scMerlin scMerlin 2.5.8 - Service and script control menu for Asuswrt-Merlin, October 20, 2024

[Martinski]

Release Notes for the scMerlin 2.5.6 version now available [2024-June-30]:

1) FIXED code to get the correct temperatures on the webGUI for the "GT-BE98_PRO" router.

2) Some code improvements.

 

[Martinski]

Release Notes for the scMerlin 2.5.7 version (now available):

1) FIXED missing scrollbar on the "Sitemap" WebGUI page when loaded on the 386.14 F/W version.

2) Redirected version update requests from the 'develop' branch to the 'master' branch.

The 'develop' branch is *not* supported/available on the repository.​

3) Code improvements.

 

[SomeWhereOverTheRainBow]

@Martinski I dont know what these older scripts would do with out you being around. At some point you will have changed so much in the script you put your self in the position of being its new author. I am sure the Merlin community appreciates your works. I wish I could give you 1000 likes.

 

[Tarek Yag]

@Martinski I dont know what these older scripts would do with out you being around. At some point you will have changed so much in the script you put your self in the position of being its new author. I am sure the Merlin community appreciates your works. I wish I could give you 1000 likes.

Totally agree! All the love to @Martinski

 

[JGrana]

Agreed. And studying his code is a great lesson.

Asuswrt-Merlin AddOn Developers Donation Links

AddOn developers create many useful scripts, WebUI addon pages, system extensions and useful utilities to enhance Asuswrt-Merlin supported routers. These "devs", like RMerlin, do this all voluntarily. This requires lots of time, effort, support of users, upkeep and maintenance. They do it for...

www.snbforums.com

 

[heysoundude]

I'm patiently waiting for an update to ntpMerlin called ptpMerlin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precision_Time_Protocol PTPv2.1 please

 

[Martinski]

@Martinski I dont know what these older scripts would do with out you being around. At some point you will have changed so much in the script you put your self in the position of being its new author. I am sure the Merlin community appreciates your works. I wish I could give you 1000 likes.

Thank you for the generous praise. I’m just grateful to many of the script developers here on this forum for creating & making available very useful add-ons, some of which friends & relatives of mine use as well, so I’m simply giving back to the community.

 

[Twiglets]

I'm patiently waiting for an update to ntpMerlin called ptpMerlin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precision_Time_Protocol PTPv2.1 please

If you want to 'play'

See https://forums.ni.com/t5/NI-Linux-Real-Time-Documents/How-to-install-Ptpd/ta-p/3492758

Get latest source from https://github.com/ptpd/ptpd/releases/tag/ptpd-2.3.1

Have not tried this as I cannot afford to 'play' right now

[Blowing up my main router while trying this would not go down well !!!]

 

[heysoundude]

If you want to 'play'

See https://forums.ni.com/t5/NI-Linux-Real-Time-Documents/How-to-install-Ptpd/ta-p/3492758

Get latest source from https://github.com/ptpd/ptpd/releases/tag/ptpd-2.3.1

Have not tried this as I cannot afford to 'play' right now

[Blowing up my main router while trying this would not go down well !!!]

no playing for me either...just wanted to put it out there for consideration

 

[Tarek Yag]

When there are three values in the "Minute" field in a cron job entry, is it normal to be displayed like this in scMerlin?
Please see attachments, I've put arrows pointing at the numbers in question in different places.

I've provided all my router's setup details in another thread post, in short:
Router: RT-AC68U
Merlin Firmware version 386.14
scMerlin version 2.5.7

Kindly,

 

[dave14305]

When there are three values in the "Minute" field in a cron job entry, is it normal to be displayed like this in scMerlin?

scMerlin should be updated to do a global replace when parsing the crontab entries. It only replaces the first occurrence of the delimiter, as written now.

 

[Martinski]

When there are three values in the "Minute" field in a cron job entry, is it normal to be displayed like this in scMerlin?
...

Good catch!! I was able to duplicate the issue on the 2.5.7 version:

Note that the same display issue happens with all the time entries (Min, Hour, DayM, Month & DayW).

Here's a screenshot with the fix using my development 2.5.8 version:

I've already made a pull request. I'm not sure that issuing a new release at this moment is necessary since the problem is only a cosmetic issue, but I'll make a release next weekend if nothing else comes up.

FYI.

 

[Tarek Yag]

Good catch!! I was able to duplicate the issue on the 2.5.7 version

Great, thank you!

Note that the same display issue happens with all the time entries (Min, Hour, DayM, Month & DayW)

Yeah, I didn't check the other fields.

I'm not sure that issuing a new release at this moment is necessary since the problem is only a cosmetic issue, but I'll make a release next weekend if nothing else comes up.

I totally agree! Anyway, I guess if it would become available in the develop branch only for now, I think it might be okay to keep it there for a while before making a release.

BTW, I have a question out of curiosity, for Merlin scripts in general, what gets displayed when checking for updates if a normal or development new version is available?

1- Could the new stable version be the exact same version number of an existing develop version? Hence duplicate versioning between the two branches?

2- When we update to a develop version, does the script stay at the same branch on the next update? Or it just switches back to stable whenever a new stable version is detected and installed?

Execuse me for my many questions. Thanks a lot to all of you guys!

 

[EmeraldDeer]

no playing for me either...just wanted to put it out there for consideration

PTP requires every hop of network equipment to support it, so it is a non-starter.

