Asuswrt-Merlin 3.0.0.4.374.34 is out

[RMerlin]

Howdy folks,

Release 374.34 has been uploaded to Mediafire. I initially intended to merge more up-to-date code from Asus, but considering the amount of major changes Asus has introduced, and also the fact they are releasing multiple updates in a short period of time, I decided to release this build for now, so to provide a stable platform for people to use, and give me more time to work on integrating the newer code.

UPDATE
374.34_2 has been uploaded, which resolves DNS resolution for VPN clients, USB disk detection (AC56/AC68) and Turbo mode configuration (AC68).

Highlights:

374.34 marks the introduction of a new router to the family, with the RT-AC68U. Note that this release isn't based on the latest Asus code. There are still some unresolved issues that Asus has been addressing in newer firmware releases. It should however still be usable by a lot of users. I didn't want to delay this release by a few more weeks just for the AC68U, so here it is.

CPU temperature is now reported both on Sysinfo page, as well as the Performance Tuning page (including the graphical chart) for routers that support it (only AC56 and AC68). While on the topic of the Performance Tuning page...

Asus's (currently still under development) Turbo Mode for the RT-AC68U has been integrated and enabled. (this is not the same thing as TurboQAM). The Performance Tuning page has an option which will let you modify the LED switch at the back to start acting like a Turbo button - just like the good old days of pre-Pentium PCs Enabling this option then pressing the LED button will overclock the router to 1 GHz. As anything that involves overclocking: it CAN reduce your router stability. The good thing with Asus's implementation is that if it's so unstable that you are no longer able to boot the router, you can easily revert back to normal clock just by setting the LED button to Off at the back.

(Known issue: the CPU clock isn't accurately reported on the Sysinfo page when Turbo mode is enabled. To confirm that it's working, compare the Bogomips value from /proc/cpuinfo.)

IPSec kernel support was added (patches provided by saintdev). This should let you setup an IPSec tunnel through the use of Strongswan (available through Entware).

UPnP-related changes: you can now adjust the lowest port number allowed to be forwarded by miniupnpd (useful for WHS users). Also, UPnP rules will be processed after manually configured port forwards.

Component updates: Dropbear updated to 2013.60, dnsmasq updated to 2.67 (Asus had been using 2.67-test in recent releases).

minidlna should no longer crash when processing very large libraries (patches provided by Paulo C.)

A bunch of other minor fixes, all documented on the Changelog.


What next?

Merging with the next Asus GPL release mostly. Asus has been bringing a lot of major changes (such as OpenVPN support) to the official firmware with this build. This will require some planning to decide how best to integrate their changes.

 

[darkj2k]

Got Time Machine support in this version?

 

[RMerlin]

Got Time Machine support in this version?

No. None of the changes in 291 are integrated yet, due to the large amount of changes involved. It will take me a few weeks to work on that.

 

[iAirJordan]

No. None of the changes in 291 are integrated yet, due to the large amount of changes involved. It will take me a few weeks to work on that.

Time machine? Lol

 

[rescapind]

Thanks for the new FW.
Is it recommended to do factory reset moving from 3.0.0.4.374.33 to 3.0.0.4.374.34 on N66U?

 

[Gerr]

Regarding the new WAN MTU setting, should this be set to the maximum value you get a valid response for when you ping with the DF (don't fragment) bit set?

On my primary WAN (WiMAX), I can get away with:

ping -l 1472 -f www.asus.com.

If I increase the value to 1473 I get the "Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set".
This is with the Windows ping BTW, Linux has different parameters I think.

On my ADSL/PPPoE connection the highest working value is 1424.

Can the values be directly translated to MTU so I can input 1472 for my WiMAX WAN, or do I have to subtract or add something for overhead or use another way to test?

EDIT: According to this article I need to add 28 for protocol overhead. 1472 + 28 = 1500. So I should leave it at 1500 then?


And a related MTU issue:
Most of my traffic is via the WAN connection, not so much LAN traffic. I have enabled jumbo frames in the router and in my desktop and laptop NIC drivers and I have one additional switch on my LAN that supports jumbo frames so everything works fine with jumbo frames enabled, but I'm not sure if it's advisable/smart to continue this way. I've read they can give higher ping and that the saved CPU cycles are a non-issue these days anyway.

Should I:
a) Keep using jumbo frames since they seem to work OK.
b) Turn jumbo frames off in the router and switch my NICs back to default 1500 MTU?
c) Turn jumbo frames off in the router and switch my NICs to the WAN MTU (possibly 1472 or 1500 depending on the answer to my first question).

Based on my limited understanding my gut tells me that I may be better off switching to c, since most of my traffic is internet based and the router would not need to fragment the packets?

