[Release] Asuswrt-Merlin 380.65 is now available

[chamberc]

I have done that, and it was a huge waste of time. I'm just here to advocate moving that "release" into the beta category before more people waste their time too. It's clear that the "techies" on this forum would rather shame users for their lack of knowledge than accept that the product is faulty.

Use the stock firmware, you're not wanted or welcome here.

 

[jernau]

380.65_2 is horrible on the AC3200, WAN connection keeps dropping. Why is this not even marked as a beta? I'll be sure to read the forums before installing the next release.

You've hit the nail on the head ... always read the forums before blindly updating. This version of the firmware is NOT an official release from Asus but rather the efforts of one guy who is benefitting us by all by adding cool features to the stock firmware. If you are not happy I would suggest you go back to stock and moan at Asus directly ...

 

[RMerlin]

I just plugged my RT-AC3200, flashed 380.65_2 on it. Went through every single webui page one after another, and streamed 20 minutes of Youtube videos on my Nexus 9 over wifi - not a single glitch.

Make sure your RT-AC3200 isn't running out of nvram... There's only a small amount of complains so far compared to the 2100+ firmware downloads for that model, and there's no change in 380.65_2 that would explain a sudden lack of stability in either the WAN or the Wifi areas.

 

[RMerlin]

I've been streaming Youtube videos for over 90 minutes now, zero glitch. I think that's enough for tonight.

 

[AndreiV]

I've been streaming Youtube videos for over 90 minutes now, zero glitch. I think that's enough for tonight.

Ignore the stupid troll Eric , people like that are not worth wasting time on.

The few here that have a problem with the AC3200 don't resort to insults and rudeness .

Last night I asked around a few more people I know that run an AC3200 and again they say they have no problem , they are very happy with the firmware and that they are grateful for your efforts , we all know you go that extra mile to keep this model going for us.

My router is in constant use 18 hours a day. My son is streaming videos and online gaming non stop , if there was a problem he would be moaning loudly.

 

[joma_po]

I'm have intalled 380.65_2 in RT-AC68U and RT-N66U with no errors and more 15 days without reboot.

 

[pirx73]

Here's an issue I've noticed with the AC88U. Over time 2-4 weeks my internet speed will start to degrade and slow down and I will get micro freezing in games (happens in overwatch conan etc all games) Basically my router will just hiccup causing a massive ping spike and then go on as normal. If i reboot the router things go back to normal and then the process just starts again.
Any ideas as to what causes this slow degredation?

I had the same issue with my RT-N66U tonight. Download speed went down to 1Mbps, while upload was above 40Mbit on my 100Mbps optical link.
Rebooted rooter and all went back to normal. Could not see a single error message in log. I can provide after-reboot log when i get back home.
I have 380.65_2 running for about 2 weeks. I did check router before rebooting and CPU usage was 1-4% and RAM usage arround 55% which is usual for my router.
No torrents or anything, i had trouble sleeping and was watching youtube when it basically stalled.

 

[Lazarus56]

Let's see now - I've been running 380.65_2 on my 'Best Buy Special' AC1900P for eleven days so far, and even while my stepson is binge-watching Netflix at Full HD, Speedtest reports 69.24 Mbps down on a nominal 60 Mbps connection. I ran ASUS stock RT-AC1900P_3.0.0.4_380_7266 for about three days before I realised how much I missed the extra features and fixes Eric adds FOR NO CHARGE to our community.
Illegitimis non carborundum, Eric, some guys would complain about being hanged with a new rope...

Laz

 

[MarkRH]

Just finished watching 4 hours of Netflix. No issues on my RT-AC68U for the 12 days I've been running 380.65_2. Thanks for all your hard work. Hope you get over your cold or whatever soon Eric.

 

[dodgygeeza]

On the 380.65.2 front I have also been having connectivity issues to the AP (AC3200 running in pure AP mode). After doing some digging (wireshark to the rescue) it appears that the AP is sending out a bad ARP request to the network. Specifically, while the ARP request contains the IP of the AP, the source MAC address is set to 00:00:00:00:00:00. As such, any guest on the network then updates its ARP cache with a bad MAC and thus loses connectivity.

From an OSX perspective you end up with the following:
? (192.168.2.253) at 0:0:0:0:0:0 on en0 ifscope [ethernet]

From a pfSense perspective (which is how I spotted the initial issue) you see the following messages spamming the system log:
arp: 192.168.2.253 moved from 00:00:00:00:00:00 to f8:32:e4:a6:d1:40 on em1

Periodically the AP performs another ARP request but with the correct MAC this time, which forces guests on the network back into playing nice. I found that if you flush the ARP cache, then ping the AP IP continuously, you will have results for a few seconds until another bad ARP request is sent at which point the cache has the wrong MAC again.

FWIW, even disconnecting the AP from the network makes no difference, it seems to be one of the wireless clients that it keeps sending the ARP request for. I didn't see this issue on the earlier FW versions. Debugging from the AP side is slightly as each time a bad ARP request is sent any connections to it die :-(

Edit:
in pfSense you see the following in sequence (I pasted only one half earlier)
arp: 192.168.2.253 moved from f8:32:e4:a6:d1:40 to 00:00:00:00:00:00 on em1
arp: 192.168.2.253 moved from 00:00:00:00:00:00 to f8:32:e4:a6:d1:40 on em1

 

[joltdude]

I have done that, and it was a huge waste of time. I'm just here to advocate moving that "release" into the beta category before more people waste their time too. It's clear that the "techies" on this forum would rather shame users for their lack of knowledge than accept that the product is faulty.

