Beta Asuswrt-Merlin 386.1 Beta (stage 2) is now available

[ahyrych]

My AC88U shows the temps as below. This is pretty consistent give or take a degree or two. The temperature in the room is ~19.5C during the daytime.

View attachment 29540

77C CPU, in the room 23.8C

 

[clweb]

On my AX58U I still have these temperature jumps on the 2.4GHz chip.
Sometime it is normal and suddenly it goes to 76°C. Always 76°C regardless of the room tempertature.
It happens that the temp jumps and comes back to normal sometimes it stays for hours until I switch the radio off and on.
When it stays on 76° the 2.4GHz WiFi is practically unusable. This is only noticed with the 386 betas, with 384.19 I had no problems.

 

[Suzib6sw]

AX88U and AX86U nodes on B4(b) firmware. I woke up this morning to no 5G WiFi. The band was still advertised but nothing would connect and my phone reported wrong password. Rebooted and the same. Logged into the router and switched off AiProtection and 5G instantly became available with devices connecting. Switching AiProtection back on again has not caused 5G to become unavailable again yet.

HB

What are the Phones.. if they are Samsung, then turn off Random Mac address .. Click on the SSID gear wheel, Advanced, then Stwitch from Random Mac to Phone Mac address. you may need to do the same on Iphones.. Its called Private Mac address or something like that.. If you have Ethernet BackHaul turned on on AIMESH -->System settings, Toggling that off waiting and then on MAY fix that as well.. I have noticed that if the Node is rebooted after the Aimesh is established with Ethernet Backhaul mode set on, you have to turn off the Ethernet Backhaul mode but leave the ethernet cable in and just wait. it takes 10-15 mins to settle down.

 

[Skylaw]

The time scheduling interface changes a bit, and I had a similar issue on update to betas. I removed all my time scheduling and re-added it all using the new interface and all is working now (beta1 through beta4).

I did that it didn't work. I really need this to work.

 

[Unisoft]

Yep - pretty sure you are running the same beta4 as I was ... power management is also defective in that release but fixed for those few models who got a 4b release. The Github commit suggests that it was fixed for the RT-AX86U as well - but no Merlin compile of a 4b for this router was released [which is why I thought you may have self-compiled .... but you should have had even more issues if you did since Asus has purposely broken the ability to self compile to protect its closed source bits from being illegally applied to non-Asus routers].

Edit: The dcd Tainted line to look for is ...
[Date] ........... RT-AX86U-E..... kernel: CPU: 1 PID: 12256 Comm: dcd Tainted: P O 4.1.52 #2
and the 13 or so "kernel:" lines that follow it.

This 386 code project is a tough one - I'm happy to be patient in the knowledge that @RMerlin will sort everything within his control before he issues a final release. Some "noisy" issues like "wlceventd" will remain beyond his control - but hidden with the use of the Scribe addon.

Thanks, I'll go through the log again and see if anything in it.

I had the RT-AC86U previously, but my parents now have that, and have two AX86U's now. This release has been the most "problematic" for me over any other previous release, BUT I'm so glad Merlin has supported this router, and he does a lot of effort from beginning to end and he is up against big challenges from Asus closing things off or introducing new flaws. If Asus don't fix stuff, he gets the moans on here; we all debate and discuss issues. Most people though have a moan but it's not really at Merlin because most know he does his best to try and sort by the final release and this release has probably been a biggie for him. Imagine trying to integrate and make it all work - our pain is probably small compared to his. I'm always worried he'll have enough and stop his work, at which point Asus firmware isn't so attractive

 

[maxbraketorque]

I cant upgrade at the moment... could I trouble someone on B4 (preferably 86U) to try these commands and let me know the output.. wondering if it throws an error or not

echo "base64 encode test" | openssl base64

echo "base64 encode test" | openssl enc -base64

echo "base64 encode test" | openssl base64 -e

All three ran without error on by b4b AC86U. Same output for all which was, "YmFzZTY0IGVuY29kZSB0ZXN0Cg==".

 

[AntonK]

My AC88U shows the temps as below. This is pretty consistent give or take a degree or two. The temperature in the room is ~19.5C during the daytime.

View attachment 29540

ps. When I utilize the little USB fan shown in the picture below, my temps drop as shown.

 

[RMerlin]

@Merlin: have you by any chance figured out the root cause for performance drop in Beta4?

I haven't investigated, because there is nothing for me to investigate. If there really is a performance drop then it lies in the closed source components which are outside of my control.

 

[roboots21]

I haven't investigated, because there is nothing for me to investigate. If there really is a performance drop then it lies in the closed source components which are outside of my control.

My performance issues were related to using a crappy HDD for my USB drive. Nothing to do specifically with router FW. I think a lot of people are seeing issues that are unrelated to the FW but some other configuration item. I was able to isolate this after checking speed/performance right after a factory reset and everything worked perfect on AX88U on Beta4B.

It's a bit time consuming, but as is always advertised, when in doubt, do a factory reset!

Thanks for your great work sir RMerlin!

 

[rlj2]

Adaptive QoS on AX86U using Beta 4 is not fully functional. I had to revert to my AC87U for that reason.

The downstream QoS is limiting bandwidth fine on all interfaces : Ethernet, 2.4GHz and 5Ghz.
The upstream QoS is not limiting bandwidth on 2.4GHz and 5Ghz. It works only on the Ethernet ports.

