Finally got merlin FW to work on DSL-AC68U

[GNUton]

None as I have no way of testing it, plus it would require a lot of additional work specific to that model.

fair enough. In any case thanks for the amazing work you have done and for the time you spend on Merlin firmware.
If enough people will ask for more builds I think I will keep on publishing unofficial releases.
BTW I was thinking to enable the MERLIN_UPDATE flag but I had not time yet to check how that works and how to get it pointing to the unofficial DSL releases.. any hint on how that works?

 

[RMerlin]

BTW I was thinking to enable the MERLIN_UPDATE flag but I had not time yet to check how that works and how to get it pointing to the unofficial DSL releases.. any hint on how that works?

You have to provide a manifest file, located on a web server pointed at with an nvram variable (default currently points at my server, you'd have to point it at yours instead), as well as the associated changelogs that get downloaded and displayed.

Best you keep that disabled, unless you want to configure an update notification server, with everything involved (file manifest, changelogs, etc...)

 

[kernol]

fair enough. In any case thanks for the amazing work you have done and for the time you spend on Merlin firmware.
If enough people will ask for more builds I think I will keep on publishing unofficial releases.
BTW I was thinking to enable the MERLIN_UPDATE flag but I had not time yet to check how that works and how to get it pointing to the unofficial DSL releases.. any hint on how that works?

I greatly admire the work done by @RMerlin on his Merlin-Ware ... and fully appreciate that he cannot offer support on Asus DSL modems.
While these modems may well be considered "legacy" by the first World - the rest of us in the developing World will be stuck with DSL for quite a long time.
Asus is well supported here in South Africa and their modems are popular. Fibre is gradually being rolled out in major cities - but penetration is still very limited.

I'm sure that here and in Australia there is more than enough demand for someone to take up the challenge of providing modified Merlin-Ware for the small range of DSL modems provided by Asus ... and many [myself included] would be happy to donate to anyone who did so reliably. The DSL-AC68U is popular and well supported with Asus stock firmware upgrades [the latest released just last month].

I will test your latest release soon on my DSL-AC68U's located in areas where Fibre has yet to be installed.
MANY thanks for your efforts to date - and I hope you stick with the program .

 

[RMerlin]

Nothing wrong in having other developers cover models I don't have time to support myself BTW, everyone wins if someone else is able to take care of additional models. I try to keep my repo as clean as possible (especially with descriptive commits of all my changes), so keeping in sync shouldn't be too hard - provided you can get updated GPL to keep up with my own merges. Otherwise, you might have to just backport specific fixes if the GPL releases from Asus aren't frequent enough (one of the factors that I consider when deciding whether or not to support a specific model).

 

[GNUton]

I greatly admire the work done by @RMerlin on his Merlin-Ware ... and fully appreciate that he cannot offer support on Asus DSL modems.
While these modems may well be considered "legacy" by the first World - the rest of us in the developing World will be stuck with DSL for quite a long time.
Asus is well supported here in South Africa and their modems are popular. Fibre is gradually being rolled out in major cities - but penetration is still very limited.

I'm sure that here and in Australia there is more than enough demand for someone to take up the challenge of providing modified Merlin-Ware for the small range of DSL modems provided by Asus ... and many [myself included] would be happy to donate to anyone who did so reliably. The DSL-AC68U is popular and well supported with Asus stock firmware upgrades [the latest released just last month].

I will test your latest release soon on my DSL-AC68U's located in areas where Fibre has yet to be installed.
MANY thanks for your efforts to date - and I hope you stick with the program .

Actually The Italian situation doesn't look so much different from what you have in South Africa. We are switching from ADSL to VDSL and Fiber but Fiber coverage is limited just to the big cities too. A/VDSL is still a thing in the Nordic countries too (eg: Finland where I currently live). In Finland even in the capital area VDSL is almost everywhere in many areas. So DSL-AC68U is not just a router for developing countries.

 

[Andrii]

I just merged the latest upstream merlin code and the newest firmware is in the release page of my github.
@RMerlin btw how much chance do you see to have DSL-AC68U supported by official builds? In my repo I grouped the changes necesary to make the firmware working on the DSL router, so in case you have interest and time you may look at them and decide if it would make sense to import to support the new router.

Thanks a lot!
My Asus DSL-AC68U was flashed by you last build. Everything excellent!

But there is no Let's Encrypt option on DDNS section. Merlin's firmware this option has and Asus firmware too.

 

[GNUton]

Thanks a lot!
My Asus DSL-AC68U was flashed by you last build. Everything excellent!

But there is no Let's Encrypt option on DDNS section. Merlin's firmware this option has and Asus firmware too.

I enabled let's encrypt in the build and you can check the latest version https://github.com/gnuton/asuswrt-merlin.ng/releases/tag/384.10-gnuton5

There are a few other options I may enable but I do not have idea yet what it makes sense to have and what not.. I will investigate on them:

FAKEHDR=y FORCE_SN=384 FORCE_EN=20000 NEWSSID_REV2=y LOGO_LED=y LED_BTN=y REPEATER=y ROG=y
If anybody of you know what these are (maybe some of them are obvious) please let me know what you wanna have in the firmware.
I was actually interested in the REPEATER.. I guess that would work, but I m not sure.. it does for RT-AC68U.

