Beta Asuswrt-Merlin 386.1 Beta is now available

[bazzly]

Did a fresh install with factory reset on all 3 of my routers. I have my main AX88U running in AP mode with the other 2 as AIMesh nodes hardwired. My devices keep dropping from the network, and I have noticed my Lifx Bulbs dont work with this update.

 

[Nasua]

Did a fresh install with factory reset on all 3 of my routers. I have my main AX88U running in AP mode with the other 2 as AIMesh nodes hardwired. My devices keep dropping from the network, and I have noticed my Lifx Bulbs dont work with this update.

I have philips hue, i had to reset my ac68u 3 times to make it work

 

[distilled]

I have philips hue, I had to reset my ac68u 3 times to make it work

Don't Hue use Zigbee though? Mine do...

 

[Nasua]

Don't Hue use Zigbee though? Mine do...

They do but the bridge needs network to philips cloud, and the bridge would not connect to the cloud until I had reset 3 times

 

[distilled]

They do but the bridge needs internet to philips cloud, and the bridge would not connect to the cloud until I had reset 3 times

Got it.

I flashed a Sonoff Zigbee Bridge with Tasmota, then integrated it into Home Assistant with ZHA, and I actually forgot Philips has a bridge. Off topic as it is, I gotta say how cool Zigbee is turning out to be. Offloading a zillion little sensors from WiFi is great.

 

[distilled]

More ON topic though, I have just been struggling with connectivity between machines that are connected to the node.

Plex and other things cannot be accessed from machines that have chosen to connect to the AIMesh node. AIMesh Router <--> AIMesh Node is not working for me. Everything is on the internet, but routing isn't happening between them.

 

[baz]

I have philips hue, i had to reset my ac68u 3 times to make it work

Lifx is all TCP. My Nest, Sense, and a few other IOT devices keep dropping too.

 

[baz]

More ON topic though, I have just been struggling with connectivity between machines that are connected to the node.

Plex and other things cannot be accessed from machines that have chosen to connect to the AIMesh node. AIMesh Router <--> AIMesh Node is not working for me. Everything is on the internet, but routing isn't happening between them.

I think you are right with most of the problem being Aimesh. I have found if I shut my nodes down, most things go back to normal. But... I need the nodes for devices that are out of normal range.

 

[distilled]

I think you are right with most of the problem being Aimesh. I have found if I shut my nodes down, most things go back to normal. But... I need the nodes for devices that are out of normal range.

Yup, I had tinkered with it before posting, but I tried rebooting router and node both, then using the new Optimization option in AIMesh, and now things seem to be talking. Time will tell if it lasts.

It's a beta, and if anything is wrong, it is sorta on us for being anxious to try it before release But AIMesh carrying Guest is huge, and such a shiny new option can only sit on a shelf so long before we succumb to the call...

 

[baz]

Yup, I had tinkered with it before posting, but I tried rebooting router and node both, then using the new Optimization option in AIMesh, and now things seem to be talking. Time will tell if it lasts.

It's a beta, and if anything is wrong, it is sorta on us for being anxious to try it before release But AIMesh carrying Guest is huge, and such a shiny new option can only sit on a shelf so long before we succumb to the call...

The optimization feature is only for wireless nodes, so I cant use that, but I do agree..its beta. But this si a good place to report our findings

 

[Rezzor]

This might have been covered but I noticed is on the gui for my rt-ac68U in repeater mode, the wireless icon under advanced settings briefly appears then disappears.

 

[Chazall1]

No issues here. Running RT-AC86U_386.1_beta1
Thank You

 

[lindros2]

Are there folks who have (successfully) gone from 384 > 386 “dirty” without factory default reset?
(Those who didn’t use alpha)

 

[XIII]

Are there folks who have (successfully) gone from 384 > 386 “dirty” without factory default reset?
(Those who didn’t use alpha)

I have gone straight from 384.19 to 386.1 Beta 1 without factory reset, but I'm not sure I would call that "dirty"...

 

[Wowbagg3r]

Now solved (post 477)

I think my brand new RT-AX86U may be bricked

I upgraded from Alpha4 and did a factory reset, configured basic networking and everything seemed fine. Then I enabled jffs and ssh and copied the openvpn and usericon directories from backup and proceeded configuring the router. I also committed my dhcp_staticlist to nvram

First sign that something was wrong was that the web interface stopped working. Wifi was ok and I could still log in via ssh but after reboot it's just stuck in a boot loop.
I can put it in rescue mode and I've tried restoring stock firmware as well as Merlin alpha4 and beta1 numerous times without any luck. The Asus tool says restoration was successful but it still won't boot.

