Release Asuswrt-Merlin 388.2 is now available for select models

[plexion]

I am seeing some weird CPU usage issues after upgrading to 388 from 386.7_2 on my Asus RT-AX56U.
I have tried 388.1, 388.2 Beta and now 388.2, all resulting in the same outcome.

Issues:
1. Only 3 out of 4 CPU cores of the router is utilized. 4th core is always idle.
2. Higher than usual CPU usage on 388 firmwares compared to 386.7_2 constantly, even on idle. The "sysstate" process using up quite a lot of CPU time.


CPU Usage Graph on 388.2

CPU Usage Graph on 386.7_2

Top Command Output on 388.2

Top Command Output on 386.7_2

I have tried:
1. Dirty flashing from 386.7_2 to the 388 series firmwares.
2. Factory reset on 386.7_2, then flashing to 388 series firmwares.
3. Factory reset on 388 series firmwares after upgrading from 386.7_2.

All outcome are the same as above.

Going back to 386.7_2 also always resolves the problem.

Appreciate if anyone can help to shed some light on the behaviours of the router above.
Thanks!

 

[Thermaltake]

Happened to me out of the blue, in older releases, that the radio of 5Ghz would hide, without me to actually do anything.
Maybe you have been on a DFS channel and a radar detected so it falled to another channel?

Hmm strange... So I'm not the only one.

On what router?

Never seen this problem on mine. May not be the same as yours.



Google "Asus XT12"?

ASUS ZenWiFi Pro XT12｜Whole Home Mesh WiFi System｜ASUS Global

ZenWiFi Systems blanket your home with WiFi, for seamless roaming with no dead zones. They only take a few steps to set up, and offer easy, hassle-free management. Their modern design blends with any style of home.

www.asus.com

On AX88U.


Also what I noticed and it never happend before is on my S23 Ultra smartphone, wifi on 5Ghz got extremly slow I have 1/500 internet speed, and pages were loading and loading... then I went on speedtest to test speed and got 10mbps down and 500 up, but when I turn off wifi and turn it on in smartphone it was okay, but not for long and it happends again. I even get exclamation mark on my wifi icon on mobile when that happend, it's like connection was so bad it couldn't get any data or something. After that I reboot router when I noticed that strange behavior and now everything is back in normal.

 

[Dedel66]

Hmm strange... So I'm not the only one.

Here are my settings:

Beamforming is not advised but it´s working for me.

I've been using these settings since the update (and before) to 388.2 without errors.

Maybe that's useful for you.

 

[zer0bitz]

Again had a random restart on router. Full systemlog is attached in seperate files as it was too big to upload in whole. Maybe someone can help me out with this?

 

[IKNOWNOTHING]

I had the same issue on my AX86U Pro. I changed the compression from disabled to LZO Adaptive which solved that error. I then decided to check with TorGuard and they had a new client .ovpn config for 2.6 OpenVPN. I loaded the new client config file and it is working great now.

Thanks. Will try this solution later for ipvanish. Using Merlin 388.1 and vpnmon-2. After upgrading to 388.2 VPN was broke, so reverted to 388.1 for now.

 

[Smokey613]

Fresh install on new RT-AX86U Pro. Running great so far!

 

[WMConey]

I was in router settings today just to check something, I didn't change any settings, and my 5Ghz network disappear. I reboot router and now it's working again. Anyone had that problem before ?

Yes, I've seen it here on an AX-86U. Reboot didn't fix, what did was selecting manually a control channel. It had been on "Auto." Hasn't come back after at least one month +.

 

[aex.perez]

Again had a random restart on router. Full systemlog is attached in seperate files as it was too big to upload in whole. Maybe someone can help me out with this?

This is similar to the part of the log I was able to capture, a random reboot, the load of topology changes "kernel: br0: topology change detected, propagating". Then odd ball impacts with WiFi, Speedtests, dropped packets, slow gui and other proceses failing. Valid or not, on other routers on my AX88u I disabled Spanning Tree and have been running perfectly, so perfectly that I've been hesitant to turn it back on to see if I can capture what causes it. When I would get those "Topology changes" my only recourse was to reboot the router to get back to normal until it happened again.

 

[karateca]

hi, well i finally i test the internet connection with my aimesh router ax82u, and 0 problems with stock firmware 3.0.0.4.388_22525 3 days up. So if i use the ax11000 many times lose the connection with internet. So the problem its not my ISP, its the firmware with serious problems in to ax11000. i left a screen shot.

 

[gerardr]

I am seeing some weird CPU usage issues after upgrading to 388 from 386.7_2 on my Asus RT-AX56U.
I have tried 388.1, 388.2 Beta and now 388.2, all resulting in the same outcome.

