[Release 384/NG] Asuswrt-Merlin 384.3 is now available

[RMerlin]

In fact, these are present on my AC86U, but not on this AC68U:

• Generate a new certificate
• Additional Certificate SANs
• Provide your own certificate

Moved to DDNS page by Asus for models that add Let's Encrypt support.

 

[Hunterx]

After upgrading to 384.3 my VPN performance and connectivity became unusable. The VPN client is on my PC, not in the router (RT-AC68U). After downgrading back to 380.69, the VPN worked normally again. Please take a look at the VPN changes put into the current build. The issue started immediately after the upgrade. VPN was OFF during the upgrade, and turned on after.

My Setup:
RT-AC3200 (main router) - 384.3 (seems stable, version has no impact on the issue above)
RT-AC68U (bridge connected with 5ghz (-55 dbm) - 384.3 (VPN connects, but extremely slow. apps report disconnects and connectivity issues), 380.69_0 (stable with VPN).
OS - Win 10 v1709 (fresh install in January)
VPN - Private Internet Access (OpenVPN Based) - Stock app (v75)

 

[KennethChile]

RT-AC68U. MiniDLNA streaming is still broke with 384.3_0. MiniDLNA streaming broke with the introduction of 384.3_alpha3.

I was using 384.3_alpha2-g5b8da38 but since HDD disk spin down also no longer works on any 384.3 firmware, I have decided to flash back to 380.69_2.

Same problem with 384.3_0. Same Router RT-AC68U.
MiniDLNA drops the TV streaming from USB Drive after 5-10 mins. Reverting to 380.69_2 solved it.

 

[agilani]

Having the same problem with my wireless upgrading from 380.69 code base to 382/384 on my ac3100. After reboot everything works ok for awhile and then after 5 to 6 hours the wireless becomes completely unresponsive and access to my ac66 and ac68 repeaters both running merlin as well. For now I've disabled IGMP proxy and snooping to see if that makes any difference. Not sure what's going on. CPU and memory both look fine. Wired connections are also fine. Definitely a problem with wireless and wireless repeaters.

 

[RMerlin]

Same problem with 384.3_0. Same Router RT-AC68U.

And same answer I gave before.

 

[Hunterx]

After upgrading to 384.3 my VPN performance and connectivity became unusable. The VPN client is on my PC, not in the router (RT-AC68U). After downgrading back to 380.69, the VPN worked normally again. Please take a look at the VPN changes put into the current build. The issue started immediately after the upgrade. VPN was OFF during the upgrade, and turned on after.

My Setup:
RT-AC3200 (main router) - 384.3 (seems stable, version has no impact on the issue above)
RT-AC68U (bridge connected with 5ghz (-55 dbm) - 384.3 (VPN connects, but extremely slow. apps report disconnects and connectivity issues), 380.69_0 (stable with VPN).
OS - Win 10 v1709 (fresh install in January)
VPN - Private Internet Access (OpenVPN Based) - Stock app (v75)

I know the issue did not exist in "FW_RT_AC68U_300438218881", but it does with "FW_RT_AC68U_300438420308". The bug is in the ASUS stock firmware... RIP. Please if possible add these security fixes to a lower release? I have been waiting on the KRACK fix for a while.

 

[XIII]

Moved to DDNS page by Asus for models that add Let's Encrypt support.

Thanks! Would not have looked there without your pointer..

Apparently it’s currently set to “None”

Should I change this to “Import/Persistent Auto-generated” to use my own?

(It seems to be using my certificate anyway)

 

[skfist]

Installed 384.3 on my AC68U (upgraded from 380.69_2) and even after performing a factory reset I think I'm seeing some lag on both 2.4 and 5 GHz compared to the older generation (Apple devices mostly).

Moreover, my desktop computer running Windows that has Asus PCE N-53 wireless card installed is suddenly unable to play an IPTV stream in HD without stuttering. There's a significant lag in browsing websites as well. It takes a ton of time between entering an address then hitting enter and getting the actual website to load. Lag + throughput went down significantly it seems.

Now, given that this wireless card has been problematic ever since I bought it (causing BSOD during Windows installation, not seeing some 5 GHz channels at all), I'm wondering if it's about time to put it in the trash and buy a new one or the problems can be possibly related to the firmware? I've reverted to 380.69_2 and all good again.

I'm located in Europe (router is configured for the DE region). There is a ton of 2.4 networks in my neighborhood but no 5 GHz besides mine. I use pretty much the default factory settings with no significant changes:

Adaptive QoS: on, prioritize media, voip, games, web, files, other in the respective order.
Lan -> IPTV: Enable multicast routing and efficient multicast routing
WLAN -> Professional: Enable IGMP snooping
Tools -> Other: Stealth mode on

Happy to provide more info if necessary

 

[Nicklas]

Asuswrt-Merlin 384.3 is now available. While this release isn't perfect, it reached a stability point where the remaining issues have been consuming too many hours of my time and I'm still unable to reproduce them. Since it's working fine for the vast majority, I decided it was high time to have this wrapped up, so I could move on to working with newer code base, with hopefully the remaining fixes in there.

