Phantomski
Regular Contributor
Dirty upgrade from 386.9 on RT-AC88U. Everything running well and NVRAM sitting pretty at 74372 / 131072. Thanks Merlin.
Is it possible for you to increase the NVRAM size from 64 to 128 KB on the RT-AC68U ? Or is that something only Asus can do?The fact is that router simply got pushed farther than it should have been allowed to. I can either tell people "Use a two years old version that's less nvram-stressed, and forget about any future update to that model", or find a way to at least stabilize it as it is now. If my second solution doesn't match your needs and you want to keep using that old router, you're free to go with the first solution then.
This isn't the first time this has happened. The RT-AC3200 had to be limited to 2 OpenVPN clients, and only got the full 5 clients support after Asus increased nvram to 128 KB for that model.
I've actually stopped using my RT-AC68U as a main router myself for many years, as I commented in the first reply to this thread, it's now in AP mode.You don't hand pick what's buffered in RAM and what's commited back to the flash partition. Anytime you change a setting, if you want that setting to survive a reboot, you have to commit nvram to flash, at which point the entire nvram buffer is written back.
The fact is that router simply got pushed farther than it should have been allowed to. I can either tell people "Use a two years old version that's less nvram-stressed, and forget about any future update to that model", or find a way to at least stabilize it as it is now. If my second solution doesn't match your needs and you want to keep using that old router, you're free to go with the first solution then.
This isn't the first time this has happened. The RT-AC3200 had to be limited to 2 OpenVPN clients, and only got the full 5 clients support after Asus increased nvram to 128 KB for that model.
Removing features very few users benefit from is the way to go when the hardware is limited. Folks with special requirements have to find their own solution or upgrade to better hardware. This router is 10 years old and the options are: 1) new firmware that fits the limitations; 2) no new firmware.
Is it possible for you to increase the NVRAM size from 64 to 128 KB on the RT-AC68U ? Or is that something only Asus can do?
That would be the best and possibly the most obvious solution (if at all achievable) for this old, but still capable, device.
As long as they keep making it, there's still a chance someone can get it for the first time.
In 2019 I still know 2 people who just bought the RT-AC66U (not B1) just to get the cheapest Merlin capable router when the LTS version maintained by john was actively being developed.* - purchased in 2022 and I knew exactly what I'm getting and what I'll be using it for
In 2019 I still know 2 people who just bought the RT-AC66U (not B1) just to get the cheapest Merlin capable router when the LTS version maintained by john was actively being developed.
Well... John figured it out how to fit in hardware limitations:
The fork does not include
• Support for 5 VPN Clients as in Merlin (this fork supports 2 client instances).
But the reason is that Asus has added a lot of other features, which is the irresponsible behavior of Asus in my opinion.
To avoid off topic discussion I started a new thread on this topic:Latest Asuswrt runs just fine with the feature set offered. Irresponsible behavior to provide support for 10 years?
Well, that looks pretty bad. Anyone else compared OpenVPN performance between 386.7.2 and 386.10 on RT-AC68U, for example?After a few days I can only conclude that 386.10 is stabile. But compared to 386.7.2 the 386.10 firmware has less performance with an OPENVPN client (does not matter which node, or which one of my VPN providers (Expressvpn and Protonvpn. On average the speed with openvpn is 20-25% less on 386.10.
2800 bytes is very reasonable for that model, as long you don't start adding a lot of new DHCP static reservations and filling it up. From what I have observed, the firmware itself may use 400-600 bytes for temporary storage during boot, so you have enough free space.Is there anything here I can trim or is 2847 bytes left all ok? I am only running Diversion & uiDivStats.
If it works when you enable it, then it's possible Asus does so to avoid loading the Trend Micro engine unless necessary.I noticed that QoS - WAN / LAN Bandwidth Monitor if "App Analysis" is not activated, it does not monitor anything. I don't see any movement. It's a normal thing?
Weird! Should I try a reset and put the firmware back, or should I leave it like this?2800 bytes is very reasonable for that model, as long you don't start adding a lot of new DHCP static reservations and filling it up. From what I have observed, the firmware itself may use 400-600 bytes for temporary storage during boot, so you have enough free space.
If it works when you enable it, then it's possible Asus does so to avoid loading the Trend Micro engine unless necessary.
Note that this page should behave the same way it did in 386.9, as there was no GPL change in this release.
After turning off the wireless parts and minimized traffic on my AC86U, with the same downloaded firmware, my AC86U took in the firmware without issues. Turned wireless back up and everything is going well. Thanks for people's help. Thanks @Tech9.Did you resolve the firmware update issue? Information on what the issue was may help someone else.
After turning off the wireless parts and minimized traffic on my AC86U, with the same downloaded firmware, my AC86U took in the firmware
Just leave it as it is. If you use that page, enable Apps Analysis.or should I leave it like this?
Yep, sometimes... Thank you so much, Merlin. Have a nice day and a I wish a good job!Just leave it as it is. If you use that page, enable Apps Analysis.
Don’t know why the 5300 router bricked since the 5300 node was upgraded without issue. But the rescue mode recovery was a mess, but eventually got it all running and reconfigured. Going back into service tonight.One word, Bricked!
Off to rescue mode, that's be a AM activity. Not sure why, the AC5300 mesh node went flawlessly, but I'll give it a once over as well...
Guessing I'll use ASUS firmware, before putting 386.10 back on and staring from scratch.
Never tried, or remember trying rescue mode with Merlin Firmware. Guessing that'll work as well, I'll know tomorrow...
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