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

[SomeWhereOverTheRainBow]

No, this is because Asus, like every large corporation, have an established development cycle, which involves coding, testing, validating and then releasing. All of these steps take time. And also in this case, the Friday dnsmasq patch was broken, so those who rushed out to release without proper testing (like the OpenWRT devs) ended up pushing broken code to their users.

Dnsmasq issues were only fixed on Monday. Give them time. I`m still willing to bet that Asus will have updates available faster than the vast majority of their competitors. Let`s see how long it will take D-Link or TP-Link to issue a fix...

The only reason why I was able to release something so quickly is because I was ready to release beta 5 when the news came out that there was a dnsmasq issue, which made me delay the release. And when issues got reported by the initial patch, I waited some more.

If I had been between release cycle, I expect it would have taken me at least a week to have an update released (that was my typical development/testing time in the past when major security issues required an out-of-bound release).

I am just glad you were able to bring it over without having to make too many cosmetic changes to the way Merlin dnsmasq is currently configured.

 

[vvicked]

I have been using beta4 and now beta5 on my AC-86U but noticed that my AI protection logs are not updating. After flashing to beta4, I could see the old and leftover AI protection entries so I assumed it was working. However, I deleted all of the AI protection logs and then noticed that no new entries are being added. If I visit a bad website, AI protection will block the page from loading on the client but as already mentioned, no AI protection events are logged.

 

[cofetym]

Installed Merlin Beta-5 and all is well. Even better I got the control I wanted for switching the Led lights off on the nodes...Thanks, Merlin and anyone else involved!

 

[Civ]

Upgraded from 384.19 to 386.1b5 and getting stuck at around ~240Mbps download speed still, LAN as well as WIFI. I had the same issue on Beta 3 and Beta 4. Downgrading to 384.19, download speeds are fine (Gigabit, 700-900Mbps usually).

It's basically acting like QOS or NAT Acceleration are On respectively Off, but they're not (QOS is Off, NAT Acceleration on Auto)... exact same settings on 384.19 as on the 386.1 Betas. Not sure what else to try other than going back to 384.19 again. This is on a AC88U.

I believe I've found the cause of this issue... whenever Time Scheduling is enabled on any of the 386.1 Betas, it seems to disable NAT Acceleration (at least I believe that's what it's doing), despite it still being set to Auto. When I disable Time Scheduling, download speed goes back to normal. This is not happening on 384.19.

Anyone else able to replicate this? Not sure if this is limited to the AC88U.

 

[RMerlin]

Thanks for the hard work you put into the merlin firmware. I flashed the beta 4 on my ax88u before you pulled it. What can i do to upgrade to beta 5?

Check previous posts within this thread, this has already been explained multiple times. You basically need to use the Firmware Recovery tool from Asus.

 

[RMerlin]

Plz refer to the attachment for the resulting output.

Thanks. Unfortunately there are no error message related to interface binding, so the problem lies elsewhere in how interfaces are being bound now following the recent change.

 

[RMerlin]

I am just glad you were able to bring it over without having to make too many cosmetic changes to the way Merlin dnsmasq is currently configured.

An extra amount of work was required because our dnsmasq build uses a different crypto backend. Fortunately themiron had time to adapt the code over the weekend.

I have been using beta4 and now beta5 on my AC-86U but noticed that my AI protection logs are not updating. After flashing to beta4, I could see the old and leftover AI protection entries so I assumed it was working. However, I deleted all of the AI protection logs and then noticed that no new entries are being added. If I visit a bad website, AI protection will block the page from loading on the client but as already mentioned, no AI protection events are logged.

Logging has always been quirky. Sometimes I've seen that logs simply took longer to update. Could also be a corrupted database or lack of space in the /jffs partition. You could try deleting the database, then restarting AiProtection:

rm /jffs/.sys/AiProtectionMonitor/*

despite it still being set to Auto.

"Auto" does not mean "always enable", it means "Enable if you can, otherwise disable".

