Asuswrt-Merlin on RT-N18U

[teddy]

Hey there,

Just spent half of today reading through what you guys are doing here, with the Merlin version of the official Asus firmware. Will start with GREAT JOB, Keep it up!

Now, the other half of the day, I've been trying to flash N66U, AC68U, AC56U as well as N16 Merlin distribs to my new RT-N18U, with not much luck. Well, it does start, but hangs badly..

Reading around the forum, my N18U is powered by an BCM47081 ARM CPU, which seems to be a single-core version of the BCM4708 ARM CPU (in both AC56U and AC68U). Obvious difference (besides being single) is that it only supports (quite well) 2.4Ghz.

So my questions:
1. Which image version should i try?
2. Is there a workaround to get stable behavior with one of the existing Merlin versions on my N18u?
3. If no go with 1 or 2, how difficult is for someone to compile/build a RT18u image?
(happy to assist with testing, if you guys don't have access to a device)


(Search did not help that much, btw - noone seems to own this router, nor want Merlin almost-orig-firmware on it)

PS: tried the N66U, which didn't work either (maybe cause it's MIPS)
PPS: Asuswrt-Merlin version used: 3.0.0.4_376.45_0 (latest as of today)

Thanks in advance,
teddy

 

[teddy]

quick update: seems i've got it working on a 374.43 by john9527 (here)

works on AC68U version. will run some tests..

--
not many tests run, it seems to be working..

CPU is reported correctly (single core)
cat /proc/cpuinfo
Processor : ARMv7 Processor rev 0 (v7l)
processor : 0
BogoMIPS : 1595.80

Features : swp half thumb fastmult edsp
CPU implementer : 0x41
CPU architecture: 7
CPU variant : 0x3
CPU part : 0xc09
CPU revision : 0

Hardware : Northstar Prototype
Revision : 0000
Serial : 0000000000000000

however:
uptime
00:58:26 up 10 min, load average: 2.01, 1.84, 1.06

the CPU load average stays over 2. can't tell why.

+ CPU @ 75 C, 2.4 GHz @ 53 C (ambient 20 Celsius)...

anyone, any clues?

thanks

 

[RMerlin]

The firmware has to be compiled specifically for a router model. You cannot reuse the firmware of another model, none of them are close enough to the RT-N18 hardware.

 

[AndreyPopov]

Reading around the forum, my N18U is powered by an BCM47081 ARM CPU, which seems to be a single-core version of the BCM4708 ARM CPU (in both AC56U and AC68U). Obvious difference (besides being single) is that it only supports (quite well) 2.4Ghz.

you cannot use any images because init code contain router specific port configuration code
https://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin/blob/master/release/src/router/rc/sysdeps/init-broadcom.c

RT-N18U like RT-AC68U but with low frequency core/memmory and that's why if you flash firmware from RT-AC68U to RT-N18U than core or/an memory can start.

only way compile firmware yourself like me http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=18624

you must add to Merlin srt-rt/target.mak RT-N18U profile and add to srt-rt.6x.4708/wl/sysdeps RT-N18U files.

 

[z1022]

Want to know when RT-N18U will formal support by Asuswrt-Merlin??

 

[AndreyPopov]

Want to know when RT-N18U will formal support by Asuswrt-Merlin??

only Merlin need - add to his target.mak RT-N18U support and compile.

wl/sysdeps for RT-N18U included to last GPL 376.2678

or you can compile Merlin build by yourself.

 

[teddy]

Cheers for that @RMerlin, @Andrey!

Appreciate the quick replies, sorry for mine late, a bit busy - no time for N18u. Will look into compiling it myself. Will let you know the outcome

:beer: :beer:

 

[z1022]

only Merlin need - add to his target.mak RT-N18U support and compile.

wl/sysdeps for RT-N18U included to last GPL 376.2678

or you can compile Merlin build by yourself.

Thank for your reply.

I better wait for formal support.

 

[z1022]

Cheers for that @RMerlin, @Andrey!

Appreciate the quick replies, sorry for mine late, a bit busy - no time for N18u. Will look into compiling it myself. Will let you know the outcome

:beer: :beer:

Teddy,

Are you success to complie ?? If yes, can you share to me.

Thanks

 

[dodge]

I just upgraded to the N18U from a 9yo WRT54G running Tomato, and what a breath of fresh air!

On my "3rd world" 20mbps connection I didn't realise I was bottlenecked ( downloads maxed at 1.9mb/s vs now 2.3mb/s!) even though the WAN-to-LAN speeds for the WRT54G is supposedly much higher.

@RMerlin, any chance of having your excellent firmware ported to the N18U?

