Release Asuswrt-Merlin 384.19 is now available

[alx]

Port forwarding seems to be broken on my rt-ac68u with firmware 384.19
"Apply" button doesn't appear when adding lines in the table (port triggering is ok).
I didn't have port forwarding enabled before so I don't know if it's a new bug...

 

[truglodite]

I just wanted to report back that I finally got .19 stable on my ac86u, after dealing with jffs problems. In a nutshell, I had to nuke everything and start over from scratch... typing, copying/pasting until everything was back up and running again (zero files were transferred, to avoid further issues). I did have some minor issues still with my ovpn configs, but that was just user error from not playing with ovpn for a while (for example, forgot which of the private and passkey passwords go where, and had some typos in the crypto configs). The new built-in amtm, and overall state of development of the amtm scripts made re-configuring that stuff really easy! Setting up DOT was also simple with the gui additions. Overall it wasn't too bad... actually if I was a new merlin user I'd be pretty stoked at how much easier things are now than they were a few years ago. If anything this experience got me back in touch with my router software, and what it's like to set it for the first time... been years since I've had to worry about it other than routine fw/script updates.

Thank you to eric and all the rest of you prolific devs here for providing us all with your awesomeness! Now that the .19 jffs reformat is over, cheers to (hopefully) another several years straight of stable upgrades!

 

[dave14305]

Port forwarding seems to be broken on my rt-ac68u with firmware 384.19
"Apply" button doesn't appear when adding lines in the table (port triggering is ok).
I didn't have port forwarding enabled before so I don't know if it's a new bug...

The rule is added to the firewall immediately when adding the profile. The firewall restarts with the new rule after each change.

 

[gattaca]

• Create a backup/disk image of your USB drive used for amtm, Entware, swap file, and scripts.
  • Or better yet, clone your USB to another USB drive and put this 'original' away (while testing the new firmware)

What's the best way to fully clone the USB drive assuming it's NOT formatted for NTFS and the user (me) has a Windows laptop?
I was going to use WinSCP but skynet or diversion has so many files opens in entware that Windows does not like, I just said well that's a bust. Thoughts? Thanks!

 

[Smokey613]

I recently used this to clone my router’s usb to a new usb-ssd drive. Works great.

https://www.easeus.com/partition-manager/epm-free.html

 

[laracroftonline]

Running this now 7 days without a reboot

 

[Lord Lovaduck]

...
My question is: Does this upgrade replace the CFE? Or does the re-partitioning preserve it?
I have 1.0.2.1 on my router. Just double checking.
Best regards to all from Patagonia.

WARNING: A bit of a long story but the lesson at the end is worth it.
So, I decided to take the plunge and do the upgrade regardless of the CFE concerns I had. Had already downloaded the firmware, so I just tried to upgrade from the Administration page.... no joy!!! Got an error, the firmware cannot be flashed. Upon restarting, the old 384.16 firmware is there. At least nothing broken...
Now I fear that my router's CFE 1.0.2.1 may be the culprit. OK, let's bite the bullet. I went for a CFE flash... Looked up the process again, plugged the router to a UPS just in case, then flashed CFE 1.0.2.0 USA AImesh. Double checked the flash was successful, verified the partition had the right data. All is fine and dandy, fingers crossed, take a big breath... reboot. After three painful minutes, there it is, 1.0.2.0 works and AImesh is enabled... even though I don't need it (yet) only have one AImesh capable router.

OK, let's try again with 384.19 from the Administration page.... hopes are high!!! Well... it fails again!

Now I am getting more concerned. What is it? Could it be the overclocking I have done? (I know, all this is not very kosher but I like living dangerously).
OK, overclocking is removed. Try again.... same deal. Flashing fails once more. By now most of my afternoon has been spent.

I have noticed that the name of the firmware file is different this time and it has the word CFE on it, and the extension is W. This was weird but I attributed it to the new partitioning that RMerlin had mentioned, so I just ignored it. But now this is bothering me and in the back of my mind I start thinking I have downloaded the wrong firmware or worse, downloaded a trojan horse (imagine a facepalm emoticon here).

I go on and check the download page. This time I go to the alternate Onedrive repository. Found AC68U, download... and since I have already downloaded the zip file I expected the download process to ask for a replace or rename.... well... it doesn't.... and this is a big giveaway of the true issue...

