Asuswrt-Merlin - custom build of the Asus RT-N66U firmware

[RMerlin]

RMerlin,

Cause I'm so stubborn I've been retesting to try and get your latest git source to build but no matter the Ubuntu version, I've tried from 9.10 to 12.04 also installed all the necessary packages according to the readme, it stops at the same point in the build process.

Here's the actual output where it hiccups so maybe you can guide me to a solution.



Thanks

Unfortunately I'm no Linux build expert, so I have no idea how to troubleshoot this since I don't have the problem here. I know that some people who experienced build issues so far were able to resolve them by making sure they did have both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of system libraries installed on their development system (in cases where they use a 64-bit system). Also one person narrowed down an issue related to Make - apparently Asus's build system will only work if using GNU Make 3.81 (type "make -v" to check the version.

I'm using Ubuntu 10.04.4 LTS (64-bit) here.

Also make sure to run "make clean" while inside the release/src-rt/ folder before doing a build.

And make sure you don't have other cross-compile toolchains installed on your system - one person had a problem where the tools from the wrong toolchain were sometimes being used.

I haven't heard back from the other person that had the same problem.

Someone recently updated README.txt with a few additional packages that were required - check the updated version at https://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin/blob/master/README.TXT .

 

[RMerlin]

I understand the time issue perfectly well having a similar side project of my own.

Naturally, bugfixes should have highest priority. No rush with the new features, especially when a workaround is available. My suggestion was just to voice a frequently requested (and reasonably easy to implement) features.

Thank you once again for taking your time to address this now (on this forum) and hopefully one day in the firmware!

Luckily for you, 178.15 was being delayed a bit as I was hoping to see Asus release a fix to the AC66U wifi + CTF issue. That gave me a free evening to add some stuff om the ToDO list like the option to enable WAN access to SSH.

(and that's a negative on anyone asking to do the same for telnet. Telnet is not meant to be used across a public network, as it has zero encryption. Use SSH, folks.)

And another motivation for me to implement this is PPTP has seen some serious security flaws revealed recently. This new option will make it easier for people to start using SSH tunnels as a secure alternative to PPTP.

 

[shantanugoel]

RMerlin,

Cause I'm so stubborn I've been retesting to try and get your latest git source to build but no matter the Ubuntu version, I've tried from 9.10 to 12.04 also installed all the necessary packages according to the readme, it stops at the same point in the build process.

Here's the actual output where it hiccups so maybe you can guide me to a solution.



Thanks

I think I had seen that problem and fixed it early on when Merlin had just begun on the firmware. I'll try to see if I can get some time to go back and find out what I had done.

 

[Gingernut]

Thank you both for your replies.

I.m still on it. I think it's got nothing to do with missing system libraries it probably a silly mistake I've made while following the readme instructions.

 

[Gingernut]

I think I had seen that problem and fixed it early on when Merlin had just begun on the firmware. I'll try to see if I can get some time to go back and find out what I had done.

I think I found your post after searching through the thread.

For anyone else compiling out there, just a note that gperf package is also required for this (if you are enabling media server). I had this installed earlier because of some other packages I compile, but I removed those and so this got uninstalled as well and then the compilation broke for the firmware because without this, two of the generated files in libid3tag (frametype.c and compat.c) are empty and so linking minidlna breaks.

I've just installed gperf and trying a recompile, fingers crossed.

Thanks

EDIT: Nope that didn't do it, still won't build.

 

[RMerlin]

3.0.0.3.178 RM15 is now available! Grab it off Github (I will upload it to my website later).

The main change is the rebase on 3.0.0.3.178, the latest and shiniest from Asus.

I'm also looking for a person or two willing to do some thorough wifi performance tests for me on an experimental build that uses a different wifi driver (actually the same driver used by the AC66U). Please let me know if you are willing to take the time to test it, and provide some actual performance test numbers.

EDIT: I forgot to mention - Asus has done some additional work to the Dual WAN feature from what I saw. If you have been using the Dual WAN feature, please let me know how this version is working for you compared to 162.14.

 

[oric1]

3.0.0.3.178 RM15 is now available! Grab it off Github (I will upload it to my website later).

Hi Merlin,

I'm on stock firmware v112 and this is my first time trying your new v178

How come I was not able to change the TX power for both the 2.4 & 5GHz? The default is 80mW.

I tried changing it to 100, clicked apply, logoff and logon, it's still remain at 80. I even try a lower value like 70 but it still remains at 80.