 

[avg]

Hi RMerlin, i'm just install asus official FW306, but it made my wifi connection decelaration,
2.4G - [53Mbps Download] [35Mbps upload],
5G - [197Mbps Download] [55Mbps upload],
,and sometimes disconnect while BT!!! I have tried to install back to the old verison such as FW205, FW291, also come out this issue... please help >_<

 

[JGrana]

374.34 Initial Tests

Hmm, I can't seem to get the Overclock LED setting to stick. I select the radio button to enable, click apply and nothing appears to happen. If I go to another page then back to Adminstration-Performance Tuning, the setting stays on the LED setting.

Also, neither USB devices appear at all. I saw a dmesg line about overcurrent change on port 1 then another overcurrent change on port 2 message. This was after the firmware update. I then power cycled the router (with an external USB 3.0 disk attached) and was back to the power up, power down cycle I saw in earlier firmwares. So, I unplugged the drive, let the router come up, plugged it back in and - no mention of USB drives at all.

I reverted back to the 374.34alpha4 build and the USB drives show up and operate fine.

Seems the USB section is still a work in progress ;-)

 

[Furyform]

Hmm, I can't seem to get the Overclock LED setting to stick. I select the radio button to enable, click apply and nothing appears to happen. If I go to another page then back to Adminstration-Performance Tuning, the setting stays on the LED setting.

Also, neither USB devices appear at all. I saw a dmesg line about overcurrent change on port 1 then another overcurrent change on port 2 message. This was after the firmware update. I then power cycled the router (with an external USB 3.0 disk attached) and was back to the power up, power down cycle I saw in earlier firmwares. So, I unplugged the drive, let the router come up, plugged it back in and - no mention of USB drives at all.

I encountered the Overclock and USB problems as well. Previously had been using 374.291 from ASUS.

 

[zOlid]

I'm not sure why but I've been having serious problems with throughput with your last 2 firmwares.
First I thought it was my HTPC's fault, because it has the Intel 7260AC card, and I know their are some issues with the drivers for that card.
But when I got my new 15" rMBP late 2013 a few days ago, I noticed it had the same issue.
The issue is that I don't get a higher connection speed then about 30mbit,
And I have a 100/100mbit line.
And its the same issue most of the times when I transfer files from my NAS, I only get really slow speeds.

I just tried your new firmware and its the same issue.
So I just tried ASUS stock firmware, and at least for now I have the right speed.
Don't know if it will last or not yet since I've only run it for a while.

But the issue is still strange that I cant get the speed I should with your firmware.
I have tried doing a 30/30/30 reset, followed by a installation of the oldest stock firmware I could find. Then I made all my settings, and then I upgraded to the latest ASUS stock firmware, and then to yours.

The reason I had to go trough this procedure was cos I couldn't get my IPTV and Internet to work at the same time any other way.
Cos as soon as I did a change in any settings on ASUS stock firmware or yours, the internet wouldn't work if I had IPTV settings on.

This only appeared since your last Beta 6 firmware. Before that it worked just fine.


Also I've noticed that the Traffic monitor don't work when you have IPTV settings.
Its the same if I run ASUS stock. Is it not possible for it to work when you run IPTV settings, or is it some kind of bug?


Sorry for the wall of text. Thanks for all your hard work!

 

[chamberc]

AC68U here...

Something is still wonky with hardware acceleration turned ON and NAT loopback. I can't reach resources with a subdomain name from inside the LAN using their URL with it on. Thanks!

ACK... as I was turning hardware acceleration on and off, suddenly it no longer accepts my password! I'll have to reset it to defaults I guess... very weird and scary!

 

[bigcid10]

one question merlin
I started by installing your b1 34 firmware and it was fine
then asus came out with the 306 fw,which I fired up and
I would lose all network ip connectivity in about 2 minutes after loading it
(it seems like every time I check for loopback or if my ports are open that
it crashes)
then I fired up your 34_0 fw and everything is fine again
what could be causing the crashing
pretty much everything else is default
thank you

 

[RMerlin]

Thanks for the new FW.
Is it recommended to do factory reset moving from 3.0.0.4.374.33 to 3.0.0.4.374.34 on N66U?

No need to.

 

[RMerlin]

Hmm, I can't seem to get the Overclock LED setting to stick. I select the radio button to enable, click apply and nothing appears to happen. If I go to another page then back to Adminstration-Performance Tuning, the setting stays on the LED setting.

