Random crashes ASUS ZenWiFi AX (XT8) & NTP/logging weirdness

[Fredster]

Hi,

We recently decide to switch our older Asus routers for a fancy AI mesh system with two nodes.

We have had nothing but trouble since, bad connections and crashes, devices (wifi AND wired) dropping of the net. When I say drop of the net, I don't just mean of the internet, but they completely disconnect from LAN and come back online after a while.

Asus Logging disappears automagically at will, and show logs of may 5th (we bought the pair in August). All logging of the earlier days disappears, and logging gets mixed-up:

A section with logging of today an logging of may 5th and then back to today.
The router connected with a backhaul gave times where they work but intermittently nothing but disconnect issues. Looking at the log it just seems to have restarted.

it also has a HUGE disparity off its NTP after the crashes. Don't want to bother you with large logs:

Logging of may 5th
logging of the 28th
...
...
Aug 28 21:01:52 crond[1346]: time disparity of 1219076 minutes detected...
...
...
... and back and forth to the 5th and 28th.

see the pictures i added
Anybody got this and a solution?

 

[ColinTaylor]

The date changes are normal when the router reboots. The router doesn't have a battery backed clock so every time it reboots the date and time will go back to the factory default, 5th May. Once the router has reestablished its connection to the internet it will update the time, which is why you see the "time disparity" message.

In short, the date temporarily changing back to 5th May is expected when the router reboots.

 

[Fredster]

In short, the date temporarily changing back to 5th May is expected when the router reboots.

Thanks for explaining that, i guess the NTP is explained by this.
But where is ny earlier logging? logrotation wont be set to keep data for max 24 hours, or am I presuming too much? The main issue is ofcourse the instability of the devices. wifi and lan conected devices get thrown of the local lan (which makes the internet unavailable as well ofcourse . Heck I am already looking for a 4G backup adapter I could put in the usb slot, but it is ridiculous this would even be needed. I can clearly see when it goes, as my Google displays show the disconnect. Checking my phone confirms I am of the lan as well

 

[ColinTaylor]

But where is ny earlier logging?

I have no experience with ZenWiFi routers, but on Asus' other models you simply scroll back past the 5th May entries to see the earlier ones. I thought that's what you meant when you said "and back and forth to the 5th and 28th". Obviously there's a finite size to the log but you should be able to see about 3000+ log entries. Go to System Log > General Log and click on the Save button.

 

[oldguy]

I had all the same problems with the ZenWifi AX, i returned them after the tops started to delaminate and replaced them with the RT-AX89X which just works, and allows me to connect my old GT-AC5300 as a mesh node.
if you are getting network disconnects, then you need to look at the router resources, as I suspect that I had problems as the DRAM approached the limit.
I don’t recall how near i got to the 512MB limit, but my GT-AC5300 uses 480MB and my current RT-AX89X uses 520MB.
One thing that you might try is to force the nodes to reset each evening which may help.

 

[JagoUK]

I have the XT8's they do need some work to justify their price. The do seem software restricted in a few areas too (5ghz channel restrictions, 2.5gb wan only, no link aggregation on lan just to name a few)

Check channel usage for devices dropping off network and some devices like amazon ones only like non dfs channels by the looks of it.

Also using same SSID on 2.4 and 5ghz causes issues. And turn off smart connect.

I did post a technical review on this forum which no one replied to if you are interested.

 

[digits n bits]

I’ll be the first to agree the zen wifi XT8 is absolutely a work in progress.
So much so it’s sitting in my closet right now, it’s that bad.
Decided that it wasn’t worth all the aggravation and went back to a single router and
everything is fine.

 

[JagoUK]

I’ll be the first to agree the zen wifi XT8 is absolutely a work in progress.
So much so it’s sitting in my closet right now, it’s that bad.
Decided that it wasn’t worth all the aggravation and went back to a single router and
everything is fine.

Heres a link to my review if it helps you with any technical issues

Asus ZenWifi AX XT8 - A two week technical review (And that 160mhz issue)

First the TL;DR 160mhz backhaul not possible in areas of UK due to weather radar on 5.625ghz. Channel 124 is 5.620ghz *See map below* This removes one of the BIG features of this product. I think it could be fixed, but will it? Fronthaul 5G-1 limited to channels 36-64 Backhaul 5G-2...

www.snbforums.com

 

[digits n bits]

Bad firmware is the culprit here, plain and simple. I thought Netgear threw out bad firmware but Asus is catching up pretty fast with this mess. The XT8 has been a disaster since the 25524 firmware came out and the RC betas aren’t any better. Rebooting the system every day is no solution either, it will sit in its box until they release a workable firmware.

 

[JagoUK]

Bad firmware is the culprit here, plain and simple. I thought Netgear threw out bad firmware but Asus is catching up pretty fast with this mess. The XT8 has been a disaster since the 25524 firmware came out and the RC betas aren’t any better. Rebooting the system every day is no solution either, it will sit in its box until they release a workable firmware.

Tbf I'm on last day of 30 day returns. And after last comment from ASUSWRT_2020 in the beta thread, looks like they've given up on the 5ghz backhaul already. Which I think makes it not fit for purpose.

