RT-AX88U Pro installation from RT-AC68U config files

[David Cavalli]

Long time user of Merlin on the Asus RT-AC68U unit. Because of the oncoming obsolescense, been tracking the RT-AX88U Pro for months. It's at its all time low of $219.99, so I took the plunge today. It arrives on Wednesday. As a result, I'm now focused on how I will install / configure my new router. No problem on flashing the firmware, but mostly questions about if I can use my config files from the /jffs directories on the old unit.

1) /jffs/configs - Can I drop in dnsmasq.conf.add, hosts.add and profile.add in the equivalent directory to achieve their same function?
2) /jffs/scripts - Does the smb.postconf file do the same thing?
3) /jffs/usericon - Can I copy my <macid>.log files and the corresponding usericon_md5.json files to activate the individual images?
4) /jffs/addons/amtm - Does this work the same?

I used to do a lot of the above things through the web interface, but NVRAM space was a consideration on the old unit. I'm guessing it's not on the new one, but since I'm already configured and used to maintaining these files, easy to hopefully just dump them on the new one and let them do their thing.

If there's anything else I should know about the other firmware version before I get the router, any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Hawk]

It is not advisable to copy config from one router to another, this become even more important when there is many generations difference between two of them. It would be best to simply config router from scratch and have a peace of mind.

 

[David Cavalli]

I'm not sure what you mean in this case. Things like my hosts file are just text files that specify my hosts. I'm asking if hte new router firmware still implements these special config files. Not sure what I would do other than straight copy these text config files...

 

[CaptnDanLKW]

I've experimented with the nuances of the ramifications of ASUS moving settings of variables that used to be stored in nvram, moved to /jffs.

Your logic is correct and already understand the nuances as well. The only caveat is if they changed the syntax of the way the strings are stored in the variables. When you get your new device, set a few DHCP reservations and custom icons, then ssh into the new device and 'cat' and compare them. If the CSV syntax is the same, your good.

As long as you 'echo' only the tactical settings you want to move into /jffs, not a restore from the Web interface this is a good method.

I've been planning the same but waiting for a sale on a BE model.

I also back up my scribe config, my conmon database, vnstatd db (I love my years of stats), but would / will do a fresh entware since I assume files it will pull down may be different. Then I'll copy the criical files back over and reboot. Keep this in mind if you have other 'data' you want to keep.

 

[David Cavalli]

I've experimented with the nuances of the ramifications of ASUS moving settings of variables that used to be stored in nvram, moved to /jffs.

Your logic is correct and already understand the nuances as well. The only caveat is if they changed the syntax of the way the strings are stored in the variables. When you get your new device, set a few DHCP reservations and custom icons, then ssh into the new device and 'cat' and compare them. If the CVS syntax is the same, your good.

As long as you 'echo' only the tactical settings you want to move into /jffs, not a restore from the Web interface this is a good method.

I've been planning the same but waiting for a sale on a BE model.

I also back up my scribe config, my conmon database, vnstatd db (I love my years of stats), but would / will do a fresh entware since I assume files it will pull down may be different. Then I'll copy the criical files back over and reboot. Keep this in mind if you have other 'data' you want to keep.

Perfect. Exactly what I hoped. I never put anything in from the Web interface anyway, once I went to the /jffs partition, but like your logic to test out how it works. Clean install for web configuration. Unlike you, historical "who did what" is irrelevant to me, so I'm making the rest my install much easier.

Thanks for the knowledge!

 

[CaptnDanLKW]

Just to clarify I wasn’t saying don’t use the web UI for regular changes, that is in fact a good idea because it adds error checking. I was saying don’t use the web ui to restore the jffs partition as a whole.

Tactical command line usage just to get the time consuming stuff was my point.

All good.

 

[Squall Leonhart]

You can import the settings from the older router as well as the jffs partition just fine in the majority of cases without issues, despite what the usual alarmist few claim.

However, if you've mad significant changes to router settings via ssh, it might be better to do it from scratch.

Your logic is correct and already understand the nuances as well. The only caveat is if they changed the syntax of the way the strings are stored in the variables. When you get your new device, set a few DHCP reservations and custom icons, then ssh into the new device and 'cat' and compare them. If the CVS syntax is the same, your good.

if the cvar has changed, then the worst case is you have an unused cvar in the settings from the old firmware, and the setting it would have reflected may be set to its default when the cvar used in the newer frmare is initialized.

 

[Ripshod]

Try it. If it doesn't work reliably then start again from scratch.

 

[David Cavalli]

The goal was to make my new router look exactly like the old one (externally), so nobody would have to change their configuration. (They did have to reboot, in the end.) Here's what I did, in case anyone needs to do this in the future:

• Booted normally, base configuration with stock firmware, until I got to the point where I could update to Merlin
• Installed Merlin normally and used my standard base configuration
• Turned on the /jffs partition for my manual configuration files
• Set the base domain to 192.168.1.x (to mimic my RT-AC68U)
• /jffs/amtm - ran command and it seemed to be running with the latest version
• /jffs/configs - added my 3 files to the directory
• /jffs/scripts - added the postconf file to the directory
• /jffs/usericon - added all current .log files (cleaned out old ones), generated corresponding usericon_md5.json (I documented how to do this @ SNB)
• Rebooted router, then windows machine.

That's it! New router up and running great! Finished before most of my family woke up, and they really didn't notice the difference (after rebooting). I do. This thing screams! Probably have some minor tweaks here and there, and some new config tabs to test, but ultimately done!

Thanks for the update help and router recommendations, all! Happy to stay in the Merlin family. TTFN! <3

 

[David Cavalli]

That's it! New router up and running great!

Wow! Had some time to run some tests. Here's the comparison between the speeds, with literally almost everything else the same. Using the internet speed internal test (site, level, d/l, u/l, ping, jitter), here are the results:
2024/2/21 Cox-LV Super 293.19 10.52 8.34 2.27
2024/9/11 Cox-LV Super 600.10 57.29 10.91 1.07

No idea how the exact same hardware, save the router, generates a 2x DL speed and an almost 6x UL speed! :O Is this just 2019 vs 2024 tech, where I'm finally realizing the full potential? Could this be wrong? I guess Cox could have upped speed limits or maybe time of day? No idea. Playing around with other new interesting router features, but this alone upgrade-wise makes me very happy!

 

[Tech9]

Could this be wrong?

Internal speed test is CPU limited and most likely your old router was just showing lower numbers. Your new router is no doubt faster device, but it didn't magically increase your ISP line speed.

 

[David Cavalli]

Internal speed test is CPU limited and most likely your old router was just showing lower numbers. Your new router is no doubt faster device, but it didn't magically increase your ISP line speed.

Didn't think the new router "increased" max speed per se, but thought the memory/CPU of the old router might have decreased it. Noticeably faster though and happy, regardless of the lack of magic. Thanks!

 

[Tech9]

Well... RT-AC68U is actually 2013 tech. Now is 2024 and you missed a few generations hardware. If you have upgraded to RT-AC86U, RT-AX86U, etc. - there is no "wow" difference between each one. What you see is "accumulated" difference for >10 years.