Howdy folks,
Asuswrt-Merlin 378.50 is now available for download, for all supported models.
This build introduces a pretty long list of changes. Due to some of these changes Asus did (and I took the opportunity to add a few more of my own in the same direction), a factory default reset is required, followed by a manual reconfiguration of your settings.
This is not required if you were already running the 378.50 betas.
Those who don't want to go through the trouble of doing so, version 14 of John's migration script should be fine.
Let's get started with the highlights of this release:
This release also marks the return of separate experimental builds. There are experimental builds available for the RT-AC56U, RT-AC68U and RT-AC87U.
What's coming next:
Once the dust has settled on this release (meaning after any minor update releases if necessary), I will begin work on adding support for the RT-AC3200. Complete support for that device will probably take a few weeks, as it involves merging in a new SDK into the code repository.
With the addition of a 7th supported device (and a fifth different architecture!), I am starting to have too many devices on my hands to deal with. I am currently planning on phasing out official support for the RT-N16. That device is the only one currently based on the old SDK5 (which means various things have to be written/tested/debugged just for that particular device), and its limited nvram make it hard to properly support any longer. Already, some features such as OpenVPN have to be kept disabled due to these device limitations. Most likely I will keep everything needed to compile a usable firmware for that device into the code repository, however at some point I will stop providing compiled versions for that device. If someone is willing to step up and help by officially taking over maintaining this model, please let me know.
Downloads are here.
Changelog is here.
Asuswrt-Merlin 378.50 is now available for download, for all supported models.
This build introduces a pretty long list of changes. Due to some of these changes Asus did (and I took the opportunity to add a few more of my own in the same direction), a factory default reset is required, followed by a manual reconfiguration of your settings.
This is not required if you were already running the 378.50 betas.
Those who don't want to go through the trouble of doing so, version 14 of John's migration script should be fine.
Let's get started with the highlights of this release:
- Merged with Asus's 378_4129 GPL code. 378 introduces a lot of changes:
* Trend Micro DPI engine for the RT-AC68U (that means Adaptive QoS, AiProtection, etc...)
* Switch to a new IPv6 architecture (I already did the switch in 376.49, but this is based on more up-to-date code)
* The RT-AC68U firmware partition was increased to 64 MB, to make room for new features (that includes an upgraded bootloader)
* Lots of changes to the Dual WAN and 3G/4G USB support
* Updated Quantenna firmware/driver
* Potential fix for the loopback on the RT-AC87U
- Custom DDNS support. Rather than mess with the ez-ipupdate and the webui, I decided to go for a simpler yet far more flexible route. Custom DDNS support is implemented through a new user script called ddns-start. This means you can implement virtually any DDNS service, either through a basic shell script (many DDNS providers support updating through visiting a specific URL), or running a special DDNS client that you would compile yourself. Make sure you read the documentation on how to use this. Note that this script can also be used in parallel to a webui-configured DDNS service, if you want to update additional DDNS services.
- IMPORTANT: custom config and user scripts support must now be manually enabled on the Administration -> System page. This was done because the JFFS partition is now enabled by default, to be in line with Asus's own firmware (and also because they are starting to make use of that partition for new features). Script/configs default to disabled so in case of a broken script preventing your router from booting, you'll still be able to recover it through a factory default reset.
- The RT-AC68U bootloader will automatically get upgraded to the newer version. This is required to allow people to freely flash any of the newer 378_xxxx firmwares from Asus without having to go through an intermediary flash.
- OpenSSL (1.0.0p) update. This is in addition to Asus's dnsmasq and odhcp6c updates.
- Download Master was removed from the RT-N66U and RT-N16 firmware, which will leave more space available for the JFFS2 partition. Installing DM will be done from the Internet, just like is already the case with the AC56 and AC68U.
- dnsmasq will now allow a number of leases up to either 253 or the DHCP pool size, whichever being the smallest. This will resolve the issue introduced by a recent change from Asus where people allocating a very small pool would run out of leases as they had a larger number of static leases outside of that pool.
- All the Asus-specific MIBs were disabled in SNMP. Those MIBs exposed a lot of critical information (such as router logins), and could be accessed unauthenticated over SNMPv2 provided someone on your LAN had the community name.
- You can now leave the local IP field empty when creating an IPv6 firewall rule.
- A number of additional fixes: OpenVPN server no longer start automatically when moving from stock FW, DHCP log spam caused by Win8 clients using IPv6, missing "Empty" dragger on the Adaptice QoS page, OpenVPN crashes if cipher set to None (backported patch from upstream), and others - see the complete changelog for details.
This release also marks the return of separate experimental builds. There are experimental builds available for the RT-AC56U, RT-AC68U and RT-AC87U.
- EXPERIMENTAL support for the Trend Micro DPI engine on the RT-AC56U. So far Asus hasn't added official support for that model, so this means for me to be able to implement support on it, I had to reuse the wireless driver from the RT-AC68U. Testers didn't report any significant issue related to the use of that driver.
- All three models have the new Traffic Analyzer page which Asus is currently offering on the RT-AC3200. This page makes use of the DPI engine to classify traffic types, and provide historical transfer data. Note that this feature requires the JFFS partition to be enabled (which should already by default, if you did the mentionned factory default reset).
What's coming next:
Once the dust has settled on this release (meaning after any minor update releases if necessary), I will begin work on adding support for the RT-AC3200. Complete support for that device will probably take a few weeks, as it involves merging in a new SDK into the code repository.
With the addition of a 7th supported device (and a fifth different architecture!), I am starting to have too many devices on my hands to deal with. I am currently planning on phasing out official support for the RT-N16. That device is the only one currently based on the old SDK5 (which means various things have to be written/tested/debugged just for that particular device), and its limited nvram make it hard to properly support any longer. Already, some features such as OpenVPN have to be kept disabled due to these device limitations. Most likely I will keep everything needed to compile a usable firmware for that device into the code repository, however at some point I will stop providing compiled versions for that device. If someone is willing to step up and help by officially taking over maintaining this model, please let me know.
Downloads are here.
Changelog is here.
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