Beta Asuswrt-Merlin 386.1 Beta is now available

[Neil62]

I spoke with Asus about the current issues with various Trend Micro-related features on the RT-AX56U, RT-AX58U and RT-AX86U. These should be resolved in theory in the next GPL merge.

Would also be nice, if ASUS would release a new RC/Beta firmware to aid in the testing, for all current supported AiMesh routers.

 

[[Jedi]]

Hi Merlin and hi all,
unfortunately, on my RT-AC86U, the 386.1 beta 3 continues to have the problem of the statistics. I deleted the TrafficAnalyzer.db file and restarted the router, but nothing changed.

I confirm also that CPU temperature is 10/11C higher if compared to the stock firmware.

For now I reverted back to stock 3.0.0.4.386.40451 that doesn't have any of the problems above. I hope that Asus will fix them, so I will switch to Merlin firmware again.

Thanks.

Bye.

 

[Neil62]

Hi Merlin and hi all,
unfortunately, on my RT-AC86U, the 386.1 beta 3 continues to have the problem of the statistics. I deleted the TrafficAnalyzer.db file and restarted the router, but nothing changed.

I confirm also that CPU temperature is 10/11C higher if compared to the stock firmware.

For now I reverted back to stock 3.0.0.4.386.40451 that doesn't have any of the problems above. I hope that Asus will fix them, so I will switch to Merlin firmware again.

Thanks.

Bye.

I can also confirm that the CPU temperatures across my routers have also increased, but still within normal operating temperatures. My norm is <80c, based on the years I have had these routers, running in my environment.

 

[S.claus]

Running Beta 3 for a day now and I don't have any issues to report.

My Ax88u is sitting on a USB powered notebook cooler and the temperature is 33 ° C outside.

 

[isr25]

I saw a comment about needing to unplug the USB stick when upgrading FW versions....is that correct? Just for a dirty upgrade from B2 to B3?

No need to physically unplug, just unmount it from the gui and update the FW. As a best practise, you should just unmount any usb device attached to avoid any issues - usually device reboots, but does not run the FE update when usb storage attached

 

[FTC]

Hi, dirty updated yesterday from beta2 to beta3 my AX88U with aimeshed AX56U unit, no problems so far. Thanks Merlin!

 

[[Jedi]]

I can also confirm that the CPU temperatures across my routers have also increased, but still within normal operating temperatures. My norm is <80c, based on the years I have had these routers, running in my environment.

I'm worried about it because it's winter here, the temperature of the environment isn't so high and the CPU temperature goes around 80°C or even higher. I think that it is an Asus bug in this GPL, because I cannot see a reason to justify it and it seems to affect only RT-AC86U and RT-AX86U. On stock firmware, at this moment, I have a CPU temperature of 64.5°C, more than 15°C lower.

Moreover, as I reported before, I have problems with traffic analyzer statistics and QoS bandwith monitor: the data is incorrect on 386.1 beta 2 and beta 3, reporting a volume of the traffic one order of magnitude lower than the reality.

For me these two factors are important, so I reverted back to latest stock firmware, hoping that Asus will fix the problems as soon as possible to switch to Merlin firmware again.

Thank you.

Bye.

 

[Simulacra]

only necessary if you overlap with DFS channels... that timeout/check is built into the spec. And if someone runs anything that looks like radar through there, your wifi is gonna go off for 10 minutes too. So look back at this post when you come back to tell us it keeps disappearing

It's very hard not to overlap with DFS channels when using 160gb. Why on god's green earth would you do that? Are you running a large business, or do you just enjoy driving 18 wheelers down small city side streets for fun?

Everything is OK. WiFi is stable and fast. From NAS to my PC through WiFi (AX200)

 

[Slawek P]

I saw a comment about needing to unplug the USB stick when upgrading FW versions....is that correct? Just for a dirty upgrade from B2 to B3?

Just do Safely Remove Disk from UI before the upgrade. This is a recommend approach for any firmware upgrade.

 

[deathnite]

unfortunately, on my RT-AC86U, the 386.1 beta 3 continues to have the problem of the statistics. I deleted the TrafficAnalyzer.db file and restarted the router, but nothing changed.

I confirm also that CPU temperature is 10/11C higher if compared to the stock firmware.

CPU temp on my AC86U is 84 °C with beta3. It's only 1 year old. CFE 1.0.0.9.

Downgrading to b2 and the temp dropped to 74 °C.

After a few hours on b2 it's now at 72 °C.

command: pwr show

Power Management Configuration
Functional Block           Status
CPU Wait                   DISABLED
Ethernet Auto Power Down   ENABLED
Energy Efficient Ethernet  DISABLED
Switch Deep Green Mode     ENABLED (status:Deactivated)

At least HW acceleration is now displayed correctly.

9fc204773a httpd: implement runner status report for RT-AC86U/GT-AC2900;
Fix unknown status report.
fcctl on these older HND models do not report the state of runner. Look for the
presence of the pktrunner module instead on these two models.
Also encode HTML entities for <unknown> reports to avoid being parsed as HTML tags.

 

[bradbort]

You must isolate the problem. Right now it's somewhere between the end user and the far side

* Could clients communicate with the router? Ping or TCP test.
* Could ethernet clients communicate with the router?
* Could the router communicate with the Internet?

That would at least identify what kind of problem you're looking at.

You are quoting a problem that was resolved. It ended up being a problem for me, and others I believe, who moved from the latest stock firmware to the new beta 3. The MTU would be set as empty, which would stop all internet access. Merlin said he would look on handling this type of situation more gracefully.