Chrony can take advantage of network hardware timestamps of PTP compliant NICs from the time source host, even if other networking hops are not PTP compliant. I don't think the NICs in our routers are PTP (IEEE1588) compliant.

 

[Martinski]

...
I totally agree! Anyway, I guess if it would become available in the develop branch only for now, I think it might be okay to keep it there for a while before making a release.

To clarify, the currently "official" GitHub repository for scMerlin does *not* have a 'develop' branch. The original repository (from the original author @Jack Yaz) has that branch, but the current GitHub repo (from @decoderman AKA @thelonelycoder) used by AMTM does not.

AFAIK, AMTM checks for new version updates only from the stable/master branch of each add-on and ignores any & all existing version updates from a development branch (if it exists).

BTW, I have a question out of curiosity, for Merlin scripts in general, what gets displayed when checking for updates if a normal or development new version is available?

I don't know for all add-ons in general so the following applies to only some of those (mostly from @Jack Yaz's repos) that I've worked with such as YazFi, YazDHCP, spdMerlin, ntpMerlin, connmon, uiScribe & MerlinAU.

1- Could the new stable version be the exact same version number of an existing develop version? Hence duplicate versioning between the two branches?

Yes.

2- When we update to a develop version, does the script stay at the same branch on the next update? Or it just switches back to stable whenever a new stable version is detected and installed?

The add-on stays on the currently installed 'develop' branch unless the user explicitly executes the command to switch back to the 'stable' version. For example:

/jffs/scripts/spdmerlin stable

 

[Tarek Yag]

To clarify, the currently "official" GitHub repository for scMerlin does *not* have a 'develop' branch.

Yeah, you told me that earlier, when I previously reported the issue when switching to the develop branch it downloads an even older version. So, yeah I forgot it only when I talked about keeping the fix in the develop branch.

Finally, my lesson today..
Whenever I get a newer version or an MD5 update notification in AMTM, I'll switch back my respective scripts from develop to stable again. All because of that scrollbar issue with the latest firmware

Thanks a lot @Martinski, you're such a great master!

 

[heysoundude]

PTP requires every hop of network equipment to support it, so it is a non-starter.

Chrony can take advantage of network hardware timestamps of PTP compliant NICs from the time source host, even if other networking hops are not PTP compliant. I don't think the NICs in our routers are PTP (IEEE1588) compliant.

An AVoIP protocol I'm pursuing certification in requires it, which is why I've mentioned it here. (https://www.getdante.com/)
more reasons: https://engineering.fb.com/2022/11/21/production-engineering/future-computing-ptp/
I agree with the Meta folks, it will be increasingly critical, but perhaps for reasons other than theirs

 

[Reef2009]

Hi everyone, I don''t want to scare people or create pannic but...

A view days ago the Dutch National Cyber Security Center posted a blogpost about (dutch) Asus routers creating a botnet : https://www.ncsc.nl/actueel/weblog/...nsumentenrouters-doelwit-van-meerdere-botnets

IO wanted to know if my router could be infected so i followed "the steps" but it didnt work, with USB key plugged in and a reboot it worked but internet was blocked. A reboot afterwards fixed my internet again.
See results down here.

=== Router Malware Detection Script ===
Your ASUSWRT-router was checked for signs of malware by examining running processes, temporary files, and settings.
Note: Only a limited set of known malware families are detected, as described in a blog post by NCSC-NL. See: [Your Blog Post URL]
Keep your router's firmware updated and follow security best practices.

=== Device info ===
Model: RT-AX88U / RT-AX88U
Buildinfo: Wed Jul 31 23:51:29 UTC 2024 merlin@0483b73
Ate_version=1.0
acs_version=2
bl_version=1.0.1.0
wl0_version=17.10.121.41 (r796515)
wl1_version=17.10.121.41 (r796515)
wl_version=17.10.121.41 (r796515)
Kernel: Linux RT-AX88U-Main 4.1.51 #2 SMP PREEMPT Wed Jul 31 20:02:27 EDT 2024 aarch64 ASUSWRT-Merlin
Uptime: 19:38:03 up 7 days, 12:24, load average: 3.65, 2.63, 2.17
USB mount point: /tmp/mnt/sdb1

=== Start scan ===
Script version: 1
Heuristics version: 1
Local time: Tue Oct 8 19:38:03 DST 2024
Launcher: awarmsysv
Thisfile: /tmp/mnt/sdb1/scan.sh


=== Checking Active Processes ===

=== Checking Directories for Suspicious Files ===
! Suspicious string found in file /tmp/scmerlin-top



Question for know: What could be the Suspicious string in "/tmp/scmerlin-top" And what does it do?
for now I temporary deleted ScMerlin (ATMT J3) and now there are no Suspicious files or folders found anymore. Better safe then sorry..

Can someone explain whats going on here?

 

[Ripshod]

Don't panic!!

No malware detected. Your router appears to be clean.

The same file is present so not scMerlin itself. It's a dynamic file so it's likely just a false positive.

 

[EmeraldDeer]

I have scMerlin installed. I ran the script from /tmp rather than from a FAT32 USB stick. I did not get a false positive.

The list of suspicious file strings is in the script:

suspicious_strings="8ewMqdWf9K|3deCSCIoaQ|NIwZI3pvmJ|Klq1BtftKC|gSqf7pcEQQ|asi\.sh|31\.170\.22\.195|asi\.ok|asi\.ko|1-arm-le-t|1-mips-le-t|e4DtOMgfOorTPVnvSXm1D|downl_crt.sh"