Check the Tools -> Sysinfo page to confirm that it is indeed disabled. If it is, then it's most likely by design, and could be to resolve the reported issues of Time Scheduling not always properly terminating existing connections.

 

[heysoundude]

"beta 5" has got to be the 7th or 8th beta of this firmware, which in my admittedly foggy recollection is unprecedented for the anticipated and upcoming release of v386.1
@RMerlin sir, we don't deserve everything you do for us. We're a loudly, diversely-opinionated and -knowledgeable and often overly entitled bunch, yet you still reward us with your attention and ministrations.
Thank you.

 

[SomeWhereOverTheRainBow]

An extra amount of work was required because our dnsmasq build uses a different crypto backend. Fortunately themiron had time to adapt the code over the weekend.

Logging has always been quirky. Sometimes I've seen that logs simply took longer to update. Could also be a corrupted database or lack of space in the /jffs partition. You could try deleting the database, then restarting AiProtection:

rm /jffs/.sys/AiProtectionMonitor/*

"Auto" does not mean "always enable", it means "Enable if you can, otherwise disable".

Check the Tools -> Sysinfo page to confirm that it is indeed disabled. If it is, then it's most likely by design, and could be to resolve the reported issues of Time Scheduling not always properly terminating existing connections.

If you could look into whether your AiCloud support is broken, that would be awesome as I am able to access my AIcloud remotely Via DDNS address by the web browser, but when I try to access it on the app remotely it says offline. I feel like something may be broken. I am able to access my Stock routers AiCloud remotely via the app just fine.

EDIT:
it appears to be the ddns service I am using may be at fault.

 

[MvW]

Just to here to report that Beta 5 seems to run smoothly on my RT-AC86U (Main) en RT-AC68U (AIMesh Node). Would like to thank @RMerlin and @themiron for their continous efforts.

I am, even though my post count doesn't reflect so, a long time user but due to health issues I have no access to my previous credentials and the linked mailaccount doesn't exist anymore. As my brain has been affected, I kindly request you to be a bit patient with me, like I have been with others in the past who faced similar challenges in their lives.

I just only hopped back on the Merlin-train starting with b4, so I can't say if the issues was present before, the search offers no useful info, but it appears that the Wifi Radar isn't working. Is this beta specifific or should I start a new thread?

It just shows my own AP's, both bands and the guest network and no matter what I try, I can't get a site survey. Is it broken or does it need to be configured beforehand? It wasn't present yet in the builds I used before I was hospitalized for a long, long time. I've tried both the internal wifi adapter as well as a an external dual band USB adapter with a RTL8812AU chipset, but I could really use some assistance to get this to work (if possible).

Your help is being appreciated and thanks to @RMerlin that returning here after several years of being sick the project is still alive and kicking, hats of to you, sir.

Best regards,
Marco

 

[L&LD]

Welcome back to the forums @MvW!

The site survey worked at a customer's home I was at early this morning on their RMerlin 386.1 Beta 5 powered RT-AC86U.

What version firmware did you upgrade from to the latest Beta(s)?

Have you tried simply doing a reboot via the GUI, waiting at least 15 minutes for the router to settle, and check again if the site survey works then?

 

[Max33Verstappen]

Thanks. Unfortunately there are no error message related to interface binding, so the problem lies elsewhere in how interfaces are being bound now following the recent change.

Is this problem specific to me? coz I didn't see anybody else have this problem.
I've removed extra interface I add manually. But the problem persists.
Thx.

 

[Slawek P]

It's weird, I also turn on AiProtection but still get my max ISP which is 832.83 Mbps (Down) and 206.39 Mbps (Up)

Slowdown is only router speed tests- back to pre beta4 situation on AX models. TrendMicro changes CPU workload distribution to one core therefore ookla test shows false measurement.
I do not think this will be addressed any time soon, so I am giving up on regular router speed tests.

