Finally got merlin FW to work on DSL-AC68U

[AndreiV]

fortunately i was monitoring the discussion and i was able to download HGG Firmware before they removed the link, i will give it a try.
I would like an explanation on how something like a link to an open source firmware enables violation of regulatory standards and what are those regulatory standards. because as it seems to me I haven't comprehend properly the forum's terms and rules.

The firmware you refer to (and other releases) were removed from this site because they either breach licence agreements and/or international regulations on WiFi signal strength adjustment.

Anything illegal like that can't be posted/discussed here.

HGGomes firmware breaches FCC regulations.

 

[Grisu]

HGGomes firmware breaches FCC regulations.

1. Why should anyone on world outside US and maybe Canada take care of crazy FCC?
2. Even you in UK are not limited by FCC, we not even need to know what FCC is.

3. BUT it IS ALLOWED to use the same router just like I bought it with full power on all channels if I never made a firmware update ?!?!?

Please explain that ...

 

[AstonV]

Thanks for the little information for us newbies. I myself had been following the thread discussion and couldn't understand what the violation was. I didn't feel comfortable responding before as I do understand where Bulandi was coming from. Nevertheless, I was under the impression that with Asus Merlin Firmware you can change the TX Power as well. So there is a chance if Xantier's port of Merlin Firmware keeps the TX Power untouched, then it can be shared here. Or would that not be allowed because of the DSL modem code?

 

[RMerlin]

Please explain that ...

This has been discussed ad nauseum on these forums, do a forum search to find any of the lengthy explanations.

This website is hosted in the US, and owned by a US citizen. It is also privately owned by Tim's company. His website, his rules.

Nevertheless, I was under the impression that with Asus Merlin Firmware you can change the TX Power as well.

Power levels and regions can only be adjusted if you have a router sold in one of the regions that allows it. This is the same as with the stock firmware.

So there is a chance if Xantier's port of Merlin Firmware keeps the TX Power untouched, then it can be shared here. Or would that not be allowed because of the DSL modem code?

Ultimately, it's up to the author of this fork to decide if he wants to share his code or not. I have no reason to suspect he might have made changes to bypass local regulations, since his primary goal was just to have my firmware code support that specific model. So, let's not speculate as to the reason why it hasn't been shared. All I can say is, if he didn't change anything to region management, then there are no reason from SNBForums' end that prevents him from doing so.

 

[AstonV]

Ultimately, it's up to the author of this fork to decide if he wants to share his code or not. I have no reason to suspect he might have made changes to bypass local regulations, since his primary goal was just to have my firmware code support that specific model. So, let's not speculate as to the reason why it hasn't been shared. All I can say is, if he didn't change anything to region management, then there are no reason from SNBForums' end that prevents him from doing so.

So if you don't mind me asking Merlin, with all due respect, how come you never supported the DSL models? I know you mentioned it in previous post but I don't think I still get it. How was Xantier able to do it? Please excuse my ignorance. Thanks

 

[ColinTaylor]

So if you don't mind me asking Merlin, with all due respect, how come you never supported the DSL models? I know you mentioned it in previous post but I don't think I still get it. How was Xantier able to do it? Please excuse my ignorance. Thanks

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/asuswrt-merlin-on-dsl-n66u.19148/#post-274557

 

[AstonV]

I did read through that thread before posting my question as I don't think it answers my question. I know Merlin will not be supporting the DSL neither will he do so in the future. I know he states he has no way of testing this, again I don't understand what he means by that, whether he doesn't have the hardware etc. But what my main question posed was how come Xantier did it and Merlin never even attempted it.

Xantier..sorry, I feel like I am hijacking your thread. Hopefully this would be the last post.

 

[ColinTaylor]

@AstonV Just because something is technically possible doesn't mean that Merlin can invest the time an effort required to support it, especially when he can't test the builds himself. This is just one man supporting multiple routers in his spare time. He has a day job as well! He has already had to drop support for popular routers like the RT-N66U because of the workload involved. I think his position is quite easy to understand.

 

[AstonV]

I'm sorry but that still does not address the question. I think without a doubt I and many know Merlin is a busy person who has better things to do that serve the public. He has invested time in other models and all of them RT. So it is not really about that. I would really prefer to hear Merlin's take on this. Thanks.

 

[scjr]

I'm sorry but that still does not address the question. I think without a doubt I and many know Merlin is a busy person who has better things to do that serve the public. He has invested time in other models and all of them RT. So it is not really about that. I would really prefer to hear Merlin's take on this. Thanks.

