Release Asuswrt-Merlin 388.2 is now available for select models

[snapieee]

This is what I did, and its still unusable. and its the same on multiple browsers.

Can you access the router via ssh? If yes, try running the following to restart http service:

service restart_httpd

 

[Vax]

Did you end up doing this? How is this setup working for you with the Merlin firmware? I'm running almost the same setup GT-AXE16000 + (2) ET12 nodes (mixed backhaul - one node wired one 6Ghz) + another AXE-16000 as a node so that I have good coverage for my 6GHz devices...finally got the config right so now I'm getting ready to throw another wrench into the mix and move to the Merlin firmware. Never a dull moment.

Yea I got it setup last week and it runs stellar. GT-AXE16 with latest Merlin + 2x ET12 with stock fw. I also decided to reuse the old RT-AC86U, reset it to factory and just connected it as a node also. All connected wired via the WAN port to the Merlin GT-AXE and then just setup the Mesh. Very smooth, very easy. No problems so far.

 

[AlbumMan]

These are my settings currently on 388.1 in the pictures below and these were the settings I tried on 388.2 - https://www.snbforums.com/threads/a...e-for-select-models.84524/page-14#post-836690

The 1st thing to try in the Control Channel section is to uncheck the DFS box and set a fixed channel which I see it chose 36.

 

[Bunker37]

Since I uploaded this new version last week to my 88u and updated my three 92u nodes to 388_22525 I now loose connection to my VNC at random times. Sometime seconds and sometime minutes. The WiFi connection to the devices running VNC remains fine but VNC (both Mocha and RealVNC) loose connection. I then turned off QOS and now the VNC connection remains intact on the router (88u) but still looses connection when the device running the VNC client is connected to a node (92u). The nodes are connected using a wire so no WiFi backbone. I don’t know how to roll back firmware on the nodes to test. I ran a VNC debug log but it just says it looses connection. Any suggestions? New to the forum so please let me know if I need to post elsewhere.

 

[jerry6]

Yes, not all models are supported.

have to thank you could not take Asus AXE 100 interface now using Merlin again so much better 388.2 works well

 

[JGodfrey82]

Upgraded my ax86u and all the packages. Now I'm having an issue where my open VPN client connects but lists public ip as unknown. The only other package I'm running is wanfailover and it seems to be working fine, no persistent error messages in the logs, it does give a tls handshake error but then it connects and I get an internal ip from the VPN server (torguard) using same config works fine on a local client so I'm not sure what else to troubleshoot.

 

[Dedel66]

I don’t know how to roll back firmware on the nodes to test.

Download the firmwarefile you want to test at the nodes, log into the meshrouter and flash from:

Administration - Firmware Upgrade

After that reset node and connect it again to the mainrouter for testing.

 

[sweetlyham]

The 1st thing to try in the Control Channel section is to uncheck the DFS box and set a fixed channel which I see it chose 36.

Region set to 'Asia (Default)' under Professional tab and DFS box not visible on General tab, Control Channel set to '36':

Pinging 9.9.9.9 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 9.9.9.9: bytes=32 time=28ms TTL=60
Reply from 9.9.9.9: bytes=32 time=22ms TTL=60
Reply from 9.9.9.9: bytes=32 time=22ms TTL=60
Reply from 9.9.9.9: bytes=32 time=15ms TTL=60
Reply from 9.9.9.9: bytes=32 time=23ms TTL=60
Reply from 9.9.9.9: bytes=32 time=23ms TTL=60
Reply from 9.9.9.9: bytes=32 time=21ms TTL=60
Reply from 9.9.9.9: bytes=32 time=21ms TTL=60
Reply from 9.9.9.9: bytes=32 time=18ms TTL=60
Reply from 9.9.9.9: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=60

Ping statistics for 9.9.9.9:
    Packets: Sent = 10, Received = 10, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 14ms, Maximum = 28ms, Average = 20ms

Region set to 'Australia' under Professional tab and DFS box not visible on General tab, Control Channel set to '36':

Pinging 9.9.9.9 with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

Ping statistics for 9.9.9.9:
    Packets: Sent = 10, Received = 0, Lost = 10 (100% loss),

As you can see from these two ping tests above when the Region is set to 'Australia' then requests to websites on the 5Ghz channel time out.