Also, neither USB devices appear at all. I saw a dmesg line about overcurrent change on port 1 then another overcurrent change on port 2 message. This was after the firmware update. I then power cycled the router (with an external USB 3.0 disk attached) and was back to the power up, power down cycle I saw in earlier firmwares. So, I unplugged the drive, let the router come up, plugged it back in and - no mention of USB drives at all.

I reverted back to the 374.34alpha4 build and the USB drives show up and operate fine.

Seems the USB section is still a work in progress ;-)

There has been zero change regarding USB disks in this release versus the alpha build. Changes were only made to dnsmasq, the webui, and the CPU report function in the web daemon.

 

[RMerlin]

one question merlin
I started by installing your b1 34 firmware and it was fine
then asus came out with the 306 fw,which I fired up and
I would lose all network ip connectivity in about 2 minutes after loading it
(it seems like every time I check for loopback or if my ports are open that
it crashes)
then I fired up your 34_0 fw and everything is fine again
what could be causing the crashing
pretty much everything else is default
thank you

No idea, the HW acceleration code is closed source.

My firmware isn't based on 374_306, so I wouldn't expect both to behave the same way.

 

[Finguz]

I am correct in assuming this version is also still using the newer and slower wireless drivers?

 

[Etz]

I have tried doing a 30/30/30 reset, followed by a installation of the oldest stock firmware I could find. Then I made all my settings, and then I upgraded to the latest ASUS stock firmware, and then to yours.

The reason I had to go trough this procedure was cos I couldn't get my IPTV and Internet to work at the same time any other way.
Cos as soon as I did a change in any settings on ASUS stock firmware or yours, the internet wouldn't work if I had IPTV settings on.

I couldnt get IPTV and internet working simultabneously at all, on newer releases than 374.32.
Tried SDK5 and SDK6 builds fom my RT-N66U, absolutely no difference, so staying on the last build that worked.

Also I've noticed that the Traffic monitor don't work when you have IPTV settings.
Its the same if I run ASUS stock. Is it not possible for it to work when you run IPTV settings, or is it some kind of bug?

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=11504

Probably a bug, but Traffic Monitor is low priority even for Asus.

 

[netware5]

My feeling is that this new version mainly affects newer routers like AC68 and has almost no or little improvements for the old good RT-N66U. Am I wrong?

 

[bigcid10]

No idea, the HW acceleration code is closed source.

My firmware isn't based on 374_306, so I wouldn't expect both to behave the same way.

yes ,but hw accel is enabled on asus fw and your fw so that wouldn't be a
factor

the 291 and 235 also crashed the same way
so their must be something different inthe changes on your fw compared to asus's

could it be that yours has loopback enabled and their's doesn't

 

[speedingcheetah]

I'm not sure why but I've been having serious problems with throughput with your last 2 firmwares.
First I thought it was my HTPC's fault, because it has the Intel 7260AC card, and I know their are some issues with the drivers for that card.
But when I got my new 15" rMBP late 2013 a few days ago, I noticed it had the same issue.
The issue is that I don't get a higher connection speed then about 30mbit,
And I have a 100/100mbit line.
And its the same issue most of the times when I transfer files from my NAS, I only get really slow speeds.

I just tried your new firmware and its the same issue.
So I just tried ASUS stock firmware, and at least for now I have the right speed.
Don't know if it will last or not yet since I've only run it for a while.

But the issue is still strange that I cant get the speed I should with your firmware.
I have tried doing a 30/30/30 reset, followed by a installation of the oldest stock firmware I could find. Then I made all my settings, and then I upgraded to the latest ASUS stock firmware, and then to yours.

The reason I had to go trough this procedure was cos I couldn't get my IPTV and Internet to work at the same time any other way.
Cos as soon as I did a change in any settings on ASUS stock firmware or yours, the internet wouldn't work if I had IPTV settings on.

This only appeared since your last Beta 6 firmware. Before that it worked just fine.


Also I've noticed that the Traffic monitor don't work when you have IPTV settings.
Its the same if I run ASUS stock. Is it not possible for it to work when you run IPTV settings, or is it some kind of bug?


Sorry for the wall of text. Thanks for all your hard work!

I too find Stock to be faster and more stable with my AC56U and Intel 7260....I used Melrins last release (33) for a while, but throughput decreased over a few days. I flashed back to stock and things have been great. (Except that the printer seems to go offline after a day or 2 and I have to reboot router to get it to print, but I see that is a common issues with many Asus routers)

The Intel 7260 is known for some driver issues...seems to get along much better with stock asus firmware

Maybe it is just my hardware....i did successfully have my AC56u overclocked to 1ghz and 800mhz ram....but did notice stability issues. Routing performance did not increase at all, in fact, it seem to get worse.....and webpages failed to load sometimes....set back to stock speeds and all was normal.