Howdy folks,
Asuswrt-Merlin 378.50 Beta 1 is now available for download, for all supported models.
This build introduces a pretty long list of changes. Due to some of these changes Asus did (and I took the opportunity to add a few more of my own in the same direction), a factory default reset is required, followed by a MANUAL reconfiguration of your settings.
This should only be needed once, the upgrade to 378.50 final won't require another one.
Let's get started with the highlights of this release:
This beta release requires testing done most specifically on these aspects:
Downloads are here.
Changelog is here.
Asuswrt-Merlin 378.50 Beta 1 is now available for download, for all supported models.
This build introduces a pretty long list of changes. Due to some of these changes Asus did (and I took the opportunity to add a few more of my own in the same direction), a factory default reset is required, followed by a MANUAL reconfiguration of your settings.
This should only be needed once, the upgrade to 378.50 final won't require another one.
Let's get started with the highlights of this release:
- Merged with Asus's 378_3913 GPL code. (this isn't from a public release). 378 introduces a lot of changes:
* Trend Micro DPI engine for the RT-AC68U (that means Adaptive QoS, AiProtection, etc...)
* Switch to a new IPv6 architecture (I already did the switch in 376.49, but this is based on more up-to-date code)
* The RT-AC68U firmware partition was increased to 64 MB, to make room for new features (that includes an upgraded bootloader)
* Lots of changes to the Dual WAN and 3G/4G USB support
* Updated Quantenna firmware/driver
- Custom DDNS support. Rather than mess with the ez-ipupdate and the webui, I decided to go for a simpler yet far more flexible route. Custom DDNS support is implemented through a new user script called ddns-start. This means you can implement virtually any DDNS service, either through a basic shell script (many DDNS providers support updating through visiting a specific URL), or running a special DDNS client that you would compile yourself. Make sure you read the documentation on how to use this. Note that this script can also be used in parallel to a webui-configured DDNS service, if you want to update additional DDNS services.
- IMPORTANT: custom config and user scripts support must now be manually enabled on the Administration -> System page. This was done because the JFFS partition is now enabled by default, to be in line with Asus's own firmware (and also because they are starting to make use of that partition for new features). Script/configs default to disabled so in case of a broken script preventing your router from booting, you'll still be able to recover it through a factory default reset.
- EXPERIMENTAL support for the Trend Micro DPI engine on the RT-AC56U. So far Asus hasn't added official support for that model, so this means for me to be able to implement support on it, I had to reuse the wireless driver from the RT-AC68U. Download the beta1_dpi build to test it out.
- The RT-AC68U bootloader will automatically get upgraded to the newer version. This is required to allow people to freely flash any of the newer 378_xxxx firmwares from Asus without having to go through an intermediary flash.
- OpenSSL (1.0.0p) and vsftpd (3.0.2) updates. The latter was actually done by Asus for one specific model - I went ahead and switched to that version for all my supported models as well.
- Download Master was removed from the RT-N66U and RT-N16 firmware, which will leave more space available for the JFFS2 partition. Installing DM will be done from the Internet, just like is already the case with the AC56 and AC68U.
- dnsmasq will now allow a number of leases up to either 253 or the DHCP pool size, whichever being the smallest. This will resolve the issue introduced by a recent change from Asus where people allocating a very small pool would run out of leases as they had a larger number of static leases outside of that pool.
- All the Asus-specific MIBs were disabled in SNMP. Those MIBs exposed a lot of critical information (such as router logins), and could be accessed unauthenticated over SNMPv2 provided someone on your LAN had the community name.
- You can now leave the local IP field empty when creating an IPv6 firewall rule.
- A number of additional fixes: OpenVPN server no longer start automatically when moving from stock FW, DHCP log spam caused by Win8 clients using IPv6, missing "Empty" dragger on the Adaptice QoS page, OpenVPN crashes if cipher set to None (backported patch from upstream), and others - see the complete changelog for details.
This beta release requires testing done most specifically on these aspects:
- Wifi on the RT-AC56U. Make sure it still works properly despite reusing the AC68U driver. Please report any change in stability, speed, range, etc... If some of you have the time, please test both the regular and the _dpi versions of the AC56U firmware, and let me know if you notice any difference in terms of wireless.
- Trend Micro-related features on both the AC56 and AC68. AiProtection and Adaptive QoS.
- FTP - ensure that the upgrade to 3.x didn't break anything. I'm also interested in hearing if it resolved any particular issue as well.
- Test out the new DDNS features. The documentation includes a basic example for afraid.org - I'll eventually ask people to contribute their own scripts for additional DDNS providers, for inclusion on the Wiki. I'll let you know once I have a new Wiki page setup for this particular feature, so people will be able to start adding their own entries.
- Confirm that the AC68U CFE upgrader works correctly. Check the Tools -> Sysinfo page, confirm that after the initial installation (give it a few mins to complete the whole process), the bootloader shows a version of at least 1.0.2.0
Downloads are here.
Changelog is here.
Last edited:
