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Release Asuswrt-Merlin 386.12 is now available for AC models

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You do not need to save and restore settings either. Just flash the newer firmware — all your previous settings will be in tact after the device reboots.
Oh yeah sorry, I normally do a factory reset everytime after flashing just in case. I realize its only required w/ major updates or when flashing 3 versions or more ahead. Since this is such a minor change an initialization prolly isnt necessary. Thanks!

Still not sure why DDNS is telling me to use a new domain name when it never has before (it says inactive w/ status authorizing but never does), guess Ill just have to change the domain name as I cant find a way around it. Unless someone has a link that can help?
 
I'll provide an observation here, that might be relevant or I could be confused (situation normal for me):

...

2. On 386.12_4, used memory rose from 280Mb to 406Mb over two days. Over 4 days (I am still running Asus 3.0.0.4.386_51915 as a comparative test) Asus 3.0.0.4.386_51915 started at 296Mb and today is at 431Mb.

So for me, Wifi propagation is a bit better on the stock Asus, but the memory use isn't - presuming that it keeps on increasing and things start going screwy when this thing gets out of memory again (but that is a future presumption, and not an observable test at this stage of course).

So why, I wondered, is memory use rising in in both firmware's and could that rise (presuming it keeps going) be a contributor to issues (see above) that other folk are reporting?

So I did a top on 3.0.0.4.386_51915 this morning, and look at this:


1147 1 admin S 112m 26.9 0 0.0 httpds -s -i br0 -p 8443

VSZ of 112m has increased from 110m in the time it has taken me to write this. So I wonder, if as well as an asd issue, do we have another leak that is contributing?

If you so wish, you could run a script daily that'd look at some of these things, and try to shake some of the occupied memory loose. Here is an example of what I am running via cron jobs. It helped to stabilize things with WiFi a bit longer between reboots, although did not fully address WiFi that'd stop connecting after a while. So I ended up implementing almost daily reboots on top of that. You can add more of your commands to that script, of course, if you feel something else should be monitored.
Code:
admin@RT-AC86U-9988:/jffs/scripts# grep -E 'clearcache|reboot' post-mount
cru a clearcache "50 03 * * * /jffs/scripts/clearcache  2>&1 | /usr/bin/logger -t clearcache"
cru a ScheduledReboot "5 4 * * 1,2,3,4,5 reboot"
admin@RT-AC86U-9988:/jffs/scripts# cat clearcache
#!/bin/sh
ps wT |grep syslog |grep -v grep
ps wT |sort -n -k 3 |grep -v wred |grep -v roamast |tail -15
echo "wred count "; ps |grep "wred -B" |wc -l
uptime
free
echo "Dropping all caches now"
sync; echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches
#killall networkmap
free

Here is the output I get at 3:50 am:
Code:
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache:  8711 admin    13348 S    {syslog-ng} supervising syslog-ng
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache:  8712 admin     212m S    syslog-ng
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache:  9186 admin     212m S    syslog-ng
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache:  1117 admin    14132 S    /sbin/netool
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache:  1121 admin    14132 S    /sbin/netool
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache:  9765 nobody   14524 S    dnsmasq --log-async
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache:  1283 admin    15540 S    amas_lib
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache:  7495 admin    15664 S <  dcd -i 3600 -p 43200 -b -d /tmp/bwdpi/
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache:  7496 admin    15664 S <  dcd -i 3600 -p 43200 -b -d /tmp/bwdpi/
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache:  7497 admin    15664 S <  dcd -i 3600 -p 43200 -b -d /tmp/bwdpi/
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache:  7498 admin    15664 S <  dcd -i 3600 -p 43200 -b -d /tmp/bwdpi/
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache:  7499 admin    15664 S <  dcd -i 3600 -p 43200 -b -d /tmp/bwdpi/
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache:  7504 admin    15664 S <  dcd -i 3600 -p 43200 -b -d /tmp/bwdpi/
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache:  1235 admin    18112 S    conn_diag
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache:  1246 admin    18112 S    conn_diag
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache:  1247 admin    18112 S    conn_diag
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache:  2369 nobody   73384 S    unbound -c /opt/var/lib/unbound/unbound.conf
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache:  2441 admin    75072 S    ntpd -c /opt/etc/ntp.conf -p /opt/var/run/ntpd.pid -f /opt/var/spool/ntp/ntp.drift -s /opt/var/spool/ntp
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache: wred count
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache: 2
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache:  03:50:00 up 23:44,  load average: 2.10, 2.31, 2.37
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache:              total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache: Mem:        426020     397556      28464       1952       2632     113020
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache: -/+ buffers/cache:     281904     144116
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache: Swap:      2097148      31940    2065208
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache: Dropping all caches now
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 kernel: echo (14341): drop_caches: 3
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache:              total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache: Mem:        426020     302684     123336       1952        204      23260
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache: -/+ buffers/cache:     279220     146800
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache: Swap:      2097148      31940    2065208
 
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.