 

[Bogey]

I updated my RT-AX88U last week dirty from 388.1 and unlike all positive comments I had problems:
After a day or so we could not connect with one device, yet another device could (I recall only a guest on a guest nw configured with yazfi). Very often the device that couldn't connect had been sleeping or been switched off.
I think it's the time that the DHCP lease ran out: 86400.
Stopping wifi on for example my iPhone and/or switching from 5 to 2.4Ghz could trigger a disconnect.
First I thought it was only the wifi that had trouble but it turns out also the wired machines.
We were not able to get connected so the only solution was to reboot the router.
What's even more weird was that my MacBook and my iMac had netbiosd processes running berserk (after running Microsoft software), 140% and up -- only solution for this too was to reboot the mac.
I've tried:
- reflashing the same firmware
- reset to factory with the checkbox
- reset to factory with the back button
- again reflash 388.2
The problem remained, disconnects.
Last resort was to flash 388.1 back. I did a dirty flash of 388.1 and it has been running without a hitch!
Skynet, diversion, unbound everything works.

Not hindered by any knowledge what's going on under the hood, but there's something in 388.2 that's causing the not being able to reconnect and more (netbiosd).

 

[aex.perez]

Happened again, but with a little more correlation this time.

Noticed the SpeedTest results were off by 1/2 again, between 10:42 and 11:12

Apr 28 10:12:22 Router spdMerlin: Speedtest results - Download: 919.50 Mbps (data used: 496.4 MB ) - Upload: 893.02 Mbps (data used: 890.2 MB )
Apr 28 10:42:26 Router spdMerlin: Speedtest results - Download: 875.66 Mbps (data used: 952.3 MB ) - Upload: 895.37 Mbps (data used: 693.6 MB )
Apr 28 11:12:28 Router spdMerlin: Speedtest results - Download: 422.64 Mbps (data used: 485.4 MB ) - Upload: 561.99 Mbps (data used: 310.5 MB )
Apr 28 11:42:28 Router spdMerlin: Speedtest results - Download: 582.42 Mbps (data used: 460.0 MB ) - Upload: 744.53 Mbps (data used: 1.0 GB )

Then looked at the Skynet Log and found it had restarted at 10:56:52

Apr 28 10:56:52 Router Skynet: Mounting Skynet Web Page As user7.asp

Then went and looked at the System Log (see attached Router Error for router System Log) once I had the exact time and found these logged events noting that at 10:56:36 there was a Firewall restart along with other restarts.

Note, as I just finished getting the node logs on to the router/scribe for correlation yesterday, this was timely. But nothing in the node logs looked out of the oridnary or was logged during the same time frame 10:55:00 to 10:59:00. Whatever happened, happened at the router to cause this. Also this did not occur during a SpeedTest run, but inbetween 10:42 and 11:12 runs.

Nothing was going on out of the oridinary, the router GUI wasn't even opened. I just randomly decided to check in on SpeedTest results, especially since I got the Router and Node logs on Scribe at the router yesterday (after a gotcha that caught me off guard and forced me to rename one of the nodes) so that I could see if anything was happenning on the nodes when the router had this issue. Even took the extra step of SSH'ing into the nodes and checking /opt/var/log/messages just to be 2x sure.

All current on the scripts and on 388.2 from a HW reset on router and both nodes as well. Now for the Speedtest results and router to get back to "normal" a reboot of the router will need to happen, before I reboot it, anyone has anything I should try to do/information I should try to collect, to better isolate/correlate this event to try and determine a root cause?

@Tech9 @Viktor Jaep - This facehugger of a problem just won't let me go

 

[Tech9]

@Tech9 @Viktor Jaep - This facehugger of a problem just won't let me go

Your monitoring obsession and excessive use of scripts is creating the issues. I look at your posts as regular spam in beta/release threads.

 

[aex.perez]

Your monitoring obsession and excessive use of scripts is creating the issues. I look at your posts as regular spam in beta/release threads.

Even with no scripts and external logging, this happens (just trying to nail down frequency now), I may go and setup that scenario as again...
Obssesed, maybe but only since this started to happen and everyone thought is was a SpeedTest issue, did I want to get to the bottom of this. This set up has been the same since as far back as I can remember (384/386). This only started happening with the 388 releases. But only since the 388.2 has it become more prevalent. Leaving the router in a deteriorating service state when it does.

Of course if I eliminate all the scripts and set logging levels appropriately, it may never happen if it's not seen, until it starts becoming a problem at the devices...
I may just as well go flash with stock (no scripts then with external monitoring) across the board to see if it still happens, would likely make for a better scenario.

