Asuswrt-Merlin 3.0.0.4.372.31 is out

[Lee]

Check the system log, it will show you any error message preventing OpenVPN from starting.

Note that if you are coming from a version older than 372.30 then you must go to the OpenVPN Keys page, and click on Apply to re-encode the keys in a different internal format.

I'm trying to setup openvpn for the first time following the guide here for tomato. http://www.howtogeek.com/60774/connect-to-your-home-network-from-anywhere-with-openvpn-and-tomato/

However when trying to start I'm seeing the following errors in the log:

Jul 25 15:47:50 openvpn[501]: OpenVPN 2.3.0 mipsel-unknown-linux-gnu [SSL (OpenSSL)] [LZO] [EPOLL] [MH] [IPv6] built on Jul 24 2013
Jul 25 15:47:50 openvpn[501]: NOTE: when bridging your LAN adapter with the TAP adapter, note that the new bridge adapter will often take on its own IP address that is different from what the LAN adapter was previously set to
Jul 25 15:47:50 openvpn[501]: NOTE: OpenVPN 2.1 requires '--script-security 2' or higher to call user-defined scripts or executables
Jul 25 15:47:50 openvpn[501]: Cannot load DH parameters from dh.pem: error:0906D06C:lib(9):func(109):reason(108)
Jul 25 15:47:50 openvpn[501]: Exiting due to fatal error

Is this a bug or have I done something wrong?

 

[RMerlin]

May I ask has the issue with TAP OpenVPN been resolved?

I have never been able to reproduce any problem here, TAP-based OpenVPN starts and works normally for me.

 

[RMerlin]

Thanks for the speedy update to 31_0. It is much appreciated.

I did have one incident when upgrading from 3.0.0.4.372.30_3 to today's 31_0 on my RT-N66U which I will detail below...

1. I downloaded the new N66U 31_0 zip
2. I opened the router 192.168.1.1 web interface and clicked the "Firmware: 3.0.0.4.372.30_3 link on the front page
3. I clicked Choose file and selected the 3.0.0.4.372.31_0.trx file
4. I clicked Upgrade

At this point, the web UI dimmed and the "Proceeding... box popped up and stayed there. I was expecting to see the "Firmware is upgrading. Please wait about 3 minutes" progress bar but this did not appear. The "Proceeding..." box stayed on the screen. The lights on the N666U were normal and steady with no indication that a firmware update was taking place. I waited five minutes then closed the browser and powered the router off and on.

The router came up normally and still showed 3.0.0.4.372.30_3 so I went to the Administration - Firmware Upgrade panel and selected the 3.0.0.4.372.31_0.trx file again. This time the firmware update went as expected and I am now on the new version with no issues.

Any ideas what might have happened there?

A number of things could have happened, but the most common one is the router being too low on free memory and requiring a reboot to clear it, so the router would have enough space to put the uploaded trx file.

 

[RMerlin]

I'm trying to setup openvpn for the first time following the guide here for tomato. http://www.howtogeek.com/60774/connect-to-your-home-network-from-anywhere-with-openvpn-and-tomato/

However when trying to start I'm seeing the following errors in the log:

Jul 25 15:47:50 openvpn[501]: OpenVPN 2.3.0 mipsel-unknown-linux-gnu [SSL (OpenSSL)] [LZO] [EPOLL] [MH] [IPv6] built on Jul 24 2013
Jul 25 15:47:50 openvpn[501]: NOTE: when bridging your LAN adapter with the TAP adapter, note that the new bridge adapter will often take on its own IP address that is different from what the LAN adapter was previously set to
Jul 25 15:47:50 openvpn[501]: NOTE: OpenVPN 2.1 requires '--script-security 2' or higher to call user-defined scripts or executables
Jul 25 15:47:50 openvpn[501]: Cannot load DH parameters from dh.pem: error:0906D06C:lib(9):func(109):reason(108)
Jul 25 15:47:50 openvpn[501]: Exiting due to fatal error

Is this a bug or have I done something wrong?

Looks like your DH is incorrect. Make sure it was properly pasted on the Keys page. For some reason the DH is more sensitive to extra carriage returns and such.

 

[WMConey]

Current Link?

I'm getting a garbled page on both FireFox and Chrome when I try to reach the downloads page through http://www.lostrealm.ca/tower/.

 

[RogerSC]

I'm getting a garbled page on both FireFox and Chrome when I try to reach the downloads page through http://www.lostrealm.ca/tower/.

Just went there via the top "download if from here" link, and mediafire looks fine to me here. I'm currently using Chrome, so I'm not sure what you're experiencing. This is the link that you use from the page you mention above:

http://www.mediafire.com/asuswrt-merlin/

Can you please post a screenshot of what you're seeing, if you're still having this problem?

Thanks.

 

[RMerlin]

thanks Merlin for the FW

Asus should be ashamed that with all resource they have (and for the price tag they ask for the router) they cannot fix a bug and i still rely on a man to do smooth working build in his spare time.