Wi-Fi died after some 7 days. Disabling radio (Wireless - Professional) and enabling it again restored the Wi-Fi.

Maybe I should reset the router and start from scratch anyway. Some day.
 
PS: I still think every release deserves a separate announcement post. If _0 works fine on my router, I have no reason to keep checking page 16 of the original thread to see that _2 was released. YMMV.

Amen. Following this recent series of _x releases has been … cumbersome. In the past, hadn’t you always started a new thread for each release? (Even “minor” 386.xx_x releases?)
 
Amen. Following this recent series of _x releases has been … cumbersome. In the past, hadn’t you always started a new thread for each release? (Even “minor” 386.xx_x releases?)
No, I always kept minor revisions to the main thread, as they are generally to address issues reported in that same thread.
 
No, I always kept minor revisions to the main thread, as they are generally to address issues reported in that same thread.
Perhaps it seemed different in the past, as from my recollection the issues and subsequent minor releases usually occurred within the first 4-6 weeks after a major release, whereas in this case it has been a full 3 months since the initial major release.
Not a complaint, just an observation...
 
More crashes this morning after 7 days uptime.

Dec 2 21:14:55 kernel: wred/2126: potentially unexpected fatal signal 11.
Dec 2 21:14:55 kernel: Pid: 2126, comm: wred
Dec 2 21:14:55 kernel: CPU: 1 Tainted: P (2.6.36.4brcmarm #1)
Dec 2 21:14:55 kernel: PC is at 0x40417bdc
Dec 2 21:14:55 kernel: LR is at 0x207abfc
Dec 2 21:14:55 kernel: pc : [<40417bdc>] lr : [<0207abfc>] psr: 80000010
Dec 2 21:14:55 kernel: sp : bdffd1d8 ip : 404384b0 fp : 000009e0
Dec 2 21:14:55 kernel: r10: 000000f0 r9 : 40438180 r8 : 00000001
Dec 2 21:14:55 kernel: r7 : 404381b4 r6 : 003f31d8 r5 : 404324f8 r4 : 000000e0
Dec 2 21:14:55 kernel: r3 : 0000001c r2 : 404381ac r1 : 00000000 r0 : 0207abfd
Dec 2 21:14:55 kernel: Flags: Nzcv IRQs on FIQs on Mode USER_32 ISA ARM Segment user
Dec 2 21:14:55 kernel: Control: 10c53c7d Table: 992d804a DAC: 00000015
Dec 2 21:14:55 kernel: wred/2130: potentially unexpected fatal signal 11.
Dec 2 21:14:55 kernel: wred/2127: potentially unexpected fatal signal 11.

Wred? RT-AC68U V3 hardware.
 
Just installed 12.4 over 11.0 on my AC86U. I can't login successfully using Firefox (browser of choice). MS Edge works but I don't want to use that.

I'm reverting to 11.0
 
After 32 hours, everything appears to be the same as running 386.12_0. No changes in the log entries or wireless behavior, and solid performance. asd continues to routinely crash on my AP router, but not the main router. No obvious effect on router behavior. Tomorrow morning, I will try Martinski's script for automatically restarting asd to avoid the crash.

All good after 1 week. Martinski's script to periodically restart ASD is doing a good job of preventing ASD crashes. Without the script, ASD crashes frequently at random intervals ranging from a few minutes to a few hours. Interestingly, restarting ASD every two hours with Martinski's script completely prevents ASD crashes despite the restart interval being much longer than the ASD crash frequency without his ASD restart script.
 
One of the two CPU cores on my my AC5300 with Firmware 386.12_4 is pegged around 50% due to dcd process.

PID PPID USER STAT VSZ %VSZ CPU %CPU COMMAND
32216 32212 user R 3528 0.6 0 48.5 dcd -i 3600 -p 43200 -b -d /tmp/bwdpi/
 
1701773164845.png


Definitely WiFi issues caused by 386.12_2 and 386.12_4. As you can see rolled back 386.12 has 0 problems.
 