I've run Merlin on all my older Asus routers for years but never gotten into trouble like this. I'm at a loss, please help?

 

[JGrana]

Are there folks who have (successfully) gone from 384 > 386 “dirty” without factory default reset?
(Those who didn’t use alpha)

Folks, @RMerlin recommends that you do a factory default reset under various scenarios:

Upgrade notes:
- If coming from a previous alpha build, you MUST do a factory default reset after flashing this beta firmware.
- If coming from stock Asus firmware, a factory default reset is recommended, but not mandatory.

Of all people, @RMerlin typically does NOT push for factory device resets. Take my (and likely others) advice and do the FDR. Please.
When in doubt - do the factory default reset.

If I see one more post that starts with:

"Did a dirty flash over XXXXX" and then notes problems...I'm going to... ignore (putting it kindly).

Do yourself (and the forum) a favor and do the FDR...especially if you are seeing odd results.

Enough said.

(@lindros2 , I'm not picking on you! At least you asked. It's the many other ;-)

 

[figorr]

I think my brand new RT-AX86U may be bricked

I upgraded from Alpha4 and did a factory reset, configured basic networking and everything seemed fine. Then I enabled jffs and ssh and copied the openvpn and usericon directories from backup and proceeded configuring the router. I also committed my dhcp_staticlist to nvram

First sign that something was wrong was that the web interface stopped working. Wifi was ok and I could still log in via ssh but after reboot it's just stuck in a boot loop.
I can put it in rescue mode and I've tried restoring stock firmware as well as Merlin alpha4 and beta1 numerous times without any luck. The Asus tool says restoration was successful but it still won't boot.

I've run Merlin on all my older Asus routers for years but never gotten into trouble like this. I'm at a loss, please help?

@Wowbagg3r You can try a manual hard factory reset. Maybe you can recovered it from the loop. The process is described in the Asus Web.

And you never should use a backup between versions. I think Alpha had some issues with some nvram values.

 

[octopus]

I think my brand new RT-AX86U may be bricked

I upgraded from Alpha4 and did a factory reset, configured basic networking and everything seemed fine. Then I enabled jffs and ssh and copied the openvpn and usericon directories from backup and proceeded configuring the router. I also committed my dhcp_staticlist to nvram

First sign that something was wrong was that the web interface stopped working. Wifi was ok and I could still log in via ssh but after reboot it's just stuck in a boot loop.
I can put it in rescue mode and I've tried restoring stock firmware as well as Merlin alpha4 and beta1 numerous times without any luck. The Asus tool says restoration was successful but it still won't boot.

I've run Merlin on all my older Asus routers for years but never gotten into trouble like this. I'm at a loss, please help?

Did you restore an "old" from other router dhcp staticlist? That could be your problem.
Try to do a WPS reset and try without any input from other routers.
You have to enable " Enable JFFS custom scripts and configs " also.

 

[Wowbagg3r]

@Wowbagg3r You can try a manual hard factory reset. Maybe you can recovered it from the loop. The process is described in the Asus Web.

And you never should use a backup between versions. I think Alpha had some issues with some nvram values.

I know and maybe I was unclear - I didn't restore any backup, just copied the two directories containing openpvn certificate data and custom node-icons to the new jffs partition. This has worked well after every previous factory reset on my old routers as well as when going to alpha1 on the AX86U

What's a "manual hard factory reset"? I've tried WPS+pwr (can ping 192.168.1.1 but otherwise doesn't do anything) as well as Reset+pwr (can ping 192.168.1.1 and upload fresh recovery image) but both methods end in boot loop

 

[shabbs]

Are there folks who have (successfully) gone from 384 > 386 “dirty” without factory default reset?
(Those who didn’t use alpha)

Yes. I have updated three of my four Asus routers that way (one AX-88U and two AC-86U's). All came from 384.19 Release to the Beta 1 via Dirty Upgrade. The fourth one is my main router and will wait for the Release version before upgrading that.

I did not install any alpha.

I also don't run any AMTM scripts or have any USB dongles attached, VPN clients configured etc... so pretty vanilla setups outside of taking advantage of Merlin's DNSFilter feature.