So... I got my eyes peeled and look very closely, for a long time. I finally can see. I was trying to flash the AC86U firmware... to an AC68U.

Yes, couldn't see the difference. Brain plays games often. Not the first time I miss inversions like this, guess a bit of dyslexia can be there.
Flashed again, this time with a lot more confidence, and... finally! Success!

So I cannot answer the question if this Firmware would modify the CFE or work fine with 1.0.2.1. But I am a happy camper with a freshly installed 384.19. Did the JFFS formatting, erase NVRAM, and all is well.

Somebody had already mentioned in this thread how easy it is to get confused with these two routers. Well, even though I saw it, I still missed the issue.

Bad, horrible model numbering decision from ASUS ... (got to shift the blame somehow!).

 

[gattaca]

^^^ Don't feel too bad... I tried to do that once too and now am very specific about my directory naming. I name my download dirs AC86U and AC68U-AC1900 so I would not make that mistake again. Peace.

 

[gattaca]

htps://www.easeus.com/partition-manager/epm-free.html

^ Used that many years ago. Since my amtm USB is formatted ext4, I do not think Windows reads esx3/4 without 3rd party tooling. How was your USB formatted? I'm really trying to clone the USB SATA drive as a backup so I can swap out routers when I need to and keep a hot-spare AC86U around. To do this backup, (since WinSCP cannot copy all the files) I think I'll need a boot Linux-friendly DVD/USB for booting the laptop. Then connect both source USB and target USB to do a full image copy.

Stay safe, stay alive. Peace. Suggestions welcome.

 

[Lord Lovaduck]

^^^ Don't feel too bad... I tried to do that once too and now am very specific about my naming. I named my dl dirs AC86U and for the AC68U-AC1900 so I would not make that mistake again. Peace.

Hahaha thanks! In any case, I am too old to feel bad about my mistakes! I prefer to immortalize them

 

[sartorius]

The rule is added to the firewall immediately when adding the profile. The firewall restarts with the new rule after each change.

Chiming in from a RT-AC86U:
Port forwarding settings added do not appear to stick - they are wiped when/if the device is rebooted.

I've also had issues enabling the VPN server - doesn't seem to come on despite being enabled.

I will be downgrading to the previous version which is generally very stable for external access needs.

 

[L&LD]

What's the best way to fully clone the USB drive assuming it's NOT formatted for NTFS and the user (me) has a Windows laptop?
I was going to use WinSCP but skynet or diversion has so many files opens in entware that Windows does not like, I just said well that's a bust. Thoughts? Thanks!

I would try Macrium Reflect.

Macrium Reflect | Free 30-Day Trial

Macrium Reflect - Incredibly powerful software that allows you to create and schedule effective backups

www.macrium.com

 

[bimota]

Since upgrading to 384.19 (from 384.18) Only one of my mesh nodes is reporting clients attached. My main router is an RT-AX88U with two RT-AC86U, as mesh nodes. I've tried the stock firmware (3.0.0.4.384_82072-gc842320) on the mesh nodes as well, and still no difference. At any given time, I generally have 15-25 devices connected. Some of my devices are struggling to get a connection after this upgrade, but the odd thing is when they do connect it does appear to be a strong connection with good throughput, but easily loses the connection. Maybe it is just misreporting, not sure if I can ssh in and see the connected devices?

I don't have any load balancing enabled, nothing but the default smart connect rules.

I have not tried a factory reset of the RT-AX88U, but would symptoms like this warrant a reset?

Found the solution if anyone else is having this issue. I tried a factory reset of the RT-AX88U, my main router (AIMesh Router), and restored with NVRAM restore, but the poor network connection issues continued and the non servicing of clients on the mesh nodes. I factory reset all the mesh nodes, RT-AC86U's, and re-added as mesh nodes and all is well. I can see them reassigning devices, as they move about the house and solid connectivity has been restored. I would love to know why this was a thing, but I imagine this had to do with flash partition layout changes...

Also after the nvram restore it literally took 10-15 minutes before it would hand out an ip address and another 5-10 before the wireless was functional, so be patient...