If you so wish, you could run a script daily that'd look at some of these things, and try to shake some of the occupied memory loose. Here is an example of what I am running via cron jobs. It helped to stabilize things with WiFi a bit longer between reboots, although did not fully address WiFi that'd stop connecting after a while. So I ended up implementing almost daily reboots on top of that. You can add more of your commands to that script, of course, if you feel something else should be monitored.
Code:
admin@RT-AC86U-9988:/jffs/scripts# grep -E 'clearcache|reboot' post-mount
cru a clearcache "50 03 * * * /jffs/scripts/clearcache  2>&1 | /usr/bin/logger -t clearcache"
cru a ScheduledReboot "5 4 * * 1,2,3,4,5 reboot"
admin@RT-AC86U-9988:/jffs/scripts# cat clearcache
#!/bin/sh
ps wT |grep syslog |grep -v grep
ps wT |sort -n -k 3 |grep -v wred |grep -v roamast |tail -15
echo "wred count "; ps |grep "wred -B" |wc -l
uptime
free
echo "Dropping all caches now"
sync; echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches
#killall networkmap
free

Here is the output I get at 3:50 am:
Code:
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache:  8711 admin    13348 S    {syslog-ng} supervising syslog-ng
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache:  8712 admin     212m S    syslog-ng
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache:  9186 admin     212m S    syslog-ng
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache:  1117 admin    14132 S    /sbin/netool
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache:  1121 admin    14132 S    /sbin/netool
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache:  9765 nobody   14524 S    dnsmasq --log-async
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache:  1283 admin    15540 S    amas_lib
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache:  7495 admin    15664 S <  dcd -i 3600 -p 43200 -b -d /tmp/bwdpi/
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache:  7496 admin    15664 S <  dcd -i 3600 -p 43200 -b -d /tmp/bwdpi/
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache:  7497 admin    15664 S <  dcd -i 3600 -p 43200 -b -d /tmp/bwdpi/
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache:  7498 admin    15664 S <  dcd -i 3600 -p 43200 -b -d /tmp/bwdpi/
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache:  7499 admin    15664 S <  dcd -i 3600 -p 43200 -b -d /tmp/bwdpi/
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache:  7504 admin    15664 S <  dcd -i 3600 -p 43200 -b -d /tmp/bwdpi/
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache:  1235 admin    18112 S    conn_diag
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache:  1246 admin    18112 S    conn_diag
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache:  1247 admin    18112 S    conn_diag
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache:  2369 nobody   73384 S    unbound -c /opt/var/lib/unbound/unbound.conf
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache:  2441 admin    75072 S    ntpd -c /opt/etc/ntp.conf -p /opt/var/run/ntpd.pid -f /opt/var/spool/ntp/ntp.drift -s /opt/var/spool/ntp
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache: wred count
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache: 2
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache:  03:50:00 up 23:44,  load average: 2.10, 2.31, 2.37
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache:              total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache: Mem:        426020     397556      28464       1952       2632     113020
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache: -/+ buffers/cache:     281904     144116
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache: Swap:      2097148      31940    2065208
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache: Dropping all caches now
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 kernel: echo (14341): drop_caches: 3
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache:              total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache: Mem:        426020     302684     123336       1952        204      23260
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache: -/+ buffers/cache:     279220     146800
Nov 29 03:50:00 RT-AC86U-9988 clearcache: Swap:      2097148      31940    2065208

Thank you so much for providing this - which I will keep for use later. I won't go down this path yet, for two reasons:

1. Like others, I have been having WiFi (particularly 2.4Ghz refusing further connections - unless the router is hard rebooted) issues, at about 6 days after a reboot, from approx 386.10.x onwards, and particularly with 386.12.1 - 386.12.4. So to test, if this is a firmware or hardware issue, I decided to compare performance with Stock Asus (the latest available is 3.0.0.4.386_51915) and Merlin firmware - both of which have no add-ons or additions EXCEPT a config that blocks two specific IP's from Internet access and some reserved IP leases.

I tested 386.12.4 first, and like others, ran into 2.4Ghz Wifi issues after a while AS WELL AS my router crashing, with, as Merlin confirmed, an out-of-memory condition.

So to compare and contrast, I then loaded stock Asus 3.0.0.4.386_51915. This ran for 10 days fine - no issues with WiFi, and as I reported earlier, all things being equal, the Wifi signal (on 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz was tested, at different locations, as about -3db stronger). HOWEVER, with the stock Asus firmware, I could see that over about 5 days, free memory had dropped to about 40Mb, as memory use had shot up from an initial 278Mb to close on 485Mb. I am NOT a router firmware expert, but I could see that " httpds -s -i br0 -p 8443" had shot up to be using over 143Mb and was climbing ever higher*. So I previously mused if both firmwares have some sort of memory leak issue, and it is this that is causing some of the reported WiFi issues?

