[Release 384/NG] Asuswrt-Merlin 384.4 is now available

[Simkin]

Would do if there was a route to down grade, when I try to load 380 the gui gives me a message that the firmware is not valid given the earlier version, do you need to do a firmware restore from using the emergency restore process ? And does the 380 firmware still work correctly given the change in size to the NVRAM on 384?

This is taken from the "AC-3200 384.4 Update WiFi Connectivity Issue" thread here on snb, i followed this and it worked for me also. (I was not able to get into the GUI after holding WDS, but i went directly to holding down reset and managed to get GUI back and flashed firmware, after that, the router needed another hard reset and it was good to go)

However, do it on your own risk! I have had no issues after going back to 380.69_2

• make sure you're hard-wired into your router
• give your computer's adapter a manual IP of 192.168.1.9
• power off the router
• power on while holding WDS button to clear NVRAM (hold onto that sucker for a good 30 seconds)
• let go of WDS and wait until you get the initial setup screen at 192.168.1.1 (could take up to 5 minutes)
• power off the router
• hold down reset button and power on router while continuing to hold reset button for about 30 seconds - this gives you the ASUSTEK CFE miniWeb interface ("rescue mode"?)
• flash the downgraded firmware
• don't restore settings; that's never a good idea anyway
• pray

After downgrading, I had a very high NVRAM usage. An aggressive NVRAM clear (holding WDS while booting then factory reset in the GUI) returned my usage back to normal.

Here's the thing: Merlin said that ASUS said downgrading from 382/384 to 380 on AC3200 is not supported due to bootloader size mismatch. So do this at your own risk.

 

[scjr]

10 days uptime on 384.4_2. Everything is running smooth as molasses.

 

[RMerlin]

Good day,

After upgrading to 384.4.2 I realized that enabling ftp on lan only will also enable it on wan port.
tried a factory default installation with the same result.

Works correctly for me. Make sure it's not something else on your LAN that might be forwarding port 21, or your ISP intercepting port 21 requests and redirecting them.

Also make sure you don't use a VPN tunnel, as that would be bypassing your router's firewall.

 

[toast]

My observation on 384.4.2:
Some 2.4GHz devices (sonoff wifi switch running ESPEasy) will stop answer on ping after a few minutes. Restarting the radio from cli (radio off; sleep 2; radio on) brings them back again to the network. My first work around was to add a cron job doing this every 20 minutes. But now I have instead have lowered the "Group Key Rotation Interval" to 600. And that also bring back the devices that become not contactable.
If I look in the Wireless Log (web interface) I can see that when a device is not answering on PING the Device MAC address is listed but the IP say <not found>. All my wifi devices are setup with fixed IP.

 

[joegreat]

My observation on 384.4.2:

On which router model? From which firmware did you come to 384.4_2? When did you do the last factory reset to rest the wireless drivers? More questions then answers in your posting...

 

[toast]

Sorry, yes I missed a few basics
I have not done a factory reset (I know I should and will probably do at some stage) so I just want to share my observation as I have seen others reporting 2.4 issues on this FW.
Router: RT-AC87U
Last factory reset was on 380.xxx
Have gone trough most versions on 380.xxx including 380.69_2 and then jumped to 384.4_2

 

[xtropodx]

Updated to 384.4_2 & defaulted everything few days ago. RT-AC3200.
Just posting issue that may or may not be related to latest release.
I've been trying all day to;
1 -get my internet to work.
2 -access my IP cameras remotely.
3 -log into my network switch.

After rebooting my modem &/or router 10+ times today & getting nowhere, I decided to turn off router firewall & soft reboot. Low & behold 1&2 work, but 3 doesn't.
Under Lan-> DHCP Server, I have the network switch set with a static IP. Previous version I could see, access & login to switch. Now switch shows up as offline & I can't get into it, but I can access the cameras & they sit behind the network switch.

Few weeks ago (with previous FW) I had similar issue whereby outbound internet would not work but I could access network remotely & it wasn't until I turned off firewall temporarily that everything worked. So is there something I am missing here? I don't have any fancy settings really other than using VPN Server & Client. Thanks.

EDIT: managed to resolve item 3. Seems despite changing the switch IP, somehow it changed back. Will post update if issue reverts.

 

[Jack Yaz]

Sorry, yes I missed a few basics
I have not done a factory reset (I know I should and will probably do at some stage) so I just want to share my observation as I have seen others reporting 2.4 issues on this FW.
Router: RT-AC87U
Last factory reset was on 380.xxx
Have gone trough most versions on 380.xxx including 380.69_2 and then jumped to 384.4_2

You almost definitely need to reset once landed from 380 to 384. There's significant changes under the hood. (source: had some issues initially, I reset once on 384 and smooth sailing since). Also 87U.

 

[toast]

Sure, unfortunately it will have to wait as the router is in a remote location. Fore me I just want share the symptoms if some one else experience similar. If still relevant I will report back after factory reset but that will not be until a month from now.
Thanks for quick feedback.

You almost definitely need to reset once landed from 380 to 384. There's significant changes under the hood. (source: had some issues initially, I reset once on 384 and smooth sailing since). Also 87U.