 

[roundaway]

RT-AC66U_B1

Upgraded from 384.19 to 386.1 beta 3, but forgot to unmount the USB stick. Firmware flashed but access to the webgui was impossible. Removed the USB device, did a physical "WPS" reset, and got into the webgui once for about 10 seconds before it froze. Did the physical "Reset" and then used the Asus restoration utility to reflash beta 3. The flash successfully completed, but again no webgui. Downloaded the Asus stock 386 firmware and flashed it via the restoration utility. Was able to login and immediately did an Admin-->Restore with Initialize selected. After rebooting I configured all settings in stock firmware without issue. Then dirty flashed beta 3 without incident. Everything running smoothly to include Diversion and YazFi.

I did read about limited to no access to the webgui until some background processes finished, but figured I was responsible for the inability to use the webgui due to leaving the USB stick mounted.

 

[fg64]

Dirty upgrade to Beta 3 from 2. 24 hrs and chugging along fine.

 

[Intrepid2007]

Yesterday I flashed 386.19 b3 on both my RT-88AXU units (router/mesh setup), previous version was beta2. Although most stuff worked well (OpenVPN issue with WAN down has been fixed), I had some minor issues... Suddenly both the download + upload speed in de Adaptive QoS section was displayed in the 'Upload Bandwidth' only...

The Guest Network feature does not work on my mesh node, I only see the normal WIFI signal from the node. Only on the router, both normal + guest WIFI is working.

I also did a complete reset on both routers and that fixed the bandwidth issue...

However the above mentioned problem with Guest Network persists. I remember that when I was testing one of the alpha versions, guest WIFI on mesh nodes was working correctly. I guess this is not a Merlin related firmware issue but nevertheless I wanted to mention it.

For the rest it works fine


Edit: I still have the issue with the adaptive QoS section, all traffic is shown as Upload... This happens when traffic goes through a vpn. When doing a Speedtest, both download and upload speeds are shown via the 'Upload bandwidth', the 'download bandwidth' stays 0.

When traffic goes directly to the WAN, the download and upload bandwidth graphs work as expected.

 

[Mutzli]

Running beta 3 for over 24h and no problems to report on all my routers. And 14 days before that on beta 2 with basically no issues as well.

 

[Bart Stam]

I have a RT-AC88U running v384.19 and did a dirty upgrade tot beta 3. Although it worked alright as a router, I couldn't connect with a webbrowser or the iOS Asus to the administration interface. Therefore I did a reset, and configured it manually. It is working alright for me. I had problems with beta 2 to link my aiMesh Lyra repeaters (I could only link the first Lyra, linking the others failed), but here the linking process works fine.

I noticed one peculiar thing. My network uses a 10.x.x.x subnet. I noticed that all clients that connect to a WiFi-guest network that doesn't have access to the intranet receive IP-addresses in the 192.168.101.X range, even if a specific client was assigned a fixed IP-address in the 10.x.x.x-range. If a WiFi-guest network does have access to the intranet IP-address in the 10.x.x.x-range are provided to clients, and I can manually assign IP-addresses to specific clients. With the v384.19 firmware clients on a guest network always received an IP-address in the 10.x.x.x-range.

The DHCP-list doesn't let me assign 192.168.101.x IP-adresses to clients in a WIFI-guest network without intranet access. I don't mind a different IP-range, but I would like to know whether there is way to manually assign IP-address in such a guest network.

 

[QuikSilver]

Hmmm....Never really paid attention to router temp before but seeing everyone's comments made me curious. Also own a AC86u unit. Anyone else seeing this in their log? Router has been downloading nonstop for my PS4.....Guess the extra load could have it going up and down temp wise? Searching shows others with it but their CPU shutdowns...Mine just shows Off and On.
Dec 30 10:49:20 kernel: thermal cooling_device1: turn off CPU#1
Dec 30 10:49:52 kernel: thermal cooling_device1: turn on CPU#1

Edit: Router at another location with nothing going on for reference.

Edit 2: Noticed CPU only showing one core now. I assume CPU is getting HOT and router kernel is turning it off to protect it? Hope this isn't sign of an upcoming RMA.

 

[heysoundude]

Next GPL merge means that GPL you received yesterday or a future one?

A Future one...

I spoke with Asus about the current issues with various Trend Micro-related features on the RT-AX56U, RT-AX58U and RT-AX86U. These should be resolved in theory in the next GPL merge.

..."in theory."

 

[mbze430]

Flash Beta 2 to Beta 3
Not sure this is a Merlin or ASUS problem. When I edit and save my static route, my WAN Aggregation just broke. Had to restart it to get it back going again

 

[mscrivo]

RT-AC66U_B1

Upgraded from 384.19 to 386.1 beta 3, but forgot to unmount the USB stick. Firmware flashed but access to the webgui was impossible. Removed the USB device, did a physical "WPS" reset, and got into the webgui once for about 10 seconds before it froze. Did the physical "Reset" and then used the Asus restoration utility to reflash beta 3. The flash successfully completed, but again no webgui. Downloaded the Asus stock 386 firmware and flashed it via the restoration utility. Was able to login and immediately did an Admin-->Restore with Initialize selected. After rebooting I configured all settings in stock firmware without issue. Then dirty flashed beta 3 without incident. Everything running smoothly to include Diversion and YazFi.

I did read about limited to no access to the webgui until some background processes finished, but figured I was responsible for the inability to use the webgui due to leaving the USB stick mounted.

The web UI will not respond until the database upgrade is complete, which can take a while. Took about 20 mins for me on AX88U, probably longer on slower models. Doubtful it has anything to do with the USB being mounted or not. It's really frustrating that ASUS doesn't do this on a background thread, or at least provide a static "Upgrading Page" while the upgrade is in progress. This is not a good UX at all.