Beta Asuswrt-Merlin 386.2 Beta is now available

[shabbs]

i am also having the router do dnsfiltering.

So i had custom entries (the default items in the router field) i just cleared them out, updated to B2 and its all working now.

So, we've seen the following scenario trigger this issue so far:
- RT-AX88U in Router Mode
- IPv6 Enabled
- DNSFiltering Enabled
- IPv4 Entries populated in the "Custom" fields for DNS Filtering

Curious if any other Router model has seen this combo as well or if it's specific to the AX88U in Router mode.

EDIT: For those that need IPv6 and DNSFiltering enabled with Custom DNSFiltering entries - does this create a blocker to Beta 2?

 

[doodlenoodle]

I don’t know about that waveform bufferbloat test site. I get an “A” bufferbloat score whether I have cake turned on or not so I’m not sure it fully saturates the connection. The same with running a ping to google, all results under 30 ms at most.

In contrast, when I hop over to the dslreports website while I don’t always see the bufferbloat score listed there for some reason, I do instead run a ping to google to gauge my bufferbloat and my pings jump mid to high triple digits ms without cake, but there is a difference if I turn on cake as I drop back to sub 10-30ms ping times.

For the curious, my cake settings:
Download
“docsis nat triple-isolate rtt 50ms”
“besteffort”

Upload
“docsis nat triple-isolate rtt 50ms”
“besteffort”

QOS speed: 400/22 (Spectrum)
Download maxes at about 330 DL with cake on my AX86u but will take the lower ping spikes for some speed sacrifice

386.2 beta 2 - No issues so far on AX86u

 

[RMerlin]

GT-AX11000 owner here with 1 Gig fiber. Had no issues with beta 1. I have around 50 clients and everything has been smooth. Installing Beta 2 now. Let me know if you want me to test any specific features or add ons?

I mostly need general feedback in that case, in particular with the webui, like the Wireless Log.

Also please test RGB support, as I can't test it here (I have an old development sample that's missing the RGB LEDs).

 

[RMerlin]

Mar 21 07:10:26 dnsmasq[2455]: bad IPv6 address at line 25 of /etc/dnsmasq.conf
Mar 21 07:10:26 dnsmasq[2455]: FAILED to start up
Mar 21 07:10:27 kernel: FPM Pool 1: invalid token 0x206d0000 freed
Mar 21 07:10:32 dnsmasq[2468]: bad IPv6 address at line 25 of /etc/dnsmasq.conf
Mar 21 07:10:32 dnsmasq[2468]: FAILED to start up
Mar 21 07:10:53 crond[1160]: time disparity of 1513565 minutes detected
Mar 21 07:11:02 dnsmasq[2574]: bad IPv6 address at line 25 of /etc/dnsmasq.conf
Mar 21 07:11:02 dnsmasq[2574]: FAILED to start up
Mar 21 07:11:32 dnsmasq[2681]: bad IPv6 address at line 25 of /etc/dnsmasq.conf
Mar 21 07:11:32 dnsmasq[2681]: FAILED to start up

Are there any clues here?

It seems like a bug in beta 2. If you accidentally left any ipv4 addresses in "LAN -> DNSFilter -> Custom (user-defined) DNS x", these thing will end up in /etc/dnsmasq.conf like somthing as "dhcp-option=dnsf8,option6:23,[1.0.0.1]", which will cause this issue.
It's not the case in beta 1.

That could be an issue introduced by the DNSFilter code rewrite. I'll have a look, thanks for the pointer.

The website https://www.asuswrt-merlin.net/ is still saying the last one is Beta 1.

Caching issue, didn't show up for me because the cache was being bypassed while I was logged into my CMS. Should be fixed now, I just flushed the cache.

 

[JackFrost]

Autologout code is closed source and outside of my control.

It it possible to create a workaround to end session automatically in a different way by your firmware than asus's stock function?

 

[RMerlin]

It it possible to create a workaround to end session automatically in a different way by your firmware than asus's stock function?

Not that I can think of. I have no idea how this is implemented, all the authentication code is closed.

 

[pdc]

So I tested my rt-ac86u and received a "C", site mentions SQM. How do we turn that on in Merlin? I can not seem to find the SQM setting in Merlin

OpenWRT uses the name Smart Queue Management (SQM) for quality of service settings. Their default queuing discipline is "cake"

ref: https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/network/traffic-shaping/sqm-details

So for Merlin, set cake using the defaults (95% of speedtest results) and you should get a better score...

 

[vaynardx]

When I am using the beta 1 version, do I have to do a factory reset when I update to beta 2?