Whatever, I have now (because this is a compare and contrast test remember) returned back to 386.12.4, to see if the WiFi issues and crash/out-of-memory/huge usage by "httpds -s -i br0 -p 8443" etc return. If they do, then we will have a control (Asus stock 3.0.0.4.386_51915) against which we can compare.

2. While I could run 386.12.4 and simply run your script for nightly reboots (thanks again!) I am in the UK on a 80Mb FTTC circuit. Each time the connection goes down (on router reboot) the ISP (effectively OpenReach) will note the outage and will auto degrade my line sync rate (as they will think I have a dodgy copper pair from the Street cabinet into my property). So I'll get both an ever-more decreased bandwidth circuit AND also won't be comparing like with like on the firmware front - as one will be having a nightly reboot.

*An interesting footnote - that maybe something and nothing - is that after about day 5 on stock Asus 3.0.0.4.386_51915, when "httpds -s -i br0 -p 8443" was at 134M VSZ, suddenly, VSZ dropped to almost nothing and the WebUI showed I was back to 300Mb used again (from about 469MB). So I presumed, that some sort of cleanup/garbage collection had triggered compared to 386.12.4 - where it had obviously not (hence the out-of-memory crash). Doing a bit of research indicates (again I am NOT an expert) that there is a cleanup process triggered by OpenVPN BUT this is only supposition - because I am not running OpenVPN.
 
@Woody How much are you paying for that 80Mb internet?
So it's full 80Mbps FTTC (Fibre to the cabinet) - but I effectively get around 67 - 73Mbps by the time the copper pair gets to my house. It's 39.60 GBP ($50/€46) but that includes a copper phone line with unlimited UK voice calls and 300 mins of international voice calls.

While I could change my ISP, that wouldn't affect my bandwidth*, as there is no fibre in my village and the Exchange that feeds our FTTC is Market 3 - so Sky and TalkTalk LLU and every other ISP via the OpenReach service.

*Except, if I went Starlink, but that would cost £75/mo for service and £449 for hardware, with higher latency, similar upload bandwidth and about double the download bandwidth - so not really worth it.

PS. Now back on 386.12.4, I can see that the asd process is still running. Should it? - given that I opted out of the privacy page (as previously suggested) and I am not running any of the Trend Micro analysis stuff.
 
PS. Now back on 386.12.4, I can see that the asd process is still running. Should it? - given that I opted out of the privacy page (as previously suggested) and I am not running any of the Trend Micro analysis stuff.
Yes. asd is nothing to do with TrendMicro.
 
I'm also experiencing wireless stability issues on my RT-AC5300 after upgrading to 386.12_4. Currently debating rolling back vs. fiddling with settings mentioned earlier in this thread. Either way, not a good experience. The writing is on the wall for these EOL routers.
 
Experienced stability issues with one of my nodes after 12 days uptime. Hardware is older 800mhz CPU so have changed both nodes to updated 51668 stock firmware and will monitor with master ac68u on 12_4.
 
I'm also experiencing wireless stability issues on my RT-AC5300 after upgrading to 386.12_4. Currently debating rolling back vs. fiddling with settings mentioned earlier in this thread. Either way, not a good experience. The writing is on the wall for these EOL routers.

2.4 GHz wifi on my AC68U became unusable after upgrading from 386.12 to 386.12_4. What I observed to be happening is that shortly after a device joins the 2.4 GHz network, the router decides to de-authenticate the device, and the wifi password needs to be entered again to get back on the network. Seems to only take 5-10 seconds for this to happen. It happened to every device trying to get onto the 2.4 GHz network. My ecobee would do this cycle perhaps 5 times before giving up entirely.

I tried all manner of wifi and wireless security settings, and nothing would resolve the issue. I also tried reverting back as far as 386.9 and running the newest stock firmware. Didn't work either.

Flashing back to 386.12_4 and then doing a hardware reset resolved the issue. In retrospect, I spent more time fiddling with wifi settings and flashing older firmwares than the time I spent doing the hardware reset and reentering the router settings manually.
 
Dirty Flash!

GT-AX11000Pro. So far so good.

Caveat, I made the drunkin' decision to test my new StarLink G2 on the same night I upgraded firmware :D

Set it up and put it in to bypass. Unplugged my Bell LTE connection ( vlan 35) and inserted the precious.

After numerous problems, I realized it was Smart Connect not working with Starlink or vs versa. Google home was broke. Turned off Smart Connect on router and it corrected all broken connections, so FAR. ;)

A new winter of testing :D
 
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