Release Asuswrt-Merlin 386.12 is now available for AC models

[bibikalka]

Hallo,

I use two routers RT-AC68U (as a backup for each other) and I upgraded both of them from 386.12 to 386.12_2 on Monday.

With the first upgraded router everything went well (hardware version V3, production year 2020). The router is working on 386.12_2 without any problems.

Then I upgraded the second router and it stopped working (hardware version E1, production year 2017). Watching the LEDs I saw that it was restarting in a loop. The WiFi LEDs however didn't light up at all.
I tried to login to the router using a cable but couldn't connect, the login screen didn't show up.
Next I tried to revert to the 386.12 using the ASUS Firmware Restoration tool, version 2.1.0.3 as indicated for this model, but the firmware upload (twice) ended with an error. So I repeated the upload with the original newest ASUS firmware 300438651665, but also this time the upload ended with an error. At the end I tried to restore the factory settings, also without success.

Do you see any chance to save this router?
I will appreciate your help very much.

With best regards,
Robert

You don't say what the error was for the Asus tool. Can you try that on a different computer to ensure it gives you the same error?

It's possible flash memory went bad. It's possible re-writing the firmware again can avoid those bad cells. You can search for JTAG info for the model, and see what can be done there if you open the router.

P.S. Here is an existing guide:

Unbrick Asus RT-AC68U router over serial connection using a Raspberry Pi

I recently did an RMerlin upgrade and botched it. I can`t say for sure how but likely not resetting the router properly and unplugging the unit at a critical point. Tried the firmware recovery, setting IP on computer and holding reset. Twice, recovery loaded to about 80% then pooched. After...

www.snbforums.com

Seems very easy to do - if you have a Raspberry Pi and some wires for it

 

[latenitetech]

Asuswrt-Merlin 386.12_4 has been released. This updates OpenVPN to 2.6.8 to resolve a crashing issue introduced with 2.6.7.

Updated to 386.12_4 today and is working well. OpenVPN fix looks to be good. Thx for the quick turn-around!

 

[latenitetech]

Does anyone else have an issue with the Release Note preview not working? This is the box that pops up when you click an available firmware update. The box displays "Loading release note, please wait…" but then never fills in. I can't say when this broke for me, perhaps on 386_12 (?) but I know it used to work. Not a big deal, but it is a handy feature.
I'm running three RT-AC68U's on current FW (1 as router, 2 as APs) and they all have the same issue.

 

[vaboro]

Does anyone else have an issue with the Release Note preview not working?

Same issue here. I'm still on 386.12_0 on two GT-AC2900's.

 

[JTnola]

Does anyone else have an issue with the Release Note preview not working? This is the box that pops up when you click an available firmware update. The box displays "Loading release note, please wait…" but then never fills in. I can't say when this broke for me, perhaps on 386_12 (?) but I know it used to work. Not a big deal, but it is a handy feature.
I'm running three RT-AC68U's on current FW (1 as router, 2 as APs) and they all have the same issue.

Ditto. (I just updated from 386.12_0 to 386.12_4)

 

[freddy2000]

Asuswrt-Merlin 386.12 is now available for all supported AC models

Nov 21st: 386.12_4 is now available. This resolves a crash related to OpenVPN 2.6.7.

386.12_4 (21-Nov-2023)
  - UPDATED: openvpn to 2.6.8 (fixes a crash introduced in 2.6.7)

Nov 12th:: 386.12_2 is now available. This resolves the constant dcd crashes.

386.12_2 (12-Nov-2023)
  - UPDATED: openssl to 1.1.1w.
  - UPDATED: curl to 8.4.0.
  - UPDATED: openvpn to 2.6.7.
  - FIXED: WPS not working on SDK6/SDK7 devices (affecting
           RT-AC68U and RT-AC88U/3100/5300)
  - FIXED: dcd constantly crashing (updated Trend Micro
           components)

Changes since 386.11:

386.12 (4-Sept-2023)
  - UPDATED: Merged with GPL 386_51997.
  - UPDATED: curl to 8.1.2.
  - UPDATED: OpenVPN to 2.6.6.
  - UPDATED: openssl to 1.1.1u.
  - UPDATED: tor to 0.4.7.13.
  - CHANGED: FTP server will now only support strong ciphers
             in TLS mode.
  - FIXED: QOS Classification showing no Upload data on some
           WAN configurations.
  - FIXED: Radio temperature graphs weren't updating
  - FIXED: nvram usage reported on Sysinfo page was inaccurate
           as it included JFFS stored values.