 

[gattaca]

Jumped in on the AC86U yesterday. I had done my AC68U-AC1900, AC88U units last weekend but delayed the AC86U b/c of the JFFS flash partiton format changes = weirdness/issues/corruption/restore etc. I followed the guides and general info in the prior 19 pages and many posts from @L&LD on exact steps to insure success.

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/r...19-is-now-available.65801/page-18#post-613505

While I could not get a full backup of my mounted SSD this time beforehand, I took multiples of the router and JFFS backups prior. I used WinSCP to copy the files I could from the mounted SSD. After I updated the AC86U firmware to 348.19 and rebooted, I waited a few minutes and then followed all the wisdom here and restored the jffs from the last backup. Then I rebooted one more time. So far the the jffs partition is showing 47.0M Size with 9.6M Used, 37.4M Free. If the jffs says 0M Free or you cannot write to it, then I think that has been discussed here as indicator that the router already has jffs issues. But with 348.19 FW level, that is not an indicator you are not going to have have future issues. That is why the jffs restore, regardless of what you find after the flash/upgrade, is strongly recommended by the subject-matter-experts in this thread!

AC86U:/tmp/home/root# df -Th
Filesystem           Type            Size      Used Available Use% Mounted on
ubi:rootfs_ubifs     ubifs          77.2M     60.6M     16.6M  79% /
devtmpfs             devtmpfs      214.9M         0    214.9M   0% /dev
tmpfs                tmpfs         215.0M    232.0K    214.8M   0% /var
tmpfs                tmpfs         215.0M      2.8M    212.2M   1% /tmp/mnt
mtd:bootfs           jffs2           4.4M      3.3M      1.1M  75% /bootfs
tmpfs                tmpfs         215.0M      2.8M    212.2M   1% /tmp/mnt
mtd:data             jffs2           8.0M    716.0K      7.3M   9% /data
tmpfs                tmpfs         215.0M      2.8M    212.2M   1% /tmp
/dev/mtdblock9       jffs2          47.0M      9.6M     37.4M  20% /jffs
/dev/sda             ext4           58.4G      3.0G     52.5G   5% /tmp/mnt/1D7A-ASUS-AC86U
tmpfs                tmpfs         215.0M      2.8M    212.2M   1% /www/index_style.css
tmpfs                tmpfs         215.0M      2.8M    212.2M   1% /www/require/modules/menuTree.js

Many kudos for the heads up on this AC86U issue. Normally, most of us perform the "dirty upgrade" and we are GTG. This gotcha surely would have burned many AC86U owners without the dedication and due-diligence of so many here. THANK YOU ALL! Stay safe, stay alive. Peace.

 

[XIII]

So far the the jffs partition is showing 47.0M with 9.6M free

Isn't it 9.6M used (and 37.4M free)?

 

[Intrepid2007]

This firmware version is up-and-running more than 9 days, still no issues (stable!)

 

[torjohron]

I have an ac86 - after upgradeing to .19 (clean flash) the 5ghz was wonky - downgraded to 384.18 (dirty flash) but now i can't access the router - any ideas for user/passord? my own/admin don't work.

 

[alpha45]

I think just reentering the data and saving would do it.

What data to re-enter?
Sorry for the ignorance.

 

[Smokey613]

^ Used that many years ago. Since my amtm USB is formatted ext4, I do not think Windows reads esx3/4 without 3rd party tooling. How was your USB formatted? I'm really trying to clone the USB SATA drive as a backup so I can swap out routers when I need to and keep a hot-spare AC86U around. To do this backup, (since WinSCP cannot copy all the files) I think I'll need a boot Linux-friendly DVD/USB for booting the laptop. Then connect both source USB and target USB to do a full image copy.

Stay safe, stay alive. Peace. Suggestions welcome.

My usb was formatted ext4 using amtm. The program cloned the drive just fine. Once it was done, I powered down my router, swapped the new ssd drive in and powered it back up. New drive working great. All my scripts loaded and ran without a hitch.

 

[Boohelp1]

I'm using T-Mobile AC1900 flashed to AC68U with the current firmware- 384.13. I have tried to upgrade the firmware from 384.13 to 384.19 but always fail. After the reboot, nothing happened and the firmware is still 384.13. What can I do to successfully upgrade my router?