[Fork] Asuswrt-Merlin 374.43 LTS releases (Archive)

[alexyw]

Have you tried the methods in this thread
https://slickdeals.net/f/9330575-as...dual-band-gigabit-router-59-free-shipping?v=1

I have 1 TM-AC1900 running John's fork for more than a year

Thanks. I followed pretty much the same instructions and get my router flashed to AC68P successfully. Problem came up when I tried to flash latest Merlin. Some kind of protection Asus put in the fw forced the router to revert to TM firmware. And the protection is apparently against any further firmware downgrading or upgrading...

 

[Dent]

The FCC raised the power limits on the lower channels which 'should' be reflected in the latest releases.

Now a comment on my fork.....this will be a difference between my 'L' legacy builds and newer 'E' builds. The 'L' builds will continue to use the regulations in effect at the time of original release (2014), and not reflect any changes made since then.

So with my N66U, if I want to keep my higher than normal transmit power output, I should use the "L" builds?

 

[XelNika]

@john9527, apologies if this has been asked before, the snbforums search function does not allow me to search for "dfs":

Since Merlin is ending support for the AC66U, I've been looking at your software for future support and security fixes. I can't figure out if DFS is supported with your firmware or not... Do I have to use the N66U NVRAM commands on my AC66U?
Channel 136 and 140 are currently the only free channels but my router doesn't choose them with your firmware.

 

[snbDD]

What rev AC68U do you have (A1,A2,B1,C1,E1) and when was it purchased?

My bad, I was not precise, it's a converted TM-AC1900. Does it define a revision unambiguously ?

Also please log into the router and run the following commands.
nvram get odmpid
nvram get cpurev
nvram get PA

All are empty

 

[ColinTaylor]

Since Merlin is ending support for the AC66U, I've been looking at your software for future support and security fixes. I can't figure out if DFS is supported with your firmware or not... Do I have to use the N66U NVRAM commands on my AC66U?
Channel 136 and 140 are currently the only free channels but my router doesn't choose them with your firmware.

DFS support was added in 25E1j9527 for the AC66U. If you have any channels above 48 then you have DFS, in which case no NVRAM commands are needed.

374.43_2-25E1j9527 (15-May-2017)
* NEW: wl: (experimental) dfs channel support for ac66, ac56, including auto select dfs channels

What region are you in, US, EU?

 

[XelNika]

DFS support was added in 25E1j9527 for the AC66U. If you have any channels above 48 then you have DFS.

What region are you in, US, EU?

Well, I don't remember if it was using a DFS channel, but AFAIR there was no checkbox for autoselecting DFS (an issue I've seen mentioned before). I'm currently trying out the latest ASUS official release so testing will have to wait until a time when no one will be bothered by me taking down the network.
I'm in the EU.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Well, I don't remember if it was using a DFS channel, but AFAIR there was no checkbox for autoselecting DFS (an issue I've seen mentioned before). I'm currently trying out the latest ASUS official release so testing will have to wait until a time when no one will be bothered by me taking down the network.
I'm in the EU.

AFAIK the checkbox only appears on US routers. I can't be sure because I don't have an AC66U, but provided you don't choose a bandwidth of 80MHz you should see channel 136 (and 140 for 20MHz).

 

[XelNika]

AFAIK the checkbox only appears on US routers. I can't be sure because I don't have an AC66U, but provided you don't choose a bandwidth of 80MHz you should see channel 136 (and 140 for 20MHz).

Will I be forced to select a fixed channel then or will automatic still work? On Merlin's FW automatic has honestly been doing a great job keeping me away from other 5 GHz networks although I prefer a fixed channel on 2.4 GHz. If you don't know, I guess I can just try it out.

I'm not so inconsiderate that I would use 80 MHz channel width in such a congested area. There are unfortunately quite a few of my neighbours who either don't know better, don't care or simply can't change their WAP configuration.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Will I be forced to select a fixed channel then or will automatic still work? On Merlin's FW automatic has honestly been doing a great job keeping me away from other 5 GHz networks although I prefer a fixed channel on 2.4 GHz. If you don't know, I guess I can just try it out.