I was able to change the value using the stock fw.

Thanks!

 

[Maghook]

Hi Merlin,

thank you very much for the 3.0.0.3.178 RM15 release. I really appreciate your work on this!
I tried it on my RT-n66u but only in AP mode and discovered several issues since 3.0.0.3.16x.


The update cleared NVRAM. While trying to configure the unit as AP I came across the following issues (mostly ASUS-related I guess):

- Client status: shows wrong hostname (my workgroup instead of DHCP hostname)

- USB application: shows "Loading App list" forever (no device attached to USB port in my case). Is that intended? Did Asus remove the config tab for SAMBA at this point (enable/disable FTP-server, SAMBA)?

- Wireless (2,4/5Ghz) Professional Tab:
- No preconfigured values for time activation are shown at all.(Date to enable radio and time of day to enable radio). All fields are empty. After putting in values and apply changes, fields are empty again, though the values seem to be accepted.
- Could not enable packet aggregation. Everytime I tried to, it got resetted to default (disabled). I did not test other settings on this tab, but it seems as there are some flaws related to reading and displaying settings from NVRAM I guess.

- Administration => System Tab:
- Time zone: in my case only GMT0 is preconfigured and available at all. No other zones are available.

 

[Fab30]

Not sure since I don't torrent from the router, but it sounds plausible to me.

If you are using a hard disk (and not a USB flash), you could try enabling swap support. Note that I haven't tested it myself yet, but try this:

1) Telnet in (or go to the Run Cmd page)
2) run these:


Then reboot. After reboot, check available memory (through "free"), or through the Sysinfo page (if running build 14). See if this helps with general stability and performance.

Hi RMerlin, please, how i find, where is swap page? I mean, where is created swap page... Because, sda1 is 2TB HDD, ano multi reader is as sdb1 and sdb2.. THX

 

[IcEMoCHa]

Not with so little information, no. But my guess would be interference, and on reboot your router simply picks up a different channel that's less crowded at that moment.

Analyze your surroundings using InSSIDer, and set a static channel. Also use 20 MHz if you're on the 2.4 GHz band, it's far less likely to have issues.

Also see if toggling the b/g protection option helps (especially if you have a mixture of b/g/n devices).

Actually there are only a few networks in my neighborhood. Not enough to cause any slowdown as observed on my previous router(buffalo HP-G54) for 2 years.

I'm actually trying to transfer files from my PC to my phone via the 5GHz wireless N, was wondering why the speed was fluctuating from 15KB/s to 500KB/s until the router was rebooted, the speed is back to 8-12MB/s.

Currently trying your new build, will report back with results. Great firmware love it

 

[uncle.f]

Luckily for you, 178.15 was being delayed a bit as I was hoping to see Asus release a fix to the AC66U wifi + CTF issue. That gave me a free evening to add some stuff om the ToDO list like the option to enable WAN access to SSH.

Much appreciated!!! Thanks once again for all your efforts!

Now I am on to find an iptables rule that would block all access to the router's LAN ip address from any WiFi connected client.

 

[Andu]

I have a problem but I'm not sure if this is something that I should be asking here or to the Asus guys. I'm living in Germany and over here the ISPs have the stupid attitude of disconnecting the DSL line every 24h. So after 24h you need to reconnect to the ISP in order to be able to still surf. My Telekom router while a terrible router had the option of automatically reconnect at a given time or at least a certain time frame. So you could set the router to do the daily disconnect/reconnect routine at 3-4AM or something.

With the N66U (which is set to use PPPoE to connect to the ISP via my old router which is set to PPPoE Passthrough) both stock or Merlin firmware the ISP disconnects me but the router doesn't recognize this. It considers itself to be still connected to the ISP. Using the reboot feature in the WebUI doesn't help. I need to hard reset the router by turning it off and on again to force the router to reconnect to the ISP.

Now this is obviously far from ideal so I would like to know if we could have an optional feature which allows us to set an automatic disconnect/reconnect to the ISP via PPPoE at a set time.

I hope you can help me Merlin or at least point me in the right direction as to where I can find the help I need.

 

[nackerton]

Hello Merlin

Have you had time to check if it would be possible to turn the leds off with software? Asus has really overshoot with brightness

 

[uncle.f]

I have a problem but I'm not sure if this is something that I should be asking here or to the Asus guys. I'm living in Germany and over here the ISPs have the stupid attitude of disconnecting the DSL line every 24h.