 

[Tech9]

Please, post a separate thread describing your issues with the whole research you have done so far. See how many people will confirm your findings and eventually participate. Despite marketing statements your AX6000 hardware is up to Gigabit capable and far from Gigabit guaranteed. Not sure if you have noticed already, but you mostly talk to yourself. I see you are logging the nodes now as well. I hope you find interesting things there with more clues.

None of this is firmware release related. RMerlin does not support custom scripts. There are changes in Asuswrt base and you have to adapt.

 

[saison2023]

I updated my RT-AX88U last week dirty from 388.1 and unlike all positive comments I had problems:
After a day or so we could not connect with one device, yet another device could (I recall only a guest on a guest nw configured with yazfi). Very often the device that couldn't connect had been sleeping or been switched off.
I think it's the time that the DHCP lease ran out: 86400.
Stopping wifi on for example my iPhone and/or switching from 5 to 2.4Ghz could trigger a disconnect.
First I thought it was only the wifi that had trouble but it turns out also the wired machines.
We were not able to get connected so the only solution was to reboot the router.
What's even more weird was that my MacBook and my iMac had netbiosd processes running berserk (after running Microsoft software), 140% and up -- only solution for this too was to reboot the mac.
I've tried:
- reflashing the same firmware
- reset to factory with the checkbox
- reset to factory with the back button
- again reflash 388.2
The problem remained, disconnects.
Last resort was to flash 388.1 back. I did a dirty flash of 388.1 and it has been running without a hitch!
Skynet, diversion, unbound everything works.

Not hindered by any knowledge what's going on under the hood, but there's something in 388.2 that's causing the not being able to reconnect and more (netbiosd).

I created my SNB account just to be able to add my comment.
I also upgraded my Asus RT-AX86U from 338.1 to 388.2 and had a lot of trouble after few days:

• Losing Wifi
• DHCP problem
• DNS problem (in particular to resolve internal IP/FQDN)
• Diversion (ad-block) crash/stop

I did not have all these problems with previous firmware. My only solution was to go back to 388.1.
I am not "tekky" enough to dig but I would be happy to do some test if this could help.

 

[RMerlin]

If you are having DHCP and DNS issues while running Diversion, then remove Diversion. If Diversion causes dnsmasq to crash, possibly because you are trying to use long lists on a low-powered CPU with limited RAM, then it will obviously also affect DHCP and DNS since both are also handled by dnsmasq.

 

[saison2023]

If you are having DHCP and DNS issues while running Diversion, then remove Diversion. If Diversion causes dnsmasq to crash, possibly because you are trying to use long lists on a low-powered CPU with limited RAM, then it will obviously also affect DHCP and DNS since both are also handled by dnsmasq.

Thanks for the reply.
I understand the recommandation but would like to know why it as working fine on 388.1 (and previous FW) and not on 388.2. Does the new version is so different than the previous one?
I thought that the Asus RT-AX86U was a good router and not a "low-powered CPU" (CPU : quad core @ 1.8 GHz, RAM : 1024, Flash : 256)

 

[Bogey]

Thanks for the reply.
I understand the recommandation but would like to know why it as working fine on 388.1 (and previous FW) and not on 388.2. Does the new version is so different than the previous one?
I thought that the Asus RT-AX86U was a good router and not a "low-powered CPU" (CPU : quad core @ 1.8 GHz, RAM : 1024, Flash : 256)

I'm wondering too. I've been running the same setup for "ages" on my RT-AX88U and 388.1 was the most stable ever.

 

[GHog]

Just ran into this problem using version 388.2 on a Aimesh mode with a RT-AX6000 and RT-AX88u. I cannot make changes to the control channel, wifi authentication, and WPA Encryption. I can mnake changes on my Iphone using app, but not when logged in from desktop. Any ideas or have others ran into this. Powered both device down for 5minutes with power disconnected.

 

[Mister2088]

I had upgraded to 388.2 from 388.1 via semi-dirty upgrade on my AX88U, over a week ago.
It has been running well (thanks @RMerlin !) except for using SKYNET. I had been using SKYNET for the past couple of releases, but in 388.2 the wifi download speeds drop by min. 20 mbps vs 388.1.
I even tried a 'nuclear' reset and reconfig, but the same result. So for now, I am no longer using SKYNET as the family was not happy.
Not the SKYNET is a bad product, but for the little I gained (literally a few outbound (which was the main reason I used)), it is not worth the hearing the complains from family. Perhaps next release I'll try using again.

 

[RMerlin]

Does the new version is so different than the previous one?

388.2 has a newer version of dnsmasq.