I'm flattered, however keep in mind that for every single bug that I fix, Asus's own developers fix 5 more while adding 2 new features, and supporting about 7-10 different router models (just supporting 4 is starting to be a chore for me and makes testing new release take much longer than it used to).

I'm also disappointed by the lack of a fix for the N66U issue, however fixing radio-related issues involving a third party device (Intel cards) isn't as simple as a regular firmware bug. In such cases, you often have to involve the router manufacturer (Asus), the chip manufacturer (Broadcom), and the incompatible device manufacturer (Intel).

As far as I know, Asus is the only mainstream router manufacturer to use Broadcom's 5.110 driver - everyone else is still using the 5.100 codebase. Bleeding edge has its benefits (new features such as PPP HW acceleration), but also its drawbacks (Asus, like its users, are running into issues that Broadcom never discovered before)

 

[RMerlin]

I'm getting a garbled page on both FireFox and Chrome when I try to reach the downloads page through http://www.lostrealm.ca/tower/.

Also working fine for me with the current stable version of Chrome (Win8). Try clearing your cache in case you might have a mixiture of their old website and the current one.

 

[DanielCoffey]

A number of things could have happened, but the most common one is the router being too low on free memory and requiring a reboot to clear it, so the router would have enough space to put the uploaded trx file.

I will keep an eye on the free memory over the next week then because I am what I would consider a light user of the N66U - it is only connected to one Mac and there are only three devices using the radios intermittently. There are no fancy things set up at all and I didn't fiddle with the defaults.

With 31_0, NVRAM is sitting at 35044 / 65536 bytes according to the sysinfo page after about 8 hours uptime.

 

[though]

speeds

i've searched around and haven't seen how wireless and wired speeds compare to stock firmware. can anyone comment on this? i would really love to move to merlin's firmware but don't want to lose much of the speeds i am getting with stock.

thanks in advance!

ps: thanks A LOT for all your hard work with these firmwares merlin!

 

[RMerlin]

I will keep an eye on the free memory over the next week then because I am what I would consider a light user of the N66U - it is only connected to one Mac and there are only three devices using the radios intermittently. There are no fancy things set up at all and I didn't fiddle with the defaults.

With 31_0, NVRAM is sitting at 35044 / 65536 bytes according to the sysinfo page after about 8 hours uptime.

NVRAM is not the same thing as RAM. NVRAM is non-volatile storage where configuration is kept - it shouldn't change much over time unless doing configuration changes.

 

[RMerlin]

i've searched around and haven't seen how wireless and wired speeds compare to stock firmware. can anyone comment on this? i would really love to move to merlin's firmware but don't want to lose much of the speeds i am getting with stock.

Performance should be similar to stock firmware. The same driver is used (except for the N66U where I use an older driver), and my FW also fully supports HW acceleration like the stock FW.

 

[Kobold]

burtal

Asus should be ashamed...

Brutal, you should ask Broadcom to share the source code of their drivers. If they do it, then it will be a chance to create a Windows Embedded installation for our routers. It's the only way, because it's completely impossible to remove zillions of bugs that both Broadcom's drivers and ASUS's firmware have, although Merlin does his best getting rid of Asus's part of them.
The current firmware uses a very old and buggy linux kernel that cannot be replaced with a newer version.

ASUS fixed some of their bugs in the latest firmware. Some of not so harmful bugs like closing FILE* with close(), but left many others that are not so harmless

 

[though]

Performance should be similar to stock firmware. The same driver is used (except for the N66U where I use an older driver), and my FW also fully supports HW acceleration like the stock FW.

thanks for your reply merlin. i have use toastman's firmware for the N66 in the past and i know speeds took a pretty good hit with it compared to stock. does that mean your speeds for the N66 should be comparable to stock on the N66 as well? i don't think his was able to take advantage of H/W acceleration since the wireless driver was closed source...

 

[Zebodog]

i've searched around and haven't seen how wireless and wired speeds compare to stock firmware. can anyone comment on this? i would really love to move to merlin's firmware but don't want to lose much of the speeds i am getting with stock.

I'm seeing identical speeds to the stock firmware on an RT-N66U.

Another fantastic release by RMerlin. Thank you!

 

[silvercloud]

does rt-n66u support repeater mode?. cant see it in advanced operation

 

[camhusmj38]

I have never been able to reproduce any problem here, TAP-based OpenVPN starts and works normally for me.

I see. Thank you. - I have tried again and still have the same issue I had previously.
I will try to set things up again this weekend to see if I can make things work.

 

[bigmag]

@RMerlin

I have a bug in the Wireless setings i set to channel 13 the System set it 11

 

[though]

@RMerlin

I have a bug in the Wireless setings i set to channel 13 the System set it 11

do you have your location set to "United States"?

 

[trek_520]

Check the system log, it will show you any error message preventing OpenVPN from starting.

Note that if you are coming from a version older than 372.30 then you must go to the OpenVPN Keys page, and click on Apply to re-encode the keys in a different internal format.

That was it..... Thanks!