Issues:
1. Only 3 out of 4 CPU cores of the router is utilized. 4th core is always idle.
2. Higher than usual CPU usage on 388 firmwares compared to 386.7_2 constantly, even on idle. The "sysstate" process using up quite a lot of CPU time.

Again had a random restart on router. Full systemlog is attached in seperate files as it was too big to upload in whole. Maybe someone can help me out with this?

Hmm ... You both have RT-AX56U units, units which ASUS themselves did not formally upgrade to 388. I suspect that seeing only three CPUs might be related to the fact that the RT-AX58U/RT-AX3000 (on the same development tree as the RT-AX56U) only have a 3-core CPU? @RMerlin, am I crossing wires, barking up the wrong tree? (If so, this query can be deleted to remove confusion.)

 

[TangentCosine]

Clean install 7 days ago. No issues noted.

 

[Thermaltake]

Yes, I've seen it here on an AX-86U. Reboot didn't fix, what did was selecting manually a control channel. It had been on "Auto." Hasn't come back after at least one month +.

Always had it on 36. Settings are same as one previous firmware, and I never had this kind of problem with any of the firmwares before just on this one. And again this morning wifi just stopped working and get back again on my S23 Ultra with exclamation mark, and I turn it off and on again, and it was back, really strange problem.

 

[SomeWhereOverTheRainBow]

I am seeing some weird CPU usage issues after upgrading to 388 from 386.7_2 on my Asus RT-AX56U.
I have tried 388.1, 388.2 Beta and now 388.2, all resulting in the same outcome.

Issues:
1. Only 3 out of 4 CPU cores of the router is utilized. 4th core is always idle.
2. Higher than usual CPU usage on 388 firmwares compared to 386.7_2 constantly, even on idle. The "sysstate" process using up quite a lot of CPU time.


CPU Usage Graph on 388.2

View attachment 49449


CPU Usage Graph on 386.7_2

View attachment 49450


Top Command Output on 388.2

View attachment 49453


Top Command Output on 386.7_2

View attachment 49454

I have tried:
1. Dirty flashing from 386.7_2 to the 388 series firmwares.
2. Factory reset on 386.7_2, then flashing to 388 series firmwares.
3. Factory reset on 388 series firmwares after upgrading from 386.7_2.

All outcome are the same as above.

Going back to 386.7_2 also always resolves the problem.

Appreciate if anyone can help to shed some light on the behaviours of the router above.
Thanks!

Yeaaaa man! This is pretty rough stuff.....

See all those peaks and drops??

 

[zer0bitz]

I am seeing some weird CPU usage issues after upgrading to 388 from 386.7_2 on my Asus RT-AX56U.
I have tried 388.1, 388.2 Beta and now 388.2, all resulting in the same outcome.

Issues:
1. Only 3 out of 4 CPU cores of the router is utilized. 4th core is always idle.
2. Higher than usual CPU usage on 388 firmwares compared to 386.7_2 constantly, even on idle. The "sysstate" process using up quite a lot of CPU time.


CPU Usage Graph on 388.2

View attachment 49449


CPU Usage Graph on 386.7_2

View attachment 49450


Top Command Output on 388.2

View attachment 49453


Top Command Output on 386.7_2

View attachment 49454

I have tried:
1. Dirty flashing from 386.7_2 to the 388 series firmwares.
2. Factory reset on 386.7_2, then flashing to 388 series firmwares.
3. Factory reset on 388 series firmwares after upgrading from 386.7_2.

All outcome are the same as above.

Going back to 386.7_2 also always resolves the problem.

Appreciate if anyone can help to shed some light on the behaviours of the router above.
Thanks!

Im having the same kind of behaviour happening on my router also. I see 3 cores always spiking up to 80-90%, being there for a minute or two and then coming down.

Edit: Managed to take a screenshot. I started a game update which was downloading at 5MB/s and cores immediately spiked to 80%. Core 4 is always idle or going to 20% at highest.

Second edit: Wanted to try out again if it was the download that maxed out those 3 cores, but apparently not. Started again a game update in Steam and followed if cores spiked but nothing happened. Game update was downloading normally and 3 cores were around at 30-40%, but just out of nowhere they spiked up to 100%.

 

[Thermaltake]

Here are my settings:

View attachment 49457

View attachment 49458

Beamforming is not advised but it´s working for me.

I've been using these settings since the update (and before) to 388.2 without errors.
View attachment 49459

Maybe that's useful for you.

What internet speed do you have, and do you use AX wifi devices like smartphones ?

 

[plexion]

Im having the same kind of behaviour happening on my router also. I see 3 cores always spiking up to 80-90%, being there for a minute or two and then coming down.