Beta - ASUSWRT 386 RC2 public beta with full functions AiMesh 2.0

Hi, my first message here... I have a ZenWifi XT8 pair, currently on 3.0.0.4_386_25524 public firmware... actually back to it after about an hour on today's RC4 beta. Just wanted to confirm that while both primary and secondary devices accepted the new firmware (dirty flash over public version...

www.snbforums.com

Shame as it would be a very good unit if they exploited the hardware, but i get the distinct feeling they are restricting it via software to encourage power users to pay for more expensive

 

[Luis Soto]

Hello,
Just logging in here searching for the XT8 information. It was not easy cake piece as I saw on the reviews, but you could manage.
My piece of advice, by trial and error and not being a network expert
- Reset the the router to default settings and try touching the minimum
- Do not activate QoS. I have no problem with AiMesh. In fact it is really important for me, specially the Parent Controls.
- Force the bandwith and choose yourself the best channel
- Have patient on the satellite when rebooting the main one. From yellow to white could be 5 minutes even you could see it connected on the System Logs -> Wireless logs
Tried several places trying to understand the best settings and I didn´t was successfull.
Currently I could reach 490Mbps of my 500Mbps internet.

My two cents.

 

[Ole Vik]

Hi

I have installed 9.0.2.4.386_25528 on my XT8's, and the random reboots and instability is gone. I had the exact problem with instability as you describe. The fw i mentioned was sent to me by Asuswrt_2020, after some feedback in the RC2 thread. This means that they have located the problem, just hope they can implement this in the official version asap.

Btw, the instability i refer to has nothing to do with the 5 GHz backhaul. Thats another chapter..

 

[dav1x]

Can post a link to where you downloaded the firmware from? I think I installed an older public beta firmware. I'm having serious stability issues with the XT8.

 

[A1MB1G]

I too am having serious instability issues with XT8 ZenWifi, currently running latest official firmware release. Where can we try the most recent RC's and download those firmwares?

 

[Ole Vik]

This firmware is as stable as the one i got from Asus. Something is certainly going in the right direction

Beta - ASUSWRT 386 RC2 public beta with full functions AiMesh 2.0

Pretty cool developments, can't wait to finally try these long awaited 386 versions once they are finalized as a general release in the form of an @RMerlin firmware (once some more time goes by waiting for the GPL of course).:):cool:

www.snbforums.com

 

[scuba-fan]

FIRMWARE Version 3.0.0.4.386.41793 released 2021/02/01

Ever since this firmware was released, the XT8 router restarts every 9 hours or so. I have all the crash logs saved for the past month. I've opened tickets with ASUS and all they want to do is RMA my XT8s, I have three of them...

They won't take my log files, their doing nothing to actually investigate the issue and patch their firmware.

It's clear from the thread here that XT8 owners with the noted firmware or later can corroborate this behavior.

Have already factory refreshed and flashed latest firmware and still no go. Have tried to clean configure the router after the reset proceedure and then manually setting all SSIDs, DHCP Reservations, But what a PITA!

Has ANYONE solved this. Can I SSH into the router and get more detailed logs generated?

Argh!

 

[wags1]

I can’t corroborate that behavior . My two XT8S are running the latest released firmware (42095) and have been since a few days after it was released. They have been running very well. Maybe I’m just lucky...

 

[RogerSC]

I'm not seeing any problems with 42095 either at the moment. Other than a particular funky system log message ("not mesh client, can't update it's ip" with various clients), the mesh has been solid. I see the messages in the log as my mobile clients are handed off between nodes as they move around my house. No crashes, no disconnects, doing well. Very happy with the speed and coverage, especially since I'm not using wired backhaul.

I did have my moments with 42095, and reverted back to 26044 a couple of times. Those weird log messages had me wondering. Finally decided I'd stay with 42095 and see what happened for the longer term. Since making that decision, everything's been good. Pretty simple, straightforward network here, only about 20 clients on my home network.

I do recall reverting from 41793 as the result of a crash, though, and just stayed away from that one.

 

[scuba-fan]

Thanks for the unpdate @RogerSC and @wags1

I'm pulling my hair out. I have lots of devices on my net with several having DHCP reservations. I can not predict when it will spontaneously restart, but its definitely happening every 9 hours and within a few minutes of 9 hours each time. I've combed the logs to see if I can find anything, but these aren't detailed enough to see what precipitated the reboot.

I'm trying to locate information for using SSH to get in and turn on verbose logging some how...

ASUS is out of these units and want me to box and return them under RMA repair. But if I'm going out to buy a temp/replacement router then I'm likely going to replace these completely and when they return the repaired units, just put them straight up on ebay without even opening them! Sold as refurbished...

 

[wags1]

Thanks for the unpdate @RogerSC and @wags1

I'm pulling my hair out. I have lots of devices on my net with several having DHCP reservations. I can not predict when it will spontaneously restart, but its definitely happening every 9 hours and within a few minutes of 9 hours each time. I've combed the logs to see if I can find anything, but these aren't detailed enough to see what precipitated the reboot.

I'm trying to locate information for using SSH to get in and turn on verbose logging some how...

ASUS is out of these units and want me to box and return them under RMA repair. But if I'm going out to buy a temp/replacement router then I'm likely going to replace these completely and when they return the repaired units, just put them straight up on ebay without even opening them! Sold as refurbished...

Wish I could help. Mines been up for over 4 days with no problems. It would be longer but I made a configuration change that required a reboot...