Simple beginner questions about using SSH with Merlin

[NB_8]

Performing a WPS reset will wipe out the JFFS partition and restore the router to the same state it was in when new, including stock Asus WRT firmware, correct?

 

[octopus]

Performing a WPS reset will wipe out the JFFS partition and restore the router to the same state it was in when new, including stock Asus WRT firmware, correct?

WPS only reset router settings. You have to wipe jffs separate.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Performing a WPS reset will wipe out the JFFS partition and restore the router to the same state it was in when new, including stock Asus WRT firmware, correct?

No, a reset (WPS or normal) does not change the installed version of firmware. All it does is reset the settings to their default values. As for whether it wipes out the JFFS partition, that depends on the particular model of router and the installed firmware version as the behaviour is not consistent across all models/versions.

UPDATE: I've just done a WPS reset on my RT-AX86U running 386.4_beta2 and can confirm that it does wipe the jffs partition.

 

[NB_8]

I was able to install the eibgrad's killswitch script found here:

Kill switch doesn't work

It seems to me kill switch stopped working for me. I had 386.1.x FW and noticed after router reboot that my OpenVPN client is down and despite I had setting to prevent client access to Internet when VPN is down, client still had access to Internet. I could not make kill switch work so updated to...

www.snbforums.com

However I encountered something unexpected after pasting it into the open ssh session.

Examining what was pasted in the open terminal window, part of the script appears twice, which it doesn't do in the original script eibgrad made. The repeating part was the entire "BEGIN OPTIONS" and "END OPTIONS" portion of the script, and it repeated itself immediately in the pasted version. No other portions of the script repeated.

Thinking I must have been at fault, I restored the jffs partition using the backup that was made prior to any scripts being added. When pasting was tried a second time, the exact same thing happened. The version it was copied from was checked and it is a perfect match to the original eibgrad created, where this repeating portion does not appear. Was this supposed to repeat like it did?

 

[eibgrad]

I was able to install the eibgrad's killswitch script found here:

Kill switch doesn't work

It seems to me kill switch stopped working for me. I had 386.1.x FW and noticed after router reboot that my OpenVPN client is down and despite I had setting to prevent client access to Internet when VPN is down, client still had access to Internet. I could not make kill switch work so updated to...

www.snbforums.com

However I encountered something unexpected after pasting it into the open ssh session.

Examining what was pasted in the open terminal window, part of the script appears twice, which it doesn't do in the original script eibgrad made. The repeating part was the entire "BEGIN OPTIONS" and "END OPTIONS" portion of the script, and it repeated itself immediately in the pasted version. No other portions of the script repeated.

Thinking I must have been at fault, I restored the jffs partition using the backup that was made prior to any scripts being added. When pasting was tried a second time, the exact same thing happened. The version it was copied from was checked and it is a perfect match to the original eibgrad created, where this repeating portion does not appear. Was this supposed to repeat like it did?

Not sure what the issue is. Works fine for me. Try removing the script, then using curl to install it instead.

curl -kLs bit.ly/merlin-installer|tr -d '\r'|sh -s F2GmyrCC

 

[NB_8]

Not sure what the issue is. Works fine for me. Try removing the script, then using curl to install it instead.

curl -kLs pastebin.com/raw/F2GmyrCC | tr -d '\r' | sh

I'd like to try troubleshooting the copy/paste method briefly so this method might be an option in the future.

Is there any way to remove what what was done at this point, other than restoring the jffs directory to what it was prior to this attempt?

When pasted into the terminal, should the script look completely unaltered?

In the pasted script I'm also seeing the injection of a certain line of text multiple times, that has the router name and some other characters followed by :/tmp/home/root#. For example, this appears prior to every line in the first 7 lines of the script.

It's almost as if the copied version had "enter" commands in the formatting that caused pasting the script to enter certain segments of the code individually. I'm not blaming the script here, it's obviously my doing somehow. I'm thinking I might have erred by copying the "raw paste data" of the code into a word processor, and using that as the source for pasting into the terminal. Was that my mistake?

If one would like to keep a copy of the script offline that could be used as a source for pasting into the terminal, how would that be done correctly?

 

[eibgrad]

Beware, the copy/paste method may not always work. If the script is large enough, it can sometimes overflow the the ssh input buffer, producing weird effects (usually the loss of some data). But using curl should always work.

Also, *never* copy/paste using a word processor! That will change the formatting and will likely make the script incompatible w/ Linux. This is a common mistake, and why I generally recommend you use the curl method. You avoid these types of problems.