Edit: Managed to take a screenshot. I started a game update which was downloading at 5MB/s and cores immediately spiked to 80%. Core 4 is always idle or going to 20% at highest.

View attachment 49489

Second edit: Wanted to try out again if it was the download that maxed out those 3 cores, but apparently not. Started again a game update in Steam and followed if cores spiked but nothing happened. Game update was downloading normally and 3 cores were around at 30-40%, but just out of nowhere they spiked up to 100%.

View attachment 49491

By any chance you are using QoS which disables the NAT acceleration engine?
On my RT-AX56U, CPU usage are high on 388-series firmwares, but so far it never maxed out like yours.
How is the CPU usage looking when the router is idle?

Also one more observation, I have a USB HDD that is connected to the router and I run a FTP server off the HDD.
I can scroll through images on the HDD without any noticed lag on 386.7_2, but it has become very slow to go through the images on the 388 firmwares.

Not sure if it is related, but the FTP server stops responding after a few days of uptime, and needed a reboot to fix that.

These issues were not on the 386.7_2 and earlier firmwares.

 

[Dedel66]

What internet speed do you have, and do you use AX wifi devices like smartphones ?

Here my settings for 2.4 GHz:

We have 400/200 FTTH internet access.

Most of our devices have AX-wlan :
Ipads, iphones and samsung androids @ 1,2 Ghz bandwidth
2 laptops with intel wifi @ 2,4 GHz bandwidth (depending on distance to router/accesspoint).

All working without drops or "hiccups".

GOOD LUCK for your setup!

 

[Thermaltake]

I didn't have any problems until this firmware...Every setting is same as on previous firmwares.


What is that option WMM APSD and AMPDU RTS It was enabled in my settings. I had Muli-User MMO enabled should I disable it ? And should I do all that on both 5Ghz and 2.4 ?

 

[jerry6]

388.2 running smoothly. Thanks RMerlin!

runing well on my AXE 1100 MY 5300 just up and died today thanks

 

[robinjoo1]

@RMerlin
what are these errors



Apr 20 21:24:06 kernel: wl0: PSM microcode watchdog fired at 604459 (seconds). Resetting.
Apr 20 21:24:06 kernel: wl0: reason = psm watchdog at 604459 seconds. corerev 131 ucode revision 1626.38205 features 0x3106
Apr 20 21:24:06 kernel: psmdebug 0x00000024 pc 0x01ff000e phydebug 0x0 macctl 0x84160403 maccmd 0x4
Apr 20 21:24:06 kernel: psm_brc 0x0180 psm_brc_1 0x0000 M_UCODE_DBGST 0x2
Apr 20 21:24:06 kernel: brwk_0 0x0509 brwk_1 0x0014 brwk_2 0x22a0 brwk_3 0x0ff0 brwk_4 0x0006
Apr 20 21:24:06 kernel: ifsstat 0xaf ifsstat1 0xff txectl 0x4000 txestat 0x5
Apr 20 21:24:06 kernel: rxestat1 0x422 rxestat2 0x2900 rcv_frmcnt 0x0 rxe_rxcnt 0xe
Apr 20 21:24:06 kernel: wepctl 0x0
Apr 20 21:24:06 kernel: aqmf_ready0 0x0 aqmf_ready1 0x10 aqmf_ready2 0x0 aqmf_ready3 0x0
Apr 20 21:24:06 kernel: aqmf_ready4 0x0 wepstat 0x8000 wep_ivloc 0x18 wep_psdulen 0x0
Apr 20 21:24:06 kernel: rxe_errval 0x0 rxe_errmask 0x20f rxe_status3 0x208 txe_status2 0x5
Apr 20 21:24:06 kernel: dbg_bmc_status 0x0 psm_chk0_err 0x0 psm_chk1_err 0x0
Apr 20 21:24:06 kernel: PC :
Apr 20 21:24:06 kernel: R0: 0x24 0x24 0x24 0x24
Apr 20 21:24:06 kernel: psm stack_status : 0x8000
Apr 20 21:24:06 kernel: psm stack_entries:
Apr 20 21:24:06 kernel: 0x0024
Apr 20 21:24:06 kernel: 0x1e65
Apr 20 21:24:06 kernel: 0x01dc
Apr 20 21:24:06 kernel: 0x0679
Apr 20 21:24:06 kernel: 0x38ee
Apr 20 21:24:06 kernel: 0x3cae
Apr 20 21:24:06 kernel: 0x3bcb
Apr 20 21:24:06 kernel: 0x1af3
Apr 20 21:24:06 kernel: wl0: fatal error, reinitializing, total count of reinit's[1]
Apr 20 21:24:06 kernel: CSIMON: CSIMON[1.1.0] Initialization
Apr 20 21:24:06 kernel: CSIMON: M2M usr already registered ...