 

[draftvader]

Joined up to give my support for MerlinWRT for RT-N18U

I just upgraded to the N18U from a 9yo WRT54G running Tomato, and what a breath of fresh air!

On my "3rd world" 20mbps connection I didn't realise I was bottlenecked ( downloads maxed at 1.9mb/s vs now 2.3mb/s!) even though the WAN-to-LAN speeds for the WRT54G is supposedly much higher.

@RMerlin, any chance of having your excellent firmware ported to the N18U?

Just like dodge here I have just upgraded to the N18U from a (widely popular in this 3rd world country....wondering if it is the same one dodge?) WRT54GL with tomato RAF (victek). We're now streaming 720p around our house from our HTPC/NAS and it is fantastic.

I have looked at the tomato shibby builds and am interested but would really like to test MerlinWRT first as it is getting such wonderful reviews and answers all the "uncomfortable" issues I have already discovered with ASUSWRT (really, no labeling for DHCP??!??!?!).

So, I'm here and hoping. Thank you Merlin for your work so far as it seems to have made a lot of ASUS router users happy.

 

[teddy]

Hey again,

@Andrey, kept trying to build it myself, not much luck or not enough dev power.. got rusty..

@RMerlin, I could see you've tried building it for n18u, then reverted, as failed to build. Could I ask what happened? 13-14 sept commits. Is there anything I could help (i.e. testing)?

Thanks,

teddy

 

[RMerlin]

Hey again,

@Andrey, kept trying to build it myself, not much luck or not enough dev power.. got rusty..

@RMerlin, I could see you've tried building it for n18u, then reverted, as failed to build. Could I ask what happened? 13-14 sept commits. Is there anything I could help (i.e. testing)?

Missing some closed source binaries. Those compiled for SMP will not work on the RT-N18 which uses a non-SMP aware kernel, so they cannot be used. And since the source tree doesn't have the necessary code to handle parallel builds of these, this would also require a good bit of additional work to properly get integrated assuming those missing binary blobs became available.

 

[teddy]

Thanks RMerlin,

My first thought sounded: how about N16, that's single core as well. ..but then again a MIPS. What do you mean by "to become available"?

Ok then, not that easy to build for single-core 47081..

@Andrey, any of your builds work on single-core ARM?

 

[RMerlin]

Thanks RMerlin,

My first thought sounded: how about N16, that's single core as well. ..but then again a MIPS. What do you mean by "to become available"?

Meaning even if Asus uploaded an up-to-date GPL, it would still require a good amount of work to merge it with the existing code, as it has to be side by side with the SMP versions.

The RT-N16 doesn't have that problem because all MIPS devices are single core, so there's just one single version of all those files for MIPS.

 

[teddy]

Thanks man,

I was expecting that on MIPS. Ok then, so stock-asus for the time being. Maybe should have read a bit more before my acquisition, though didn't want to pay premium for the A wireless, don't need it. Truthfully I've discovered the forum after I've got the router

Nevertheless, thanks for your interest in this matter. Really appreciate it.

teddy

 

[draftvader]

Likelyhood of MerlinWRT RT-N18U

From the previous discussion is this a complete write off or do you believe their might be some hope in the future? My reading is that you feel there is a blockage in development that may well not be overcome easily.

Should we start to inspect Tomato Shibby?

Thanks for everything you have tried so far. I am very grateful you've even looked

 

[RMerlin]

From the previous discussion is this a complete write off or do you believe their might be some hope in the future? My reading is that you feel there is a blockage in development that may well not be overcome easily.

Should we start to inspect Tomato Shibby?

Thanks for everything you have tried so far. I am very grateful you've even looked

It's very doable, it just requires work that I'm not willing to put time into, both to initially implement and to maintain it afterward.

 

[draftvader]

It's very doable, it just requires work that I'm not willing to put time into, both to initially implement and to maintain it afterward.

I understand that. It is a shame but with such a wide range of routers from ASUS I can understand that you have to manage your time appropriately. I guess I'm doing the tomato shibby thing today....if only to have names against my DHCP list

It isn't such a problem as I have had many great years with tomato builds and know they're super good. Shibby is on the 2nd version for this unit so we should be stable too. Just heard so many good things about your firmware that I wanted to give it a go.

Keep up the good work and, maybe, one day I'll buy a router that appears in your list.

 

[AndreyPopov]

It's very doable, it just requires work that I'm not willing to put time into, both to initially implement and to maintain it afterward.

GPL for RT-N18U 376.2678

http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/wireless/RT-N18U/GPL_RT_N18U_30043762678.zip