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

[Raphie]

the software reset via GUI works just fine, it's important to also clean the JFFS partition

 

[hotsauce2007]

RTAC86U working in perfect conditions and stable, thanks again man

 

[Raphie]

for me 384.4 works like a charm as well.

 

[VANT]

RT-AC68U, clean install. factory default, minimal config, nvram almost full ???

 

[bulletmark]

You can reset in the webui.

Can the README be fixed to clarify this please?!

I just updated to 384.4 and followed the README. It says best to "reset to factory defaults" (in a number of places) after updating from 380. When I go to the web UI I see a "Factory Default Restore" or a "Factory Default Initialize" neither of which a dumb user like me can correlate to the instructions. The UI should also give a hint to the user what the difference is between those 2 options. I had to go hunting and find this thread here, and even then it is still not clear! I just did an Initialize, waited for reboot, and then did a Restore.

 

[agilani]

An update to my media bridge issue: I tried to revert back to my previous firmware/settings but it doesn't work anymore. Looks like my MAC address changed. Bu the way, if I choose the 2.4G wifi for media bridge all works well, I can connect both 2.4G and 5G wifi with my devices. As soon as I switch to 5G I got issues. I tried to power off, did 30 30 30 reset, nvram erase command, disconnect USB devices, very basic configuration... no luck.

I assume the media bridge mode is going to work similar to the repeater mode. I found a lot of error messages for spanning tree topology recalculations with the router running 384.4 and the remote notes running 380.69. I could not get it to work with the remote nodes running 384.4. One thing to test is getting into the remote node itself and see if it can ping the hosts that are directly connected to it. I found that it could not. I checked the arp table to verify, and often the arp table did not have entries for the host that were directly connected to the client router. Combine this with the layer two topology changes which were pretty constant in the logs of the remote router, it looks like a layer 2 issue which is going to be difficult to troubleshoot. I also found dhcp errors in the remote logs. Perhaps the clients aren't getting their IP address assignments? Either way I gave up and ended up going back to 380.69 code base. Not sure how to proceed at this point. If repeater mode or media bridge mode is not going to work and aimesh can't be supported since its closed source. It leaves us in a pickle. I may revert my repeaters to dd-wrt to see what happens.

 

[GDT]

A guy in another forum gave me the solution. It was related to the fact that mac address for eth2 and relative vlan was the same on both routers so I have to change it in my main router, from SSH:

nvram set 1:macaddr=DE:FA:CE:DE:FA:CE
nvram set wl1_hwaddr=DE:FA:CE:DE:FA:CE
nvram set wl_hwaddr=DE:FA:CE:DE:FA:CE
nvram commit

rebooted both routers and now works!
PS: you can use the MAC address you want.

 

[LHF]

Can the README be fixed to clarify this please?!

I just updated to 384.4 and followed the README. It says best to "reset to factory defaults" (in a number of places) after updating from 380. When I go to the web UI I see a "Factory Default Restore" or a "Factory Default Initialize" neither of which a dumb user like me can correlate to the instructions. The UI should also give a hint to the user what the difference is between those 2 options. I had to go hunting and find this thread here, and even then it is still not clear! I just did an Initialize, waited for reboot, and then did a Restore.

See this https://www.snbforums.com/threads/rt-ac86u-administration-restore-vs-initialize.41944/

Post #3 by Merlin

 

[Stephen Harrington]

Have updated a newly-purchased RT-AC86U to 384.4, done a Factory Reset via holding WPS button and powering on, also a software reset to Factory Defaults via Initialise button.

Have recreated settings from my outgoing RT-AC68U (running 380.69_2) manually using screenshots and it's all going swimmingly for the most part.
Impressed with the 86U and even more impressed with the work @RMerlin has put into this one. Thanks again Eric!

Only have two items that don't quite appear to be playing nice so far, both to do with Adaptive QoS menu.