 

[ukrainer]

I upload 384.4 on my AC88U and works in general fine only have problem to see movie on my Samsung TV from USB drive connected on router. After 58 seconds movie stop. After movie start can observe bad image time to time until stop. With 384.3 movie work for longer time but show same problems with image. I go back to 380.69 where work perfect.

I have the same problem (RT-AC68U, firmware 384.4, Entware on SSD 1TB USB 3.0 +Transmission and additional 2TB HDD USB 2.0 + 512 MB SWAP on SSD + active SMB1 and 2 from firmware). Don't see any problems in logs. e2fsck doesn't sho

Try the "Force as Master Browser" setting in USB Application>Media Services and Servers>Network Place (Samba) Share/Cloud Disk.

This doesn't work for me. Working periods between stops became little longer, but in general the problem still exist.
Can anybody help me please?

 

[JSinFCVA]

FWIW... After 384.4 Beta 2 to the most recent 384.4_x on my AC86U I could never get both wireless radios ON concurrently. GUI config screens for wireless were missing setting options and values. Wireless config Tabs were missing. Client display on Client maps were erratic and not displaying clients accurately. For me 384.4 was basically useless and I had to revert back to 384.3. Out of curiosity I flashed the 384.5 Alpha directly from 384.3 and now everything is working as well as 384.3... No issues so far. No need to reset, reconfigure. It just worked. 384.5 looks far more promising. Just thought I'd share my observations.

 

[brusyev]

Sure, unfortunately it will have to wait as the router is in a remote location. Fore me I just want share the symptoms if some one else experience similar. If still relevant I will report back after factory reset but that will not be until a month from now.
Thanks for quick feedback.

I am glad your 87U is working great on 384. I had nothing but issues with my wifi since I upgraded. Usually 5ghz drops and its WPA2 security get removed. 2.4ghz is crawling compared to how it was on 380. I did 30/30/30 reset with wps clear three times now and no luck. The latest beta version of 384 shows same issues. I have no choice but to try rolling back to 380. For those of you using 87U what has been the most stable version of firmware for you?

 

[Jack Yaz]

I am glad your 87U is working great on 384. I had nothing but issues with my wifi since I upgraded. Usually 5ghz drops and its WPA2 security get removed. 2.4ghz is crawling compared to how it was on 380. I did 30/30/30 reset with wps clear three times now and no luck. The latest beta version of 384 shows same issues. I have no choice but to try rolling back to 380. For those of you using 87U what has been the most stable version of firmware for you?

384.4_2. 100% stable. FYI 30-30-30 is NOT an AsusWRT thing.

I flashed from 380.69_2 to 384.4, did a Factory Initialise, plugged settings back in manually from screenshots. When 384.4_2 came out I did the same initiliase process and it's been great.

 

[brusyev]

Could you please describe the steps you took to reset your 87U?

 

[menaceinc]

What is the difference between Factory Initialise and Factory Restore? I did the latter.

 

[scjr]

What is the difference between Factory Initialise and Factory Restore? I did the latter.

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/rt-ac86u-administration-restore-vs-initialize.41944/#post-355999

This option is new with 382_18219. Initialize will also remove the existing content of the /jffs/.sys/ folder which contains various data such as the (forecoming) Notification Center, Web History, etc... Restore will only erase the nvram configuration.

 

[NoSync]

Thank you! It’s a problem with the RT-AC68U, but also the RT-AC86U.

But here you have a point! if I switch "low battery" off, it is fast. How easy can it be

I get 866 mbps with my iPhone X on my RT-AC68U, no matter what.

 

[Sanna1967]

Could you please describe the steps you took to reset your 87U?

30-30-30 is coming from dd-wrt or tomato fw, with asus if you want to wipe everything :
Turn off the router, press the WPS button and keep holding , then turn on the router. Wait about 15 seconds( until power led will flash rapidly), then release the WPS button.Wait 3 min, and reconfig from beginning, dont import saved settings.

Note to myself! : Make a macro text on my G19 for this!

 

[doczenith1]

Please correct me if I'm wrong but since I'm on 1Gb ISP, disabling NAT acceleration can cause more issues? From my understanding if you are on fast ISP +200mb service you need to have NAT accelartion enabled. Like I said before, I've never had this issue when I was on 380.69, so there must be an issue with Parental Controls - Time Scheduling (AiProtection).

With my 68U I was only able to get around 300-400 Mbps with NAT acceleration turned off. You may do better with your 40% faster cpu. Hopefully you can find a solution that allows you to keep NAT acceleration enabled.

 

[jeff3820]

Running 86U with 384.4_2

I get LOTS of these messages in the log...anything to be concerned about?

Apr 4 10:23:25 kernel: FPM Pool 0: invalid token 0x003ff000 freed


I also see many of these messages daily for every connected device...is this just the DHCP addresses being renewed?

Apr 4 05:24:25 dnsmasq-dhcp[1867]: DHCPREQUEST(br0) 192.168.1.57 <<mac address here>>
Apr 4 05:24:25 dnsmasq-dhcp[1867]: DHCPACK(br0) 192.168.1.57 <<mac address here>> HP-M475dw-Printer

Otherwise, firmware working beautifully!!