Downloads are here.
Changelog is here.

Re: 386.12.4 OpenVPN

Problems fixed! I tried to change the network on mobile phone while its VPN client is connected, I can see the server issued new IP to this client and the old tunnel disappeared 1 minute or so later. All the other clients have their connections rock steady during the process.

Excellent work!

 

[TnF]

@TnF I'm investigating where the WiFi issues come from on 386.12_2. I suspect the WDS fixes on AC68U / AC88U or the upgrade to OpenSSL 1.1.1v / w
I don't think OpenVPN 2.6.7/8 has anything to do with it.

It may somehow also be caused by the dcd crash fix. Do you have Trend Micro enabled?

No i had and have it disabled (Ai protection), checked to confirm it after looking it the other comments regarding the logged crashes

Does anyone else have an issue with the Release Note preview not working? This is the box that pops up when you click an available firmware update. The box displays "Loading release note, please wait…" but then never fills in. I can't say when this broke for me, perhaps on 386_12 (?) but I know it used to work. Not a big deal, but it is a handy feature.
I'm running three RT-AC68U's on current FW (1 as router, 2 as APs) and they all have the same issue.

I have this problem too, i've noticed on 386.12

 

[Diamond67]

Uptime 1 days 6 hour(s) 23 minute(s) 39 seconds with fw 386.12_4 and Wi-Fi is still working nicely. Very promising. I hope this situation will last.

 

[TnF]

Uptime 1 days 6 hour(s) 23 minute(s) 39 seconds with fw 386.12_4 and Wi-Fi is still working nicely. Very promising. I hope this situation will last.

1 days 3 hour(s) 6 minute(s) 34 seconds

Same here so far, but i wouldn't call it safe just yet :/

 

[FinnC]

I've updated my RT-AC68U from 386.12 (was working flawlessly) to 386.12_2 a few days ago, and i keep getting Wi-Fi devices booted off all together after a day or so (it seems), both radios (2.4ghz and 5ghz) stay still up but you are unable to re-authenticate to reconnect. Only rebooting the router fixes it until it happens again.

Same happens here tonight after only few days days of operations after the last reboot.

Ver. 386.10 to 11 working as normaly flawlessly. Found this WiFi-error first time with Ver. 386.12, but only have to reboot 2-3 times.

 

[langesgnu]

On my AC88U I never did experience the wifi issues that others had, it was running stable (as far as I know) with 386.12_0 and 12_2. After updating to 386.12_2 the router had 2 crashes of the vpn server, but after these 2 it was more or less ok, as far as I know. Now with the update to 386.12_4, there are crashes of wred/8290 and wred/8288 and asd/416.

So somehow it seems, that 386.12_2 had been the better version for my AC88U...

 

[KrypteX]

On my AC88U I never did experience the wifi issues that others had, it was running stable (as far as I know) with 386.12_0 and 12_2. After updating to 386.12_2 the router had 2 crashes of the vpn server, but after these 2 it was more or less ok, as far as I know. Now with the update to 386.12_4, there are crashes of wred/8290 and wred/8288 and asd/416.

So somehow it seems, that 386.12_2 had been the better version for my AC88U...

 

[RMerlin]

Does anyone else have an issue with the Release Note preview not working? This is the box that pops up when you click an available firmware update. The box displays "Loading release note, please wait…" but then never fills in. I can't say when this broke for me, perhaps on 386_12 (?) but I know it used to work. Not a big deal, but it is a handy feature.
I'm running three RT-AC68U's on current FW (1 as router, 2 as APs) and they all have the same issue.