1 - On the "QoS - WAN/LAN Bandwidth Monitor" tab, I tag my usual devices with "High", "Medium", "Low" etc and hit "Apply".

The Selections appear to stick, but after a reboot the items tagged with a category all go back to the pool as "Default" items.



2 - On the "QoS" tab, I am running (as I per what I had on my 68U) "Adaptive QoS", "Manual Setting", "fq_codel" using the "Customize" mode. See screen shots.
I then click on the "Customize" button and re-arrange my Priorities to my liking in the Pop-out, with VoiP at the top etc, and hit the "Save" button.
I then go back to the "QoS" tab and hit "Apply". The arrangement of priorities also does not survive a Reboot, and they all go back to the default order. Also, the "Customise" button is no longer highlighted, so its unclear what Mode is selected or in operation.





Can anyone confirm they are seeing similar behaviour and/or offer any workaround? I've tried doing a manual NVRAM Commit from the command line, made no difference. Have done a forced refresh page reload and also another browser, made no difference. I guess this may be specific to the 86U with its new architecture?

Just can't seem to get either of these to "stick" and survive a reboot ...
Any help or theories appreciated.

StephenH

 

[RMerlin]

Any help or theories appreciated.

It's a bug with the RT-AC86U code, we'll have to wait for Asus to fix it. Most of the RT-AC86U nvram management is closed source.

 

[Stephen Harrington]

It's a bug with the RT-AC86U code, we'll have to wait for Asus to fix it. Most of the RT-AC86U nvram management is closed source.

Thanks @RMerlin for clarifying. I wasn't going crazy!
Does the QoS selection actually stick and work when you do it and then revert on the reboot, or does it never work at all?
If I have to manually redo the QoS Priority order after a reboot (which is not that often), I can live with that for now for sure.

StephenH

 

[agilani]

A guy in another forum gave me the solution. It was related to the fact that mac address for eth2 and relative vlan was the same on both routers so I have to change it in my main router, from SSH:

nvram set 1:macaddr=DE:FA:CE:DE:FA:CE
nvram set wl1_hwaddr=DE:FA:CE:DE:FA:CE
nvram set wl_hwaddr=DE:FA:CE:DE:FA:CE
nvram commit

rebooted both routers and now works!
PS: you can use the MAC address you want.

Interesting. I'll need to check the mac addresses. If it detected the same mac address from a remote router, that may be enough for spanning tree to think theres a loop in the network and start a stp recalc.

Are you saying that both your routers had the same mac address on their interfaces on 384.4?

 

[GDT]

Are you saying that both your routers had the same mac address on their interfaces on 384.4?

Yes, right. And the guy who gave me that to tip have the same MAC address too

 

[RMerlin]

Does the QoS selection actually stick and work when you do it and then revert on the reboot, or does it never work at all?

I think it will work until the reboot, at which point the values get wiped out and replaced by the factory default values. It's been a few weeks since I tested this however, so I'm not 100% sure - I only checked the content of the nvram value, I didn't actually check that it was getting applied.

 

[Stephen Harrington]

I think it will work until the reboot, at which point the values get wiped out and replaced by the factory default values. It's been a few weeks since I tested this however, so I'm not 100% sure - I only checked the content of the nvram value, I didn't actually check that it was getting applied.

Thanks @RMerlin. I think I'll report it to ASUS and pretend I'm running stock firmware then!
May have even been fixed already in a later official build?

StephenH

EDIT:- Have sent off bug report to ASUS ...

 

[bulletmark]

See this https://www.snbforums.com/threads/rt-ac86u-administration-restore-vs-initialize.41944/ Post #3 by Merlin

That doesn't address the issue. As I stated - The README instructions need to be changed from saying "do a factory reset" to "do a factory restore" or "do a factory initialize", whichever is deemed required. There is no "Factory Reset" button in the UI so it is not clear to punters which is required. The wording needs to match what is on the UI.