 

[Slawek P]

Ditto on the AX88U 2.4Ghz wifi, took a couple of tries to get the Iphone to connect. Connected with 20Mhz streams instead of 40Mhz... All my 2.4Ghz devices conecting to the AX88u showing up with 20Mhz now. How would I check on the AC5300 AIMESH nodes for this?

On AX88U 2.4Ghz 40Mhz never worked well for me with old iPhones and iPads. I kept it up 20Mhz since long time ago.

 

[octopus]

Thank you for a very good relese.

I have updated my two routers RT-AX86U main router and RT-AX58U Aimesh node, with backhaul wifi.

Working fine, just have to aske:
How do you think "Roaming assistant" working?
When I move to another room from the main router it seems to work fine.
When I move back to the main router, the client doesnt not follow back.
I have thressold (-62dbm) set on 5Ghz band.

Uptime: 1 days 1 hour(s) 37 minute(s) 54 seconds

Octopus

 

[athua]

No that is not what I mean. Daylight Savings appears to be broken in 386.x.

I reported it in the following thread - https://www.snbforums.com/threads/d...in-386-1-beta-4-asus-3-0-0-4-386-41535.69526/

For me on my RT-AC68U, the following Timezone seems to be broken for Daylight savings:

(GMT+10:00) Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney

If I select:

(GMT+10:00) Hobart

The time shown on the system log is correct and has Daylight Savings applied to it.
If I select the Sydney timezone above, it shows the time as an hour earlier.

 

[Intrepid2007]

I updated both my AX88U routers to version 386.1 b5 (coming from 386.1 b4b) and all went smooth


The only detail I still see is that download/upload speeds are shown incorrectly in the Adaptive QoS section. This only happens when traffic goes through a VPN:

In the screenshot above a download (via VPN) is in progress. However this traffic is shown as 'Upload'.

When downloading 'direct' via the WAN, traffic statistics are shown correctly.


Is there anything I can do to fix this from my side? Or is this a known issue that needs to be fixed in the firmware?


Thank you for this release

 

[MvW]

Welcome back to the forums @MvW!

Thank you sir, I've been following your excellent tutorials with interest to get up and running (and away from stock) again.

The site survey worked at a customer's home I was at early this morning on their RMerlin 386.1 Beta 5 powered RT-AC86U.

What version firmware did you upgrade from to the latest Beta(s)?

Have you tried simply doing a reboot via the GUI, waiting at least 15 minutes for the router to settle, and check again if the site survey works then?

I went from stock on the RT-AC86U (out of the box) to beta 4, using your M&M guide, factory reset afterwards, always allowing both routers plenty of time to settle in (15 minutes at least). Yesterday I updated to beta 5 and hours have passed before I took another swing at Wifi Radar yesterday evening.

 

[figorr]

Everything is working ok.

Updated from 384.19 to 386.1 beta 5
- 1 RT-AX88U v1.1 as main router.
- 1 RT-AX88U v1.0 as node
- 1 RT-AX58U as node

Multiple scripts: Skynet, Diversion, Unbound, Yazfi, YazDHCP, connmon, ntpdmerlin, scmerlin, uiscribe, uidivstats.

I only remember seeing one strange thing under de System log. Some messages pointing to unbound every 15 min. I am not at home, but I think I can remember It was something like this...

"Attempting to Download 1 of 1 from https://urlhaus.abuse.ch/downloads/rpz/"
"Reload unbound for zone named rpz.urlhaus.abuse.ch"

It looks like Unbound is working Ok. So I don't know if these are normal log messages. Or maybe Unbound need to be updated to 386 firmware.

EDIT: Martineau told me that it is normal. Is due to Unbound DNS Firewall. I have it enabled and this creates a cron job every 15 minutes to refresh the rules.

 

[Martineau]

..........Or maybe Unbound need to be updated to 386 firmware.

There is a Beta v3.22 unbound_manager containing a (single) specific change for testing edge-case compatibility with the new WiFi Guest #1 VLAN feature introduced with firmware v386.1 betas