Asuswrt-Merlin 3.0.0.4.270.24 BETA 4 is out

[RMerlin]

Howdy folks,

A lot of important low-level changes in this version, so I'm releasing it as a beta so people can confirm there isn't any regression being introduced.

The biggest changes:

• OpenVPN updated to 2.3.0. One of the big changes in 2.3.0 is the addition of IPv6 support. I have been mostly unable to get it working myself however, best I could achieve was to get a client obtain an IPv6 from the server, but routing didn't work. If someone with an actual IPv6 environment feels like tinkering with that bit, please let me know if you can get that part to work. Otherwise, I need people to confirm that no new issues are introduced by the move from 2.2.0 to 2.3.0.
  
• Busybox updated from 1.17.4 to 1.20.2. Asus was using a heavily patched version of Busybox (many of those patches were related to IPv6 and 6rd support). I should hopefully have all those relevant patches applied. I need people to confirm that IPv6 is still working properly (especially native and 6rd, as I can't test either of these). The upgrade also fixed fdisk to add GPT support to it.
  
• Various kernel patches in an attempt to fix the large hard disk support. Unfortunately, I don't have access to a large HD with 4KB sectors, and so far I couldn't find anyone who did, so I have no idea if those patches did resolve the compatibility issues or not. I'll need feedback on this.
• BETA 2: Updated Miniupnpd from 1.4 to 1.6.
• BETA 3: Merged with build 270 codebase.
• [B}BETA 4:{/B} Updated to miniupnpd 1.8-20130207

There are quite a few other changes that are less likely to have an impact on stability/reliability - check the Changelog for the details.

Please give this beta version a good test shakedown. I'm specifically interested in NEW bugs that weren't there in build 23b. I'm also interested in success stories, especially if you are using OpenVPN, a large hard disk, or IPv6.

The RT-N66U and RT-AC66U builds can be found in the Beta folders on Mediafire. Sorry, no RT-N16 build at the moment, as I want to focus on these two for now.

 

[janosek]

Thank you for all your efforts!

 

[scottegos2]

If I can find a 3tb drive to borrow, I'll do so, in order to help out. Anyway, sincethe beta firmware has a broadcom driver update, that seems like reason enough to try it out.

 

[janosek]

If I can find a 3tb drive to borrow, I'll do so, in order to help out. Anyway, sincethe beta firmware has a broadcom driver update, that seems like reason enough to try it out.

This firmware is still based on .266

It is beta because of the new features RMerlin added.


Anyway, so far so good.. OpenVPN is back up and my script survived the flash. Its still selectively routing, so no problems so far.

openvpn[700]: OpenVPN 2.3.0 mipsel-unknown-linux-gnu [SSL (OpenSSL)] [LZO] [EPOLL] [MH] [IPv6] built on Jan 24 2013

 

[RMerlin]

If I can find a 3tb drive to borrow, I'll do so, in order to help out. Anyway, since the beta firmware has a broadcom driver update, that seems like reason enough to try it out.

I'm still using the build 220 driver. I'd rather focus the betatest of this build on the Busybox/OpenVPN changes without introducing more potential issues with a beta/unreleased wireless driver.

I'd also prefer to get Asus's blessing before distributing builds with that wireless driver since it would come from a leaked beta firmware.

Please let me know if you are able to get a large HDD to test. Ideally that HDD would have to use 4 KB sectors, which I believe is the main reason for the compatibility issues. If you do, test both with 23b and 24 to ensure that if it works that it's because of the fixes, and not because it has always worked.

Sadly, both my Hitachi 3 TB and the 2 TB Samsung I brought from work are using 512 bytes sectors, and both worked fine even with 23b. Best test candidate would probably be a WD Caviar Green 2TB or larger.

 

[RMerlin]

Anyway, so far so good.. OpenVPN is back up and my script survived the flash. Its still selectively routing, so no problems so far.

Awesome, thanks for the feedback.

BTW since you got selective routing working, would you be willing to write a Wiki article on how to do that? That question comes quite often on the forums.

 

[mikeg]

That driver is actually on the Beta f/w .231 which you can find in another thread here.

If I can find a 3tb drive to borrow, I'll do so, in order to help out. Anyway, sincethe beta firmware has a broadcom driver update, that seems like reason enough to try it out.