 

[Netbug]

Have updated a newly-purchased RT-AC86U to 384.4, done a Factory Reset via holding WPS button and powering on, also a software reset to Factory Defaults via Initialise button.

Have recreated settings from my outgoing RT-AC68U (running 380.69_2) manually using screenshots and it's all going swimmingly for the most part.
Impressed with the 86U and even more impressed with the work @RMerlin has put into this one. Thanks again Eric!

Only have two items that don't quite appear to be playing nice so far, both to do with Adaptive QoS menu.

1 - On the "QoS - WAN/LAN Bandwidth Monitor" tab, I tag my usual devices with "High", "Medium", "Low" etc and hit "Apply".

The Selections appear to stick, but after a reboot the items tagged with a category all go back to the pool as "Default" items.



2 - On the "QoS" tab, I am running (as I per what I had on my 68U) "Adaptive QoS", "Manual Setting", "fq_codel" using the "Customize" mode. See screen shots.
I then click on the "Customize" button and re-arrange my Priorities to my liking in the Pop-out, with VoiP at the top etc, and hit the "Save" button.
I then go back to the "QoS" tab and hit "Apply". The arrangement of priorities also does not survive a Reboot, and they all go back to the default order. Also, the "Customise" button is no longer highlighted, so its unclear what Mode is selected or in operation.





Can anyone confirm they are seeing similar behaviour and/or offer any workaround? I've tried doing a manual NVRAM Commit from the command line, made no difference. Have done a forced refresh page reload and also another browser, made no difference. I guess this may be specific to the 86U with its new architecture?

Just can't seem to get either of these to "stick" and survive a reboot ...
Any help or theories appreciated.

StephenH

Same here, unfortunately it's closed source as nothing to do with Merlin, Asus QoS is totally screwed. I bought RT-AC86U last week and after not trying QoS for about 2 years thought i'd give it another go, wow think it's worse now than back then.

If using VPN download/upload bandwidth meters are wrong way around, as you describe on the QoS - WAN/LAN Bandwidth Monitor page settings are lost on reboot meaning having to reapply after every reboot. Same with category priority, after reboot settings are lost so again have to reapply after every reboot. QoS Statistics well is just so wrong it's unreal.

But again nothing Merlin can do about this has to be reported to Asus, go back a few pages and he told me what you got to do and truth is i cannot be bothered, seems like asus make it hard to report and esculate bugs from users.

 

[Hein]

Same here, unfortunately it's closed source as nothing to do with Merlin, Asus QoS is totally screwed. I bought RT-AC86U last week and after not trying QoS for about 2 years thought i'd give it another go, wow think it's worse now than back then.

If using VPN download/upload bandwidth meters are wrong way around, as you describe on the QoS - WAN/LAN Bandwidth Monitor page settings are lost on reboot meaning having to reapply after every reboot. Same with category priority, after reboot settings are lost so again have to reapply after every reboot. QoS Statistics well is just so wrong it's unreal.

But again nothing Merlin can do about this has to be reported to Asus, go back a few pages and he told me what you got to do and truth is i cannot be bothered, seems like asus make it hard to report and esculate bugs from users.

I have the same issue with download/upload on VPN using LAN cable. For me, it's not the wrong way around. Both download and upload are showing in bandwidth monitor as upload only while download is stuck consistently as 0.0Kb.

 

[Bambalacul]

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

Thanks for your information. I make more tests and after I look for a movie on old version I do same with last firmware and both work good. I put movie on USB stick trying to look direct from him and come same problems (this are not coming if I look on PC) and can come from codecs.

 

[Netbug]

I have the same issue with download/upload on VPN using LAN cable. For me, it's not the wrong way around. Both download and upload are showing in bandwidth monitor as upload only while download is stuck consistently as 0.0Kb.

lol my bandwidth meters are opposite way round and QoS statistics are just nothing but nonsense, one minute one category will show a few gb, then nothing then another category will show an amount, then it resets, it's so messed up, think i am going to have to take a look at FreshJR Adaptive QoS.