The highlights:

• Merged with GPL 384_10007. Note that AiMesh is NOT supported. Due to its complexity, a lot of work will be required to determine whether or not supporting it is possible. Initial analysis wasn't looking good on that front.
• Added support for the RT-AC3200 (based on 382_19466 components). Note that once upgraded to 382/384, the RT=AC3200 gets upgraded to 128 KB nvram, which means you can NOT downgrade back to any 380.xx release.
• RT-AC3200 supports once again up to 5 OpenVPN clients (like other models).
• Updated nano to 2.9.3. You can also now configure it through /jffs/configs/nanorc (see the nano documentation for syntax).
• Security fix for CVE-2018-5721.
• NAT acceleration for PPPoE has been fixed for most models (can't provide a definitive list since I can't test it)
• Repeater mode fix backported from GPL 384_20287
• Workaround for broken clients like Samsung TVs that insists on requesting localhost as a hostname
• Fixed ipset on the RT-AC86U
• Various other fixes to IPv6, PPTP clients, networkmap - see the changelog for details

Downloads are here.
Changelog is here.

Hi,

Are you going to add support for Let's Encrypt certificate issuing and renewal from the DDNS tab, also for RT-AC3200?

 

[zitev]

Hi,
I have a little problem with 384.3 on RT-AC66U_B1, after upgrade i cannot configure users folder reaching permissions independently from each other - if I change user1 permission to folder write to read, user2-user5 permissions is changed as well.

 

[Saus]

When you guys do a factory reset, do you literally re-enter all of your settings and everything? I've set-up static addresses for about 25 IPs, port forwarding, wi-fi, etc. This would take awhile to do each time, no?

That was always my main irritation/problem with going fresh. But the solution is quite simple. Taken from another (quite old) threat here:

• SSH to router
• nvram get dhcp_staticlist

That's all your leases right there. Safe that string (no enter/breaks!) somewhere. After reinstall, just do:

• nvram set dhcp_staticlist "[paste string]" (don't forget the quotes around it)
• nvram commit
• reboot

One funny pitfall... It was not working, I could not understand it. One should not forget that on the DHCP server page in the GUI, manual assignment is OFF by default... so make sure to first (or at least later...) re-enable that too!

By the way, the above is the simplest version. The more user friendly one is if you use and make sure to preserve the jffs partition:

• SSH to router
• nvram get dhcp_staticlist > /jffs/staticleases.sh
• edit the file (easiest with WinSCP's built in editor) and put in front of the string that is in there: nvram set dhcp_staticlist "[string with leases goes here]"
  
• -> ...and don't forget the quote before and after the string with the leases.
• add a new line: nvram commit
• add a new line: reboot
• add an empty new line
• use WinSCP or commands (CHMOD) to make the newly created file executable
• Now, in an SSH session, you can just execute /jffs/staticleases.sh to restore the leases.
• ...again, don't forget to enable manual assignment in the GUI...

 

[WET]

RMerlin, thank you. Enabling EMF support has indeed fixed my miniDLNA streaming on 384.3_0.

Same problem with 384.3_0. Same Router RT-AC68U.
MiniDLNA drops the TV streaming from USB Drive after 5-10 mins. Reverting to 380.69_2 solved it.

KennethChile, please look at post#107, RMerlin replied with a suggestion to turn on EMF support from LAN, IPTV tab. When I did this it fixed my streaming. It is the Enable efficient multicast forwarding (IGMP Snooping). Hope this works for you as well.

 

[username0475]

I'm using Merlin's 378.55 on a RT-AC68U (converted from a TMO AC-1900) .

Can I update straight from there to the new Merlin 384.3 build or do I need to jump to some intermediary build before that?

 

[Chuckles67]

Hi,
I have a little problem with 384.3 on RT-AC66U_B1, after upgrade i cannot configure users folder reaching permissions independently from each other - if I change user1 permission to folder write to read, user2-user5 permissions is changed as well.

Do you mean in the FTP Share settings?

 

[Chuckles67]

RT-AC66U_B1 upgraded to 384.3 (from 380.69) two days ago

Initially I didn't "factory default > restore", but the OpenVPN clients with existing settings wouldn't connect.

So yesterday I then did a factory default > restore, and hand typed all settings, one day later everything is working fine: two OpenVPN clients; port forwarding; QoS settings etc etc (there might be a small UI bug in FTP Share settings when looking at folder permissions for different users, but refreshing the browser page shows the correct/expected settings)

Thanks Merlin for all the hard work.

 

[KnightRider]

I'm using Merlin's 378.55 on a RT-AC68U (converted from a TMO AC-1900) .

Can I update straight from there to the new Merlin 384.3 build or do I need to jump to some intermediary build before that?

I would first do a factory reset, straight upgrade, factory reset. Config from scratch, do not restore from backup. You should be fine.

 

[M@rco]

...again, don't forget to enable manual assignment in the GUI...

Haha, I always forget the same and we're probably not the only ones. I'm wondering whether this setting is stored in nvram or in dnsmasq config, otherwise we might as well include it in the restore script prior to rebooting .

 

[roundaway]

Upgraded RT-AC56U from 380.69 yesterday. Used @john9527 excellent NVRAM backup tool first, then factory reset router, then flashed new firmware, then factory reset. Finally, used the NVRAM tool's clean restore and everything was working. The OpenVPN Server generated it's own keys so I had to replace them and then the server worked as before.

Really appreciate the work @RMerlin and @john9527 do to keep us secure.

 

[AndreiV]

After upgrading to 384.3 my VPN performance and connectivity became unusable. The VPN client is on my PC, not in the router (RT-AC68U).

Please explain how a VPN client on a PC has anything to do with VPN in a router?

I use a VPN client on my desktop , VPN is off in my router and always has been.

 

[elgreco29]

@skfist: I can confirm, that after upgrade from 380.69_2 both wlan on my ac88u are more unstable, i.e. measuring the max. throughoutput with speedtest.net produces much more peaks than before with 380.69_2.