Release Asuswrt-Merlin 386.11 is now available for AC models

[bennor]

Stick to 10, 11 didn’t prove itself on my 86U.

The RT-AC86U is a different router than the RT-AC68U. There could very likely be different reasons why its not working for you versus someone with a different router having trouble trying to update their firmware. The RT-AC68U has it's own set of issues related to limited NVRAM that can cause problems with later Asus-Merlin firmware. I had no problems installing and running 386.11 on an RT-AC68U. As always YMMV.

I just tried to update my RT-AC68U to the most recent version RT-AC68U_386.11_0. It tells me to please wait until it restarts and is still Current Version : 386.10. I have tried from a couple different browsers without luck. Any thoughts?

A suggestion. If the NVRAM is low, that may cause weird issues. Check the NVRAM value and if low try doing a hard factory reset to see if that frees up some NVRAM. If it does one can then try to update to 386.11 (follow the first post update directions for the AT-AC68U).

Other troubleshooting steps. Disconnect the USB drive, if one is attached to the router, before attempting to update the firmware. Make sure to use a computer connected directly to the router using Ethernet when updating. Temporarily disable any browser extensions and security/antivirus software. Double check you have downloaded (and extracted) the correct firmware for the router.

 

[Wanabo]

Updated both master RT-AC88U and slave RT-AC86U_RT-AC2900 from 386.10 to 386.11.
No issues to report (yet).

 

[hcsitas]

The RT-AC86U is a different router than the RT-AC68U. There could very likely be different reasons why its not working for you versus someone with a different router having trouble trying to update their firmware. The RT-AC68U has it's own set of issues related to limited NVRAM that can cause problems with later Asus-Merlin firmware. I had no problems installing and running 386.11 on an RT-AC68U. As always YMMV.

A suggestion. If the NVRAM is low, that may cause weird issues. Check the NVRAM value and if low try doing a hard factory reset to see if that frees up some NVRAM. If it does one can then try to update to 386.11 (follow the first post update directions for the AT-AC68U).

Other troubleshooting steps. Disconnect the USB drive, if one is attached to the router, before attempting to update the firmware. Make sure to use a computer connected directly to the router using Ethernet when updating. Temporarily disable any browser extensions and security/antivirus software. Double check you have downloaded (and extracted) the correct firmware for the router.

Thank you. RAM has 146 free out of 512 - about normal. USB ports are unused. Fallback to 10 has been stable thus far, will update here if it degrades.

 

[bennor]

RAM has 146 free out of 512 - about normal.

Note that RAM and NVRAM are two separate things. The RT-AC86U typically doesn't suffer the low NVRAM issues because it has double the amount of NVRAM (128K) compared to that of the RT-AC68U (64K). When running 386.10 on the AC68U there tends to be very little free NVRAM unless one either does a hard factory reset, or runs various discussed elsewhere codes/scripts to temporarily clear out various NVRAM values to free up some NVRAM space. That low NVRAM can lead to weird issues on the RT-AC68U when running 386.9 and 386.10. RMerlin, with the 386.11 firmware, reduce the max OpenVPN clients to 2 which should free up a little bit of that NVRAM for RT-AC68U and DSL-AC68U users.

 

[hcsitas]

I see, thank you. Any thoughts on the AX86U Pro? Have basketed it for future although my 86U is still new @ 3 years, not due for replacement for at least another two. But I like the 2GHz CPU, quad core and 1G Ram, might replace earlier.

 

[bennor]

Any thoughts on the AX86U Pro?

See other topics where the RT-AX86U Pro has been, or is being, discussed. Such a discussion here about that router would be off topic since that router uses different Asus-Merlin firmware (388.x).

 

[Rhialto]

386.11 (14-May-2023)
  - CHANGED: Reduce max OpenVPN clients to 2 for RT-AC68U and
             DSL-AC68U due to lack of NVRAM on these two
             models.

This include RT-AC1900P I guess?

Still running 386.7_2, maybe I should update now?

 

[dmtg]

My router rt-ac1900u died

 

[Wrkdbf_Guy]

I could not run 386.10 on my RT-AC68U, so I was happy staying at 386.9. However, I had been seeing some odd streaming (quick) disconnects lately on 386.9, which I was chalking up to my NVRAM being in the 63,xxx range.

So, when I saw that RMerlin had released 386.11, I decided to try it. Dirty update from 386.9 to 386.11. After running the suggested clear command via SSH, my RT-AC68U is down to 60,882 bytes. Much better! I'm hoping this will allow my streaming to settle back down. Thanks RMerlin!

 

[Clark Griswald]

Dirty Upgrade since fw released, and Zero Issues observed.

 

[heysoundude]

I'm about 1.34 days up since flashing my 86u and my JFFS partition seems more full than before by 5 or 6 MB as I recall...I should go take a look through it to see what's been added or can be removed.

UPDATE -

ls /jffs

listed the files vertically along the left side of the screen. Previously, they had spread across my screen width-wise. an interesting (and potentially troublesome) development. or is this a sign of something I need to look closer at?

 

[Dedel66]

Dirty upgrade since fw released. Both bridges are working as expected: no error!

 

[sdmf74]

Do I need to run the script if using the RT-AC68U as an Aimesh node? My main node is the RT-AC86U.
Ive never ran any scripts on my router before so please link me to some instructions if it needs done?

 

[Dedel66]

For running a mesh system there´s no need for any scipt.

 

[sdmf74]

For running a mesh system there´s no need for any scipt.

Thanks! just wanted to make sure since Im updating both nodes to 386.11

 

[RMerlin]

This include RT-AC1900P I guess?

Yes since it runs the same firmware.

Do I need to run the script if using the RT-AC68U as an Aimesh node? My main node is the RT-AC86U.
Ive never ran any scripts on my router before so please link me to some instructions if it needs done?

Not as critical since nvram usage on a node will already be lower.

 

[Tomo]

Dirty upgrade from .10 on main router and node all perfect !

 

[gk802]

Upgraded RT-AC68U operating in repeater mode (with RT-AX86U as the main) to 386.11 with no issues. The script recovered about 2k additional NVRAM. I've been running a startup script on it for years that steps through a text file of about 175 potentially-clearable NVRAM variables and unsets them if the variable value is a null string. The script has been clearing about 4k of NVRAM.

 

[JohnSmith]

Upgraded RT-AC3100 from V386.10 Final to V386.11 Final via dirty firmware upgrade with no issues.

 

[John Adler]

Hi@all,
I tried to open ssh with no success
that was the info

any solution to this?
thks in advance