Beta Asuswrt-Merlin 388.2 Beta is now available for Wifi 6 models

[Meanshadows35]

Updated my RTAX68U FROM 388.1 to 388.2 beta 1 and so far it's flawless per normal. Updated my ac68u to ax68u last weekend and couldn't be happier! The ac68u was a great workhorse for years.

 

[JGrana]

Thanks. Not complaining. Just curious.

Whenever I see software or some kind of project that is labeled as either Alpha or Beta and I am willing to download and/or try, I believe I am part of the testing. I “join” willfully and accept the fact that some things might not work or at least not work well. As part of this testing, I accept that I should report anything I believe is incorrect or downright broken - and hope for another round of software that corrects them… or not.

If I’m not willing to accept this, I should wait until there is an official release.

This is the same philosophy for any software or project - Windows Beta program, Asuswrt-merlin, etc.

 

[AntonK]

Whenever I see software or some kind of project that is labeled as either Alpha or Beta and I am willing to download and/or try, I believe I am part of the testing. I “join” willfully and accept the fact that some things might not work or at least not work well. As part of this testing, I accept that I should report anything I believe is incorrect or downright broken - and hope for another round of software that corrects them… or not.

If I’m not willing to accept this, I should wait until there is an official release.

This is the same philosophy for any software or project - Windows Beta program, Asuswrt-merlin, etc.

Agree. To clarify, my question re: the equivalency of the ROG UI v. Standard UI wasn't in the context of the firmware's maturity (alpha, beta, release), but just of equivalency independent of firmware maturity (e.g. same settings, etc..).

 

[brummygit]

Devices bouncing between mesh nodes, i.e a Android Tablet (on 5Ghz) in one room, not 10ft away from a AX86 node, randomly switches to the other AX86 Node at the back of the house 50ft away. Same with some Nest cams/thermostats (all on 5Ghz). While the binding to a specific node of a device is mostly correct, and respected on 2.4Ghz, under 5Ghz its ignored unless I cycle the device's WiFi forcing the reconnect. I bind a device to the nearest node in the same room to try and keep things stable. If the devices come up on the wrong node, for 2.4Ghz based devices I can unbind/rebind or wait a few minutes to an hour and they'lll move. Not so with 5Ghz based devices short of cycling the WiFi it doesn't move, even overnight.

<snip>

5Ghz devices do still change to another node randomly, from my perception. I say randomly because I don't have the ability to see what's happenning with the radios or whether some interference on the 5Ghz band forced the device to move to the farther node in real time. In the worse case, a 5Ghz device moves to the router on the other side on the house, think of a triangle with router and nodes in the 3 corners. Whether the 5Ghz is more sensitive to noise/interference or something else causes it I can't tell but it sure feels like its more sensitive to the environmentals.

<snip>

I can't point to any hard facts from the logs or other metrics other than me observing and reacting to device moves or channel/bandwidth changes and trying to set things stratight again. Where under 388.1 it was constantly happenning, making WiFi completely unstable. It happens once or twice a day with individual devices, specifically those on 5Ghz regardles of SSID under 388.2b, noticeable with the cameras but manageable and not really impacting other 5Ghz devices that would demand any immediate mitigation on my part.

Your results may vary, another reason to start from scratch to level the playing fleld as much as I can.

I have to agree that there is something not quite right with this router combination. My experience is that 2.4Ghz IoT devices have been more problematic, and I use a lot of TP-Link Tapo energy monitoring smart plugs which very quickly highlight problems for me.

I have pretty much narrowed my issues down to having Protected Management Frames enabled. On 388.1 I had to set this to disabled and then Authentication Method to WPA/WPA2-Personal to get the devices to happily use the RT-AX86U nodes - if not they would stick on the RT-AX88U main router or bounce around if I tried to bind them. Disabling AX mode entirely gave me very stable connectivity and saw better throughput on other 2.4Ghz devices such as Ring cameras and doorbells.

On 388.2_beta1 now I have found that I can re-enable AX mode and use WP2-Personal as my authentication method and my IoT devices are happily connecting to the RT-AX86Us.

I have become suspicious that the nodes are not getting correctly configured from main router as swapping to one of the RT-AX86Us as a main router on 388.1 showed that the main router is preferred whether it is an 86U or an 88U, it's AiMesh nodes that are not. I also see that InSSIDer reports configuration mismatches between the main router and nodes, and that I have different 2.4Ghz basic rate speeds available.

Screenshots from inSSIDer running on a laptop nearest to the router. SSID2 is for 2.4Ghz devices, IoT and 2.4Ghz ax Tablets. SSID5 is for dual band devices I want to fix to 5Ghz - mostly IOT, Amazon Echo and the like (which resulted in cutting down on all the disassociations in the log, though still get them for some roaming devices as they move about using SmartConnect enabled SSID). SSID is for roaming devices that would better leverage SmartConnect. Then SSID_Guest is for, just that and just for 5Ghz. Note 802.11b disabled at the router and via NVram at the nodes.

Can you tell me how do do this at the nodes?