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/rt-ac68u-and-dsl-ac68u-firmware-question.33553/page-2#post-292291

Someone with a DSL-AC68U, and the time, skill and willingness to merge the missing GPL components into the code, and actively maintaining it every time Asus makes a firmware change that breaks backward compatibility with the previous closed-source components.

It's a lot of work, and you are highly dependent on Asus's own release schedule. Since they don't update the GPL as often for these DSL models, it means that half of the time you would not be able to update the rest of the firmware until they provided the community with an updated version for that specific model.

The current amount of closed source parts of the firmware have made it virtually impossible to support both the frequently updated models AND the less frequently updated ones at the same time.

 

[RMerlin]

So if you don't mind me asking Merlin, with all due respect, how come you never supported the DSL models? I know you mentioned it in previous post but I don't think I still get it. How was Xantier able to do it? Please excuse my ignorance. Thanks

Not available locally, no way for me to test them because I use cable, too small a userbase to warrant the amount of work involved, and infrequent GPL releases from Asus making it next to impossible to issue new releases on a regular basis.

 

[AstonV]

Thanks Merlin. Much appreciated

 

[Zendilar]

first of all I wasn't meant to to set the tread on fire, I just asked because as it seams I wasn't aware of some things (like FCC or things about the GPL licenses). FFC does not aply to my country.
secondly I don't have the knowledge to do things like altering or porting the original code, otherwise I would have done it myself.
I can only politely ask not request the persons that can do it to do it for me if they want or are in the mood to do so.
We all know that it takes a lot of time and they don't make money out of it, they just do it because they like it and they like to share their enhancement modifications with us.
If the problem is the testing part I already own three dsl-ac68u devises and I don't have any problem to test any firmware on them, that is because 99% of EU is using adsl/vdsl thru telephone lines.

Ps: how can I PM a member because I haven't find a way to do so.

 

[RMerlin]

Ps: how can I PM a member because I haven't find a way to do so.

Click on their name on the left side of a post, and select Start a Conversation.

 

[xantier]

Guys, sorry for disappearing for a long time. Here is the github repo: https://github.com/denizsokmen/dsl-ac68u/tree/dsl

(it's in the dsl branch)

I can't post binary, it's not allowed. You should get the code and compile it. It's been almost 2 months and my modem is still stable.

I haven’t touched any tx power stuff or anything that breaks fcc regulations. So many files have changed because automake modified lots of them so I didn’t have time to find them one by one. I will post more instructions because you need the binary for DSL module when compiling, which you can download from asus’ website. And you should put that binary into release/image folder, because makefile basically checks that folder for the modem firmware binary, and combines it with the router firmware you have just compiled, so that it becomes a single DSL-AC68U firmware image that contains both modem and router FWs. You need the restoration tool to upload it. I know the commits are a mess because there are many files -including the webpage files- from the original DSL source copy pasted into merlin's. Look for the smaller file changes to see what really changed, because huge ones are probably a copy paste or auto generated by autoconf.

Don't get compiled binaries from someone else, I really don't recommend as they can simply turn your modem into a zombie, you can't know what's inside. Safest method is to read merlin's compile instructions and learn how to compile and build your image yourselves. You need to target DSL-AC68U this time, not RT-AC68U, that's the only difference in those instructions.

 

[Mirco]

Hi all. I compiled the modified version from xantier, so here's a small guide so you can do it too without struggling too much (like I did eheh). I used Ubuntu 18.04 x64 on a VM.

1. Clone the dsl branch of repository by doing

   git clone --single-branch -b dsl https://github.com/denizsokmen/dsl-ac68u.git

2. Clone am-toolchains with

   git clone https://github.com/RMerl/am-toolchains.git

3. Follow instructions here to download all needed libraries (follow just the apt-get part)
4. Navigate to

   ~/dsl-ac68u/release/src-rt-6.x.4708/

   and delete the toolchains symlink file/folder
   
5. Follow instructions here to configure BCM-SDK (change ~/asuswrt-merlin.382/with the name of the folder cloned at point n.1)
6. Navigate to

   ~/dsl-ac68u/release/src/router/shared/prebuild

   and copy-paste the RT-AC68U folder into the same directory and rename the new folder to DSL-AC68U
7. Navigate to

   ~/dsl-ac68u/release/src/router/rc/prebuild

   and copy-paste the RT-AC68U folder into the same directory and rename the new folder to DSL-AC68U
   
8. Navigate to

   ~/dsl-ac68u/release/src/router/httpd/prebuild

   and copy-paste the RT-AC68U folder into the same directory and rename the new folder to DSL-AC68U
   