I'm not so inconsiderate that I would use 80 MHz channel width in such a congested area. There are unfortunately quite a few of my neighbours who either don't know better, don't care or simply can't change their WAP configuration.

Actually, now that I actually look at my AC68U I do have a checkbox but it only appears if you select "Auto" as the Control Channel. (Sometimes the GUI gets confused and you have to reselect a specific channel number and then switch back to Auto.) Also the wording/meaning of the checkbox changes depending on whether you're in the US or EU.

Anyway... Auto channel does work (on my AC68U) but once it's moved to the non-DFS channels (36 to 48) it tends to stay there.

All the routers being installed around me (Virgin Media, etc.) are defaulting to 80MHz. I doubt the owners have ever logged onto their routers, let alone understand what they'd see.

 

[john9527]

@XelNika @ColinTaylor

I did the work to add DFS support for the AC66, but honestly don't remember if anyone has ever tried it/confirmed it works. You do need to log in to the router and
nvram set wl_dfs_enable=1
nvram commit
and reboot

@ColinTaylor - Thanks again for the help!

 

[john9527]

My bad, I was not precise, it's a converted TM-AC1900. Does it define a revision unambiguously ?

All are empty

AFAIK, the TM-1900's are 'A' rev routers.

But the fact that all the nvram get's are returning empty indicates something is amiss. cpurev should be empty on the TM-1900, but odmpid and PA should be set. I think you need to do a factory reset and reconfigure.

 

[ColinTaylor]

@john9527 Thanks for the info about wl_dfs_enable. I wasn't sure whether that applied to the AC66U as the Merlin_Fork_Options.txt file only mentions the N66U. Perhaps a slight update to the docs.

 

[john9527]

@john9527 Thanks for the info about wl_dfs_enable. I wasn't sure whether that applied to the AC66U as the Merlin_Fork_Options.txt file only mentions the N66U. Perhaps a slight update to the docs.

Noted

 

[Marsi4eg]

Is openvpn server/client options available on N16 in your fork?
I'm sorry but can't find any information about this

 

[OMNI619]

Hi John, I searched the thread but couldn't find too much information about flash your custom FW on the Tmobile AC1900.... I recently got the router, flashed it to AC68P initially, and mysteriously got reverted back to latest Tmobile FW after attempting to flash Merlin. It seems Asus has also locked mini CFE for the TM version. I couldn't even downgrade the router to original 1703 anymore. Some other member of forum suggested I could use your fw. I could not find any instructions. Would you please shed some light about it?

I hope this is the right picture View attachment flashInstructions_cDec04_16.pdf

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920AZ using Tapatalk

 

[OMNI619]

Hi John, I searched the thread but couldn't find too much information about flash your custom FW on the Tmobile AC1900.... I recently got the router, flashed it to AC68P initially, and mysteriously got reverted back to latest Tmobile FW after attempting to flash Merlin. It seems Asus has also locked mini CFE for the TM version. I couldn't even downgrade the router to original 1703 anymore. Some other member of forum suggested I could use your fw. I could not find any instructions. Would you please shed some light about it?

I was going to try this View attachment flashInstructions_cDec04_16.pdf

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920AZ using Tapatalk

 

[john9527]

Is openvpn server/client options available on N16 in your fork?
I'm sorry but can't find any information about this

Sorry, but N16 doesn't have enough nvram space to do the openvpn configuration.

 

[Marsi4eg]

Thank you, I just remember that reason for not including ovpn in Merlin's builds, but it was a long time ago, I thought maybe something has changed here after some years.

 

[il2]

Thank you, I just remember that reason for not including ovpn in Merlin's builds, but it was a long time ago, I thought maybe something has changed here after some years.

You can install openvpn via entware-ng on RT-N16.

 

[trisk]

AFAIK, the TM-1900's are 'A' rev routers.

But the fact that all the nvram get's are returning empty indicates something is amiss. cpurev should be empty on the TM-1900, but odmpid and PA should be set. I think you need to do a factory reset and reconfigure.

I also have an empty value for odmpid (and PA is not present in nvram at all) on my converted TM-AC1900, last factory reset was about a year ago.
In my CFE (1.0.2.1), I see odmpid=ASUS but PA= is not present.