Two hours of debugging later... Something going on in the closed source function that tells the router to download the changelog. Awaiting info from Asus, I suspect it's once again some new security validation that has rc_notify() reject the request for the changelog download.

 

[langesgnu]

On my AC88U I never did experience the wifi issues that others had, it was running stable (as far as I know) with 386.12_0 and 12_2. After updating to 386.12_2 the router had 2 crashes of the vpn server, but after these 2 it was more or less ok, as far as I know. Now with the update to 386.12_4, there are crashes of wred/8290 and wred/8288 and asd/416.

So somehow it seems, that 386.12_2 had been the better version for my AC88U...

So in addition to the above, it seems I am having again the issue that my wireless speeds are incredibly slow as long as TM is turned on. Also again dcd keeps crashing, as well as asd... Turning off TM again now and monitoring if this helps, probably I need to revert back to 386.12_2, which was working for me.

 

[ColinTaylor]

@RMerlin I posted this in another thread but then realized it would be better here.

There appears to a be a bug in the Network Services Filter in the 386 firmware. When either a source or destination port is specified in the rule the httpd daemon crashes when the change is applied. Changing the port to a range, e.g. 111:112 does not cause the crash.

This was tested on an RT-AC68U running 386.12_2 and 386.12_4.

 

[RMerlin]

So in addition to the above, it seems I am having again the issue that my wireless speeds are incredibly slow as long as TM is turned on. Also again dcd keeps crashing, as well as asd... Turning off TM again now and monitoring if this helps, probably I need to revert back to 386.12_2, which was working for me.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record: there has been no change whatsoever at the wireless level between 386.12, 386.12_2 and 386.12_4. Any "improvement" you see from a firmware change is solely because of the reboot itself, not the firmware change.

 

[bibikalka]

Same happens here tonight after only few days days of operations after the last reboot.

Ver. 386.10 to 11 working as normaly flawlessly. Found this WiFi-error first time with Ver. 386.12, but only have to reboot 2-3 times.

I saw that on one of the routers with 386.7_2 as well. Usually took a few days to get there. Anyway, nightly reboots now, and all is good. In /jffs/scripts/post-mount :

cru a ScheduledReboot "5 4 * * 1,2,3,4,5 reboot"

 

[langesgnu]

At the risk of sounding like a broken record: there has been no change whatsoever at the wireless level between 386.12, 386.12_2 and 386.12_4. Any "improvement" you see from a firmware change is solely because of the reboot itself, not the firmware change.

I fully understand that, but still I had this issue all the time with 386_12.0 that my work laptop connected on 2.4 Ghz had a very bad internet connection while the other computers at home did work as they should be. After turning off TM engine, it did work again without any issues on 386_12.0. With 386_12.2 this issue was not present and the only issue were problems with the VPN server, but also quite limited for me. Also, the problems that others report, that the wireless networks only show up after a long time did never happen to me.

Today with 386_12.4 during a teams meeting I could see how the 2.4 Ghz connection did deteriorate again. In the beginning of the meeting all video streams were shown without issues, at the end of the meeting I could only hear voices and every video or screen share was completely frozen, even with the TM engine disabled. After a reboot of the router it worked for maybe 30 min, then again no throughput and not even writing emails was possible as outlook got continously stuck. At the same time, the router did show a lot of crashes of various processes (see the post above), which was not the case with 386_12.0 or 12.2.

In order to be able to work, I downgraded now to 12.2 and the only issue I see are 2 crashes of asd, everything else (including the VPN server) is working without any issues and at full speed.

 

[Analog-1]

Today with 386_12.4 during a teams meeting I could see how the 2.4 Ghz connection did deteriorate again.

Know one should ever use the 2.4 Ghz band for anything that matters. It's trashed with noise from every direction and is no longer a usable option for WiFi.

 

[maxbraketorque]

Just installed 386.12_4 on my AC86U main/AP combo. I'll post my experience in a few days.