 

[RMerlin]

FAKEHDR=y FORCE_SN=384 FORCE_EN=20000

These are used to sign the TRX header, so they can be accepted by the current firmware (some RT-AC68U builds require minimal versions and prevent downgrading, to prevent people from bricking newer revisions with unsupported firmwares).

NEWSSID_REV2=y LOGO_LED=y LED_BTN=y

These are model specific, you should not change what the target.mak default profile is.

REPEATER=y ROG=y

Enable repeater mode and ROG-specific features. Again, should not be changed from the default values, as the pre-compiled binary blobs are tied to these.

 

[Andrii]

I enabled let's encrypt in the build and you can check the latest version https://github.com/gnuton/asuswrt-merlin.ng/releases/tag/384.10-gnuton5

Perfect! I'm happy. Thank you.
In my opinion, your build booting much faster, than Asus's. And DSL connection more stable, but I don't know why.

By the way: 384.10_2 build relised​

 

[GNUton]

All clear. Thanks for the explanation! BTW if I do enable repeater which is not supported by Asus on DSL AC6

Perfect! I'm happy. Thank you.
In my opinion, your build booting much faster, than Asus's. And DSL connection more stable, but I don't know why.

By the way: 384.10_2 build relised​

I saw that and I built it a few times already but I have not released it yet since I'm changing the CI workflows a bit.

 

[Grisu]

All clear. Thanks for the explanation! BTW if I do enable repeater which is not supported by Asus on DSL AC6
I saw that and I built it a few times already but I have not released it yet since I'm changing the CI workflows a bit.

Many many people would love to use it as repeater when they change line and need different modem, you would make them very happy!
And as Mesh-repeater even more happy.

 

[kernol]

All clear. Thanks for the explanation! BTW if I do enable repeater which is not supported by Asus on DSL AC6

I saw that and I built it a few times already but I have not released it yet since I'm changing the CI workflows a bit.

@GNUton - you are on track to being a HERO on this forum for DSL modem users ... so many of whom have been waiting anxiously for someone to take on the challenge of enabling Merlin-Ware for their routers. MUCH praise too for @RMerlin for his generosity in sharing his code and supporting your efforts.

Keep up the excellent work .

 

[Andrii]

WOW! 3 releases in one day... are you finished with 384.10_2?

 

[Vax]

Howdy!
If you are interested in builds of the Asus Merlin DSL-AC68U please feel free to check
https://github.com/gnuton/asuswrt-merlin.ng/

You rock! Finally some (in)official support for the beloved Merlin Firmware on DSL routers. Will try it soon. Keep it up!

 

[GNUton]

Many many people would love to use it as repeater when they change line and need different modem, you would make them very happy!
And as Mesh-repeater even more happy.

I'm building right now a pre-release of the firmware with the repeater enabled. It's still building and i have not tested it at all.

I quickly analysed the object files needed by the repeater and it looks like it "MAY" work. At least linking worked fine.. but please have a look at the logs and let me know if you see crashes or malfunctioning things.
So ONLY FOR THE BRAVES please check the release page of my github for the pre-release "gnuton-snapshot-feature-repeater" it will be there in a 30 mins.

PS: Yesterday I worked out the CHANGELOG generation from the git logs and there is a new CI workflow.. so you there was a little bit of noise in the previous changelogs. Hopefully, now it's all set.
Enjoy and please let me know if the repeater works or not.. quite sure you will manage to test it before me!
Cheers!

PS: My findings about the prebuilds needed to the repeater to work in a nutshell are here: https://github.com/gnuton/asuswrt-merlin.ng/issues/5

 

[GNUton]

I tested the gnuton-snapshot-feature-repeater and it looks to work, but the repeater page I think is missing in the UI.

 

[GNUton]

Hi there,
I'm writing this post to you from a DSL-AC68U running merlin in repeater mode.
I do not have a RT-AC68U to compare it, but somehow it works.
Please feel free to test it and gimme feedback if you like.

Here the visible changes:
1. I replaced the DSL initial wizard with the "BLUECAVE" one which actually looks way more cool.. you can choose the router operation modes from there. DSL is not there.
2. If you need DSL you can always configure from WAN.
3. Advanced_OperationMode_Content.asp page can be reached if you type the URL in the browser, but it's not a tab yet in the administration page.

Issues (?)
1. When you setup the device as repeater it disconnects you from the router if you are connected via wireless. Maybe it works better if you setup it via cable.
2. Once I set the router in repeater mode I had to reboot it (no idea if it was really needed) in order to see the new WLANs.
3. I have not checked the speed.
4. I will test the stability now...
5. the router still responds at router.asus.com

NOTE: The repeater mode won't go for now in the "stable" branch. If you wanna use it please get the repeater-snapshot. Snapshots do not have versions.. so I will update every now and then. Check the changelog and date of release for more info.

Once again... enjoy!

 

[RMerlin]

I'm building right now a pre-release of the firmware with the repeater enabled. It's still building and i have not tested it at all.

Suggestion: start a new thread, so you can easily maintain the first post with the latest version info, like John does with his own fork.

 

[GNUton]

It mAkes sense. I will do. BTW who is John ? Where can I find his work?

 

[L&LD]

It mAkes sense. I will do. BTW who is John ? Where can I find his work?

That would be john9527 and his LTS RMerlin fork here, https://www.snbforums.com/threads/fork-asuswrt-merlin-374-43-lts-releases-v38e4.18914/