To quote one of my favorite techs on another product..... The exits are clearly marked.... I think folks would have a bit more sympathy for you if you posted a bit more details about your configuration, and what you have and haven't tried yet... and not just gone. Oh this is just bodily excrement... Also it appears that you have JUST signed up for this forum to say it... Frankly.. If you want a crappy release. just use one of the new Asus releases... Might want to try some constructive criticism before you just take a dump on a dev whose doing this in his spare time.. And.. yeah its always good to read the release notes and folks experiences with any firmware.. including stock....

 

[RMerlin]

FWIW, even disconnecting the AP from the network makes no difference

Have you tried doing a complete power cycle of the AP, to reset it?

Next thing to test would be with a factory default reset (just keep a backup of your current config if you intend to revert back to it after testing with a reconfigured AP).

Also check your amount of available nvram, under Tools -> Sysinfo.

 

[dodgygeeza]

Have you tried doing a complete power cycle of the AP, to reset it?

Next thing to test would be with a factory default reset (just keep a backup of your current config if you intend to revert back to it after testing with a reconfigured AP).

Also check your amount of available nvram, under Tools -> Sysinfo.

Hi RMerlin,

AP was power-cycled twice, no difference sadly. I flashed the previous release and tested again, couldn't replicate the issue (nothing in pfSense, no bad ARP according to wireshark, even with the same device connected that was triggering it). I reflashed the latest version (_2) and the issues started again (ARP requests for a different IP this time, but the same result).

Difficult to check the nvram without downgrading the firmware again as I cannot get a lasting TCP connection to the device (both wired and wireless) due to the ARP issue. The only reason I am able to post this update is because the AP isn't doing any routing (pfSense is handling that).

I can perform a factory-reset on this level of firmware if you think it may shine some light on it, failing that I will see if I can solder a serial cable onto the board

Edit:
Managed to get into the AP with all other wifi devices (excluding this laptop) powered off to check the NVRAM values...
Memory
Total 249.57 MB
Free 201.38 MB
Buffers 1.64 MB
Cache 7.02 MB
Swap usage 0.00 / 0.00 MB

Internal Storage
NVRAM usage 60088 / 65536 bytes
JFFS 1.74 / 64.00 MB

Network
HW acceleration Enabled
Connections 81 / 300000 - 6 active

 

[RMerlin]

Difficult to check the nvram without downgrading the firmware again as I cannot get a lasting TCP connection to the device (both wired and wireless) due to the ARP issue. The only reason I am able to post this update is because the AP isn't doing any routing (pfSense is handling that).

Might be easier to check over SSH (faster than navigating through the webui if the connection can't remain stable for long enough).

nvram show

I can perform a factory-reset on this level of firmware if you think it may shine some light on it,

It's worth a try, in case one of the nvram value is missing a valid Mac.

I will see if I can solder a serial cable onto the board

That's the beauty of Asus's routers, they provide a serial pin header - no soldering required

 

[dodgygeeza]

Might be easier to check over SSH (faster than navigating through the webui if the connection can't remain stable for long enough).

nvram show

It's worth a try, in case one of the nvram value is missing a valid Mac.



That's the beauty of Asus's routers, they provide a serial pin header - no soldering required

Managed to get a connection for long enough to run the command/capture the output. Not sure the specific entry to check for, but there are a few MAC values listed:
0:macaddr=F8:32:E4:A61:44
1:macaddr=F8:32:E4:A61:40
2:macaddr=F8:32:E4:A61:48
et0macaddr=F8:32:E4:A61:40
wan_hwaddr=c0:3e:0f:5a:1d:4c

 

[Bill Waggoner]

I uploaded 380.65_2 to my AC66R and had nothing but trouble with it so I'm back on 380.65 which is working much better. The router would go completely offline, wifi and hardwired and required a power reset to get back. This was happening every six to eight hours. I haven't done a lot of debugging yet but I might get a chance to do that later.

I kind of wonder if I don't have a latent hardware issue. I've reported before on the strange files I find in /jffs that I haven't heard from anyone else. That makes me wonder if my router is "special" ... Right now I have over 640 of these "nmp" files on /jffs and they keep coming.

 

[RMerlin]

Managed to get a connection for long enough to run the command/capture the output. Not sure the specific entry to check for, but there are a few MAC values listed:

I was mostly interested in the total size / free space nvram report. The RT-AC3200 suffers from lack of nvram space, so it can easily fill up, leading to stability issues.

 

[amd7674]

Thank you Merlin for all your hard work.

I'm happy with 380.65 on my AC1900P. Is it safe and worth it to upgrade to 380.65_2? If ain't broken don't fix it?

 

[RMerlin]

Thank you Merlin for all your hard work.

I'm happy with 380.65 on my AC1900P. Is it safe and worth it to upgrade to 380.65_2? If ain't broken don't fix it?

380.65_2 is a security update, so it's generally a good idea to update, even if you don't expose the webui to the WAN, as it could still potentially be exploited LAN-side.

 

[Deleted member 22630]

I have an odd problem, and I don't know if it's related to this release. I have two RT-AC66Us but they display different channel selections for the 5GHz band. In addition, neither allow me to choose anything other than "auto" for the extension channel. I do 'nvram show', and both display:

wl0_country_code=EU
pci/2/1/ccode=EU
pci/1/1/ccode=EU
wl1_country_code=EU
regulation_domain=EU
regulation_domain_5G=EU
wl0_country_code=EU
wl0_country_rev=13
wl_country_code=
wl1_country_code=EU
modem_country=​

However one router displays:

wl1_country_rev=13
wl_country_rev=13​

And the other router displays:

wl1_country_rev=31
wl_country_rev=31​

'wl country' on both results in EU/13.

The router displaying "31" has a lot of extra channels, but none can be applied.
I've done a full reset of both, but the difference persists.
Any idea what could be causing this?