 

[WET]

I updated to Beta 2. I had both IPv6 & DNS Filtering enabled. After flashing RT-AC86U was not accessible. I had to reset to access & reconfigure. on Beta2 now, IPv6 works fine but if I place a client into DNSFiltering & enable, it shuts down all internet after 5 / 10 minutes, disabling DNSFiltering restores internet for clients and normal functioning.

 

[MvW]

When I am using the beta 1 version, do I have to do a factory reset when I update to beta 2?

No. Unless you're having issues.

 

[shabbs]

I updated to Beta 2. I had both IPv6 & DNS Filtering enabled. After flashing RT-AC86U was not accessible. I had to reset to access & reconfigure. on Beta2 now, IPv6 works fine but if I place a client into DNSFiltering & enable, it shuts down all internet after 5 / 10 minutes, disabling DNSFiltering restores internet for clients and normal functioning.

OK - this confirms the issue is not limited to the RT-AX88U model now. Merlin is looking at this - possibly something introduced with the DNSFilter updates done with Beta 2.

 

[John Adler]

does cake work on the rt-ac68u ?
I cannot find the option...

 

[mohsha]

I mostly need general feedback in that case, in particular with the webui, like the Wireless Log.

Also please test RGB support, as I can't test it here (I have an old development sample that's missing the RGB LEDs).

RGB LEDs are working as expected. Logs also look good. Only issue I have seen is that it takes a good 5 minutes for the router time to update for other dependent services like OpenVPN Server to start.

Thanks a lot for adding support to GT-AX11000.

 

[MvW]

does cake work on the rt-ac68u ?
I cannot find the option...

No, it doesn't. See the first post:

Added Cake to the list of QoS modes. This is only available on HND models (RT-AC86U or newer), and will also disable NAT acceleration, so it can't be used if you have a fast Internet connection (300-350 Mbps is probably the max speed possible on an RT-AX88U). See below for more details.

 

[Morris]

Using a sanity check to discard any unusually high value does not resolve the problem, it merely hides it. And instead of having spikes of high data, you will have "brown outs" with zero data. That's not a real solution.


My primary reason for using it is VoIP. At least both my IP phone and my ATA do properly set the DSCP flag, so that means it will help prioritizing VoIP (at least the outbound, which is generally where you are bandwidth-starved) without requiring any special configuration.


Zero change to wifi or even the SDK between Beta 1 and Beta 2. Power cycle your router as well as your client devices.




That would not be a valid test, because then I would not saturate by ISP's link. That means my modem's buffers for instance would never get filled, as the modem would then be able to send data faster than what the router behind it is set to.

Exactly, that's what cake dose. It avoids saturating interface buffer queues requiring packets to be dropped.

 

[Morris]

I believe the point of the bufferbloat craze is to do exactly that: ensure the router is in control of the bottleneck instead of the upstream devices.

But no matter. You have plenty of volunteer testers!

Thank you Dave

 

[Morris]

So I tested my rt-ac86u and received a "C", site mentions SQM. How do we turn that on in Merlin? I can not seem to find the SQM setting in Merlin

Cake is the implementation of Smart Queue Management. Enable Cake and make shore to set bandwidth limits at about 95% of your tested maximum

 

[XIII]

In the waveform bufferbloat tests I get A without Cake and A or B with Cake (250/25 connection, AC86u, wired).

The download latency is even slightly worse with Cake (+30 ms, without +22 ms), but the upload latency is much better with Cake (+1 ms, without +17 ms)

 

[roboots21]

Thanks, but the time is still not updating for some reason, I have factory reset etc and ntp does seem to be running:

3759 bob 3748 S /usr/sbin/ntp -t -S /sbin/ntpd_synced -p pool.ntp.org
5100 bob 3396 R grep ntp

Sat, May 05 06:33:17 2018
* Daylight savings time is enabled in this time zone.

This command has worked for me: /usr/sbin/ntp -t -S /sbin/ntpd_synced -p pool.ntp.org .. but now that I compare, it doesn't seem to be working for you.

That being said, this NEVER happened to me until 386.2 beta 1 on my main router RT-AX88U, and then on the beta 2 update, it happened on both the AX88U and AX58U. Neither of them came up and were able to sync to ntp like they normally do and I had to run the command I specified above to get it to take. I do run ntpMerlin on the AX88U, not sure if there is a setting in there that might be the issue.

 

[GHammer]

OK - this confirms the issue is not limited to the RT-AX88U model now. Merlin is looking at this - possibly something introduced with the DNSFilter updates done with Beta 2.

AX86U DNSFilter enabled with local IP as DNS.
Applied beta 2, no device had access. Same entries as others in the log. You can access the router by setting a static IP on your device. Does no good for Internet or other devices, but you can reach the router to easily load b1 or troubleshoot.