 

[RMerlin]

That driver is actually on the Beta f/w .231 which you can find in another thread here.

Yes, but that beta was leaked and not officially distributed by Asus. It was found by someone who was trying random version numbers on their Russian test FTP. That's why I'd want to have their permission to reuse it.

 

[mmcpher]

Anyone else having issues with the MediaFire site? I can't get through to download the firmware.
I was able to access the MediaFire Mobile site through my phone, but this latest release didn't seem to be there yet.

 

[bluepoint]

Tried the "Beta" folder?

 

[rcommander]

Wow so glad i found this site. trying it now. But i need help from all the uber awesome people here. I have a Ps3, that has been assigned a static lan in my ac66, and the static ip is in DMZ, however I am still having a ton of issues getting my NAT type to be OPEN. disabled firewall, turned off media center, spent an hour with useless sony support. switched routers, nat is open when ps3 is in dmz. i am on the official 4.266 firmware.

 

[RMerlin]

Wow so glad i found this site. trying it now. But i need help from all the uber awesome people here. I have a Ps3, that has been assigned a static lan in my ac66, and the static ip is in DMZ, however I am still having a ton of issues getting my NAT type to be OPEN. disabled firewall, turned off media center, spent an hour with useless sony support. switched routers, nat is open when ps3 is in dmz. i am on the official 4.266 firmware.

This thread is about feedback for the beta version of Asuswrt-Merlin. It has nothing to do with the official firmware. I suggest you create a new thread in the RT-AC66U where users of the official firmware will be able to see it, otherwise you run the risk of not getting any answer since the people who could answer you will never see your message.

 

[rcommander]

This thread is about feedback for the beta version of Asuswrt-Merlin. It has nothing to do with the official firmware. I suggest you create a new thread in the RT-AC66U where users of the official firmware will be able to see it, otherwise you run the risk of not getting any answer since the people who could answer you will never see your message.

Thanks merlin, actually i just put beta 24 on there, still having the same issue, actually its better, now i can download the update that wasn't pulling in at all, but its pulling in at 2 kbps, when everything else on the ps3 is showing 11mbps and all downloads from playstation network are at 256KBps, so something improved from stock to your beta, but still not quite there. and its my router, all other issues have been ruled out, directly plugging the ps3 to modem will pull the same update at a good speed.

 

[KevTech]

HW acceleration reports disabled.

QoS is turned off

Disable HW Accelerator is set to no

 

[mmcpher]

This thread is about feedback for the beta version of Asuswrt-Merlin. It has nothing to do with the official firmware. I suggest you create a new thread in the RT-AC66U where users of the official firmware will be able to see it, otherwise you run the risk of not getting any answer since the people who could answer you will never see your message.

Haven't seen anyone else with download issues, but I still can't get through to the mediafire link either here at work or at home (both Win 7, IE machines). I was able to get through on my Blackberry Playbook and download the zip file, but I think that might be routed to MediaFire's mobile site. One of my connection issues may be that the Playbook won't work with the Asus set at N-only. But I am going to install the beta tonight, so thanks again Merlin.

 

[jerry6]

So far this Merlin Beta is the best yet , everything is working well .
Thanks,

 

[LoneWolf]

RMerlin, perhaps a dumb question:

Does upgrading from stock firmware to yours wipe out existing configuration settings? I know in the case of most custom firmwares the answer is yes, but as yours is based on ASUS' existing firmware, I didn't know if this was the case or not.

I just need to make sure I plan in advance if that is the case.

 

[brummygit]

I'm not seeing any data in the per-device traffic monitor screens. It works on the standard Asus ones.

I have regressed to 23b which works fine but returning to 24 Beta results in the same.

 

[jsmiddleton4]

Just double checking.....

This beta is being released for we early adopters to test, for lack of a better term, some of the support pieces?

The newer wireless driver that we are hoping will add stability along with speed has not been released by Asus so it isn't in this beta?

Even if it was with the other updated pieces being variables adding the newer wireless driver would probably not have been done anyway because by adding a new wireless driver the variables would be near impossible to keep a close eye on?

So what are we looking for that you want/need feedback on? What symptoms would would we see that indicate a problem with the pieces we are testing?

 

[RMerlin]

HW acceleration reports disabled.

QoS is turned off

Disable HW Accelerator is set to no

HW acceleration also gets disabled if using Per IP Monitoring.