9. Navigate to

   ~/dsl-ac68u/release/src/router/libevent-2.0.21/test/

   and edit the Makefile.am file. Replace all occurrences of $(top_srcdir) with

   ~/dsl-ac68u/release/src/router/libevent-2.0.21

   (this was necessary for me to prevent file-not-found errors while compiling caused by the bad variable)
10. Download the DSL-AC68U source from here
11. Extract the archive, then extract GPL_DSL-AC68U tar. Navigate to the extracted folder into

    ./release/src/router/rc/prebuild

    and copy all files files into

    ~/dsl-ac68u/release/src/router/rc/prebuild/DSL-AC68

    folder (replacing the original files).
12. Navigate to the extracted folder into

    ./release/src-rt-6.x.4708/

    and copy tc_fw folder to

    ~/dsl-ac68u/release/src-rt-6.x.4708/

13. Navigate to

    ~/dsl-ac68u/release/src/router/wget/

    and run

    autoreconf -fi

    (this was necessary for me to fix a wget compile error)
14. Navigate to

    ~/dsl-ac68u/release/src/router/wget/po/

    and open the file file Makefile.in.in. I had to change GETTEXT_MACRO_VERSION from 0.18 to 0.19 as I was getting errors while compiling (but that may depend on my setup).
15. Navigate to

    ~/dsl-ac68u/release/src/router/tor/

    and run

    autoreconf -fi

    (this was necessary for me to fix a wget compile error)
16. Navigate to

    ./release/src-rt-6.x.4708/

    and type make clean followed by make dsl-ac68u to start the compile process.
17. At the end, if everything went smooth you should have the DSL-AC68U_384.7_alpha1_DSL_1.0.4.6.trx image into

    ~/dsl-ac68u/release/src-rt-6.x.4708/image/

Everything seems to be working just fine (even the USB port which was not working for me with the RT-AC68U Merlin firmware). I leave a screenshot in attachment.

Also I leave here the unmodified compiled firmware (hope that's allowed). I swear I DID NOT MODIFIED IT in ANY WAY, but as xantier said you should just compile your own. Link: https://mega.nz/#!g4kCGQwI!DnuBw8C-FUuvU79_b74TMkja5_jFuXCLD-Pr45c0Xc0

If you have any question/issue please let me know. Also xantier please feel free to correct some steps if those are wrong. Of course, I don't take any responsibility on what may happen to your router. Thanks!

 

[xantier]

Hi all. I compiled the modified version from xantier, so here's a small guide so you can do it too without struggling too much (like I did eheh). I used Ubuntu 18.04 x64 on a VM.

Great instructions! Thanks for the clean explanation. Moving tc_fw folder is important as there is no strict check for it AFAIK so you might end up with a "dsl" firmware with no modem in it. I will actually copy these instructions and put it into the repo so that I don't forget the steps either

 

[Mirco]

Great instructions! Thanks for the clean explanation. Moving tc_fw folder is important as there is no strict check for it AFAIK so you might end up with a "dsl" firmware with no modem in it. I will actually copy these instructions and put it into the repo so that I don't forget the steps either

Everything is working fine... only thing that I see is missing is the possibility to use DSL as Seconday WAN in Dual-WAN Setup. Do you know if there is any easy way to do that?
I'd like to use USB as primary-wan and DSL as backup.

Thanks!

 

[Topoldo]

Hi all. I compiled the modified version from xantier

[skip]

Just two little clarifications:

5. Follow instructions here to configure BCM-SDK (change ~/asuswrt-merlin.382/with the name of the folder cloned at point n.1)

There is a little error.
In the original instructions, the folder is not named ~/asuswrt-merlin.382/ but ~/asuswrt-merlin.ng/

10. Download the DSL-AC68U source from here

If you follow the link you go nowhere because the version of the source changed.
So it could be better if the link is generic:
https://www.asus.com/us/Networking/RTAC68U/HelpDesk_Download/
Here you need to choose "Others" as the operating system. This way you can get the updated source file.

My two cents tip.
Topoldo

 

[Topoldo]

I tried to compile it by myself.
I was able to follow steps indicated by Mirco until n. 12.
Then I tried to find tc_fw folder in the source I could actually download at the Asus site, ie:
GPL_RT-AC5300_3.0.0.4.384.32799-gfe72567.tgz
If I did not miss something, there is no tc_fw where Mirco said ie at:
~/dsl-ac68u/release/src-rt-6.x.4708/
I found it in asus/tools subdir but this dir is present (with the same files) both in the dsl-ac68u and in the extracted tree from GPL_DSL-AC68U source.

Regards,
Topoldo