Dreaded "Firmware upgrade unsuccessful"

[fedy]

Hi!

I do realize this is a frequent question here – mostly caused by people trying to apply wrong FW version, but I am at my wit's end - it is not clear to me what I am doing wrong.

1. I have a new Asus RT-AC68U.
2. I downloaded and tried to apply "RT-AC68U_386.4_0.trx" (from both sites/mirrors). I also tried to apply "RT-AC68U_386.3_2.trx". Neither works.
3. I did reboot the router before trying to apply firmware.
4. I go to Administration / Firmware Upgrade and click on "Upload" in the "AIMesh router" section of the page. I do it in Safari (for some reason, Chrome won't open the file dialog when clicking on upload.

What am I missing?

Thank you,
Stumped

 

[fedy]

(Maybe I should add: it is HW version 4. Year 2021.)

 

[pinkgrae]

(Maybe I should add: it is HW version 4. Year 2021.)

AC68U v4 is not yet supported by asuswrt-merlin as per this thread:

"There are still a few remaining issues that are currently forcing me to delay support for the RT-AC68U_V4 and GT-AXE11000, these will need to be revisited once their respective GPL archives are fixed by Asus and Broadcom."

 

[fedy]

Super helpful, thank you!

 

[Tech9]

Maybe I should add: it is HW version 4. Year 2021.

May I ask where you got it from and in what country? Thank you!

 

[fedy]

Amazon, United States

 

[Tech9]

For $130? This V4 router must be much better hardware than older AC68U variants. I want one for dissection.

 

[fedy]

Yes, that was the price. I did not really spend much time looking at the hardware; all I wanted from it was the ability to set up a VPN tunnel and do some policy based routing through it.

I setup the tunnel, but I don't think the vanilla firmware supports the policy based routing through it...

 

[Tech9]

Asuswrt-Merlin features only. But all older AC68U variants are AC Wave 1, the new one must be AC Wave 2 with better CPU.

 

[RMerlin]

For $130? This V4 router must be much better hardware than older AC68U variants. I want one for dissection.

BCM4906 if I remember correctly. It's a HND device.

 

[Tech9]

Any information on radio SoC? BCM4365E, perhaps?

 

[RMerlin]

Any information on radio SoC? BCM4365E, perhaps?

BCM4360. Which makes sense, since the RT-AC68U is a three-stream model. Anything above would have been an exact clone of the RT-AC86U. That would probably also have required revalidation by the FCC since it would be a different radio design.

 

[Tech9]

Oh, this is so disappointing!

BCM4360 is the old AC Wave 1 radio.

BCM4365E is 3-stream radio as well, but AC Wave 2. BCM4366E is the 4-stream variant.

 

[RMerlin]

Oh, this is so disappointing!

BCM4360 is the old AC Wave 1 radio.

BCM4365E is 3-stream radio as well, but AC Wave 2. BCM4366E is the 4-stream variant.

Why would Asus release an upgraded RT-AC68U with almost the exact same hardware specs as the RT-AC86U?

If you change wifi SoC, then it becomes a completely different SKU.

 

[Tech9]

They already have multiple router models with the same PCB and SoC. Not interested in V4 anymore. Thank you for the information.

 

[RMerlin]

They already have multiple router models with the same PCB and SoC. Not interested in V4 anymore. Thank you for the information.

At the correct price point, that router can make a mean OpenVPN server for a very affordable price (if it actually sells for the MSRP that Asus quoted me last year before its launch). An OpenVPN-capable router that can hit 200 Mbps (or close to 300 Mbps with IPSEC), for under 150$? That's a very interesting product.

BTW, Broadcom finally figured out the wifi issue, and I got the fixed GPL merged in tonight.

 

[pinkgrae]

BTW, Broadcom finally figured out the wifi issue, and I got the fixed GPL merged in tonight.

Oooo - I see lots of new alphas. No AC86U yet?

 

[RMerlin]

Oooo - I see lots of new alphas. No AC86U yet?

No.

 

[Tech9]

if it actually sells for the MSRP that Asus quoted me last year before its launch

Yes, that was the price.

$130 on Amazon USA
This model just screws up people with intentions to run DD-WRT, OpenWRT, Tomato on what we know as RT-AC68U.

 

[RMerlin]

This model just screws up people with intentions to run DD-WRT, OpenWRT, Tomato on what we know as RT-AC68U.

How so? Hardware revisions have always been an important parameter when looking for compatibility. The Netgear R7500 even switched from Quantenna to Qualcomm between V1 and V2, for example.

People need to keep an eye on the hardware version if they intend to run non-original software. This has always been the case since the early days of DD-WRT, back when not every WRT54G revision was compatible with it. Same with various D-Link models that would sometimes switch hardware platforms.