What you describe is pretty much a "DSL standard" in every country I know of.
You should really define what "disconnecting DSL line" mean. I don't think somebody comes to your house every day and actually pulls out the DSL line somewhere in the basement. I guess, you rather mean that your PPP session is terminated by Telekom and ASUS router does not detect this (because when it does, it reconnects automatically just fine).

I strongly suspect that your problem comes from the fact that you are using this "pppoe pass-through" via your other router (may I ask why such strange setup?).

I am located in Germany and have never had such problem like you describe (my PPPoE session gets terminated by my ISP every ~12 hours, btw).

If connecting the Asus router directly to a DSL modem is not an option for you then the only thing I can recommend is to use cron daemon which is already a part of this excellent firmware by RMerlin to schedule PPPoE connection renewal every night. You will have to do some command line work for that, unfortunately.

 

[Andu]

Fine let me try to elaborate. I think your explanation of what actually happens during the disconnect is accurate. The ISP probably just terminates the PPP session on their end forcing you to establish a new one. The N66U for whatever reason doesn't seem to recognize this fact so it never reconnects. I'll try to get a log extract from that time tonight. Although I might not be home to do so.

As for PPPoE Passthrough that's easily explained. I have a Speedport W701V router by the Telekom which is basically some deprecated AVM router. Now while the modem part of the device is good enough the router part is just terrible. Bad range, only 802.11g no possibility to attach an external hard drive via USB (which I'll probably replace with a NAS anyway but oh well). If I set the W701V to establish the connection to the ISP and reconnect when necessary I cannot turn off the NAT within the W701V and that means I have to set up port forwarding twice. Even worse because the UPnP within the W701V is a non functional joke.
PPPoE Passthrough allows the device to just function as a modem (NAT is disabled automatically at that point) and let the N66U establish the PPP connection to the ISP. The W701V establishes the connection to the DSLAM and otherwise just functions as a relay for the N66U.

I hope that's all 100% accurate I might have flubbed on a few of the technical details.

Btw for me it is an actual 24h disconnect not that it should matter.

 

[uncle.f]

PPPoE Passthrough allows the device to just function as a modem (NAT is disabled automatically at that point) and let the N66U establish the PPP connection to the ISP. The W701V establishes the connection to the DSLAM and otherwise just functions as a relay for the N66U.

From what you have said about that Telekom router, it is pretty much a crappy device (although I knew this before anyway from my own experience).

So what makes you think that the passthrough feature is actually 100% working as it should, if many other features that you have described are "non-functional joke"?

Why not getting yourself a pure DSL modem and hopefully all your troubles are gone then? Some of them cost less than 20 euros.

Anyway, if you do not want to fix it the right way, set up a cron job to simply restard pppd daemon on schedule. I guess RMerlin would know more about the actual command that needs to be run to stard pppd with the required options.

Edit: try this to stop and start PPoE:

killall pppd ; sleep 5 ; /usr/sbin/pppd file /tmp/ppp/options.wan0

If that works for you (it works for me), then stick those commands in a cron job.

 

[Andu]

So what makes you think that the passthrough feature is actually 100% working as it should, if many other features that you have described are "non-functional joke"?

Why not getting yourself a pure DSL modem and hopefully all your troubles are gone then? Some of them cost less than 20 euros.

Why I think that the Passthrough is working is because I can establish a PPPoE connection with the N66U in the first place. And after I restart the N66U I get my connection back again too. It's still possible that there is an issue on the 701's part but I think that's improbable.

As for why I don't buy a DSL modem just to try it out is because there is a slim chance that within the next 1-2 months the Telekom might upgrade the part where I live and I can switch to VDSL.

I'll wait what Merlin has to say otherwise I might just give the cron job a shot and see if that solves my issues

Thanks for your help.

 

[uncle.f]

Why I think that the Passthrough is working is because I can establish a PPPoE connection with the N66U in the first place. And after I restart the N66U I get my connection back again too. It's still possible that there is an issue on the 701's part but I think that's improbable.

Establishing connection is very different from detecting a disconnection with a device in the middle. Anyway, try the commands that I added to my reply above.

 

[cc666]

Merlin nvram question

If I telnet with is:

nvram show >/dev/null

and get this result:

size: 30524 bytes (35012 left)

Does that verify 64k nvram?

Just got the new beta and wanting to verify.

Thanks
CC

 

[octopus]

Yes
30524 + 35012 = 65536