RT-AC68U - Unable to upgrade firmware

[Evanescence]

First time poster here!

My AC68U has been serving me faithfully since I purchased it on release week. I had been regularly updating the system firmware and switched over to the Merlin builds last year. Those were going well too until I updated to 374.43_2. I used that build from last summer until this week when I finally got around to upgrading the firmware again. At least I tried to.

I have attempted to load both the newest Merlin version 378.56_2 as well as the latest official ASUS firmware after that didn't work. Neither of them installed on my router even though the upload process proceeded and completed normally. I restored the router to factory settings and cleared the NVRAM and tried again to no avail. After many attempts the system info still reads:

3.0.0.4.374.43_2
Firmware Build Sat Jun 7 16:32:17 UTC 2014 merlin@198fecd
Bootloader (CFE) 1.0.1.

Nothing looked amiss in the system log but I copied it in case it may be useful if anyone needs me to post it here. It's not an immediate emergency since the router appears to be working fine with the older firmware but I would really like to resolve this to patch any security holes and take advantage of new features implemented since then. In other words...help!

 

[Puppa]

System log is missing from your post

 

[joegreat]

3.0.0.4.374.43_2
Firmware Build Sat Jun 7 16:32:17 UTC 2014 merlin@198fecd
Bootloader (CFE) 1.0.1.

Hi,

You are on a very old release (the jump from .43 to .56 is to big!) and therefore it does not work!
Please read the changlog of the past releases and look for the CFE update for your AC68U router.

AND: Next time do more often updates to avoid this kind of problems!

With kind regards
Joe

 

[john9527]

Please read the changlog of the past releases and look for the CFE update for your AC68U router.

AFAIK, all of Merlin's builds include the CFE update (save for a bug in some of the Merlin 376 builds in applying it).

 

[Blinkyz]

AFAIK, all of Merlin's builds include the CFE update (save for a bug in some of the Merlin 376 builds in applying it).

Your CFE is not upgraded.You need 1.0.2.0


Flash with 376.3626 (official ) from Asus to upgrade your CFE bootloader (read the log from asus, * important*) and after with 378.56_2, factory to default after and reconfig from beginning

 

[Evanescence]

LOL Yeah, I should probably update my router more than once a year. I had no idea the firmware bootloader had changed. I tried Blinkyz' solution and it worked perfectly. Thanks for the assist guys!