 

[dlandiss]

FULLY enjoy being back on Merlinware - and extend my sincere appreciation to @RMerlin for the part he must have played in marshalling Asus to focus on releasing a consistent GPL version across the range of AX routers he supports. Thanks to Asus too for bringing such a solid foundation to the table in a massive upgrade to the 388 platform.

Thank you, @kernol. Some users here forget that @RMerlin is doing all of this work as a hobby, on his own time. His work does in fact improve the ASUS firmware as well as he (and the many beta testers here who ensure that a wide variety of environments are included) suggest improvements that often filter their way back into the official ASUS releases.

Briefly, the OEM ASUS firmware is better because of @RMerlin and the dozens of alpha and beta testers in this forum. Keep up the great work, ALL of you! And drop a tip to @RMerlin from time to time to keep him supplied with coffee and energy.

 

[zer0bitz]

Note that there is a chance that 388.2 may possibly be the last release for the RT-AX56U, as Asus opted not to move this model to the 388 codebase, meaning that they cannot guarantee that future 388 GPLs for this model will be possible.

Such sad news. Been checking constantly when will 388.2 be available.

Edit: Totally read wrong. Installed 388.2 now and its been running fine.

 

[Tech9]

maybe not perfect @Tech9

Running on my AX86U now, but I'm not going to post "no issues for 15min". I need to see what and where first.

 

[Ubimo]

Has the OOM problem been solved for the AX86S?

 

[Apul]

I have an AX86S and it's suddenly reboots out of the blue with the 388.2 firmware. I can't figure out why this is happening. Al I can see that the free mem is running out. Can that be the issue?

 

[Tech9]

Can that be the issue?

What else is running on this router?

 

[Apul]

What else is running on this router?

Skynet, Adguard, YazFi but the where running stable on the older firmware.

 

[alan6854321]

I have an AX86S and it's suddenly reboots out of the blue with the 388.2 firmware. I can't figure out why this is happening. Al I can see that the free mem is running out. Can that be the issue?

I had that issue on 388.1, had to go back to 386.7_2
Waiting to see what this version will do, too early to say at the moment.

There's quite a long thread on 388.1 running out of memory and I only read it after returning to 386.7_2. Some people are running a cron job to clean up the memory every night (I think it was the network map that was using it, I'll have to have another look).

Only add-ons I have are YazDHCP, scMerlin, mosquitto & openssh-sftp-server
I have about 30MB free at the moment.

 

[alan6854321]

BTW, this is the thread I was talking about ....

Out of Memory Errors 388.1 / No space left on device [SOLUTIONS]

Update 3/23/2023 - FW 388.2 B1 So far it looks like 388.2 B1 has fixed the issue with networkmap. I have turned off my cron job and its going on 2 days now, the mem use from networkmap is stable. Highlights of tips from this tread: - Script to restart networkmap and sysstate every night. I...

www.snbforums.com

 

[Tech9]

Skynet, Adguard, YazFi but the where running stable on the older firmware.

This router has just enough RAM to run stock Asuswrt available options. Your extra scripts on top are perhaps the issue, AdGuard Home in particular. This is unrelated to Asuswrt-Merlin beta firmware evaluation. Does your router reboot with no extra scripts?

 

[Kabouter Plop]

Get a nas with docker and run your software on that, running software on router will just slow it down to a point it forgets its a router and start lagging, haven't had issues yet tested wifi6 for first time again reaching gbit wifi speeds on my pixel 7 pro even im quite happy.

 

[Tech9]

running software on router will just slow it down

I have an AX86U with 1GB RAM to play with and Unbound + AdGuard Home (popular combo) run on the router are significantly slower as WebUI and DNS requests resolution compared to the same run on my experimental Mini-ITX x86 board with 8GB RAM, SSD drive and Ubuntu server OS. Not to mention whatever relies on USB stick or SD Card is in fact temporary setup until the flash chip (wear) or controller (heat) dies.

 

[Ubimo]

I have an AX86S and it's suddenly reboots out of the blue with the 388.2 firmware. I can't figure out why this is happening. Al I can see that the free mem is running out. Can that be the issue?

I also have an AX86S with Diversion and Skynet running on it. No reboot problems here.

 

[Apul]

I had that issue on 388.1, had to go back to 386.7_2
Waiting to see what this version will do, too early to say at the moment.

There's quite a long thread on 388.1 running out of memory and I only read it after returning to 386.7_2. Some people are running a cron job to clean up the memory every night (I think it was the network map that was using it, I'll have to have another look).

Only add-ons I have are YazDHCP, scMerlin, mosquitto & openssh-sftp-server
I have about 30MB free at the moment.

I have gone back to 386_7.2

 

[Apul]

This router has just enough RAM to run stock Asuswrt available options. Your extra scripts on top are perhaps the issue, AdGuard Home in particular. This is unrelated to Asuswrt-Merlin beta firmware evaluation. Does your router reboot with no extra scripts?

Why was I not having any problem with the older firmware?

 

[Apul]

I also have an AX86S with Diversion and Skynet running on it. No reboot problems here.

Maybe Adguard is just to much on the new firmware...