process of testing to make sure everything works properly.
I just hope that this means sometime in 2012.

 

[RMerlin]

Got an update from Jeremy about the new drivers for AC66U :
Just to let you know, we are close to releasing new drivers for the AC66u. HQ is in the process of testing to make sure everything works properly.
I just hope that this means sometime in 2012.

It shouldn't be that long based on my own info.

 

[mossman]

Thanks for this release, it has fixed my problem with the radio schedule overriding the WPS toggle.

One minor issue though - the wifi icon stays fully-green and the mouse hover indicates that both 2.4g and 5g radios are active when the radio schedule has turned both off (if I manually turn one or both off via the gui it displays correctly as intended).