The details:

• Internet connection 135/23 as tested without QoS.
• QoS settings : Adaptive QoS, Manual speed, Max download: 100, Max upload: 20.
• SpeedTest on Ethernet : 98.58 down, 19.75 up
• SpeedTest on 5Ghz : 98.47 down, 22.82 up
• SpeedTest on 2.4Ghz : 98.44 down, 22.82 up

I had to revert back to my AC86u as main also until qos gets fixed. Which may be awhile, I see the same issues running latest stock 386 firmwares.

 

[kentek]

Just installed latest beta4 for Asus 68U. It works but will not allow me to log in. V 386.1 Beta4.
Where to go from here?
kaos

 

[Da.Rock]

Wait 10 minutes than try again.

 

[octopus]

Just installed latest beta4 for Asus 68U. It works but will not allow me to log in. V 386.1 Beta4.
Where to go from here?
kaos

You need to do a reset as password is now encrypted.

 

[kentek]

I waited 10 minutes and it is now happy. Some sort of short sabbatical, I trust.
Da.Rock's advice is always sound.
Thanks

 

[Suzib6sw]

I did that it didn't work. I really need this to work.

If you around at the given time, then in the phone (android) app, and the webui, you can, in the aimesh , force the client to reconnect.. At that point, it stops the access within seconds of hitting that button. I know its not a fix but its a work round that may work

 

[HeadBanger]

What are the Phones.. if they are Samsung, then turn off Random Mac address .. Click on the SSID gear wheel, Advanced, then Stwitch from Random Mac to Phone Mac address. you may need to do the same on Iphones.. Its called Private Mac address or something like that.. If you have Ethernet BackHaul turned on on AIMESH -->System settings, Toggling that off waiting and then on MAY fix that as well.. I have noticed that if the Node is rebooted after the Aimesh is established with Ethernet Backhaul mode set on, you have to turn off the Ethernet Backhaul mode but leave the ethernet cable in and just wait. it takes 10-15 mins to settle down.

iPhones but anything that usually connected to 5G was also affected - even the node previously using 5G had switched to 2.4G. Turning AiProtection off instantly brought 5G back to life (including the node reconnecting over 5G). Very odd.
One node is connected via ethernet but I don't think ethernet back haul can be enabled for only one node can it? If it happens again I'll take a look and toggle this off if so to see if it also provides a temporary fix - thanks.

HB

 

[JGrana]

My performance issues were related to using a crappy HDD for my USB drive. Nothing to do specifically with router FW. I think a lot of people are seeing issues that are unrelated to the FW but some other configuration item. I was able to isolate this after checking speed/performance right after a factory reset and everything worked perfect on AX88U on Beta4B.

It's a bit time consuming, but as is always advertised, when in doubt, do a factory reset!

Thanks for your great work sir RMerlin!

Interesting. Why do you think the HDD was the problem? After the factory reset, did you remove the USB drive?

@RMerlin - it appears the WiFi drivers were updated on Dec 28. I seem to recall they were previous sometime in November (all my devices have been updated...)
I realize they are closed source - but I wonder if some of the speed issues are related to new/changed nvram variables based on the newer WiFi drivers?

Folks with speed issues - how many have tried a factory reset?

 

[KevTech]

I waited 10 minutes and it is now happy. Some sort of short sabbatical, I trust.
Da.Rock's advice is always sound.
Thanks

Was explained in the Changelog

 

[roboots21]

Interesting. Why do you think the HDD was the problem? After the factory reset, did you remove the USB drive?

@RMerlin - it appears the WiFi drivers were updated on Dec 28. I seem to recall they were previous sometime in November (all my devices have been updated...)
I realize they are closed source - but I wonder if some of the speed issues are related to new/changed nvram variables based on the newer WiFi drivers?

Folks with speed issues - how many have tried a factory reset?

So what I had happen was it had more to do with Skynet coupled with the USB HDD. What I was seeing was everything working accordingly with the USB plugged/unplugged. I installed Diversion and retested and my speeds were still great. I installed Skynet onto the router and as soon as I do that and run speed tests, my speeds drop drastically. Once I disable skynet, they are back up to where they should be. Once I replaced the HDD with an SSD that reads/writes at a much faster speed .. all problems with bandwidth went away. I had done some research that Skynet/Diversion should have NO impact on bandwidth, so I decided to dig a little further and that seems to be my issue.

 

[maxbraketorque]

So what I had happen was it had more to do with Skynet coupled with the USB HDD. What I was seeing was everything working accordingly with the USB plugged/unplugged. I installed Diversion and retested and my speeds were still great. I installed Skynet onto the router and as soon as I do that and run speed tests, my speeds drop drastically. Once I disable skynet, they are back up to where they should be. Once I replaced the HDD with an SSD that reads/writes at a much faster speed .. all problems with bandwidth went away. I had done some research that Skynet/Diversion should have NO impact on bandwidth, so I decided to dig a little further and that seems to be my issue.

If you are using the router speed test feature, I would take the result with a grain of salt. While its cool to have the speed test, these routers don't alway have the HP to fully assess internet speeds. With my AC86U at low CPU usage and a gigabit internet connection, if I run the b4b built-in speed test, I get about 580 mbps. If I run the Ookla speedtest app from my wired desktop, I get the usual 930 mbps. And that's on an AC86U which is among the more powerful AC ASUS routers.

For those who think they are having internet speed issues with b4b, I'd be curious to see what results they get with a wired computer running the Ookla app and not using a web browser (which is also unable to show full speed on higher bandwidth connections).