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Asus RT-N66u with TomatoUSB firmware

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reverting back to stock fw

I loaded shibby 085v right off the bat after i bought the router home, but so far haven't seen much improved throughput b/w asus rt-n66u and my old d-link dir 655. After reading several reviews, ofw is the recommended firmware so I'm thinking of reverting to asus latest stock firmware .108. Can I flash fw .108 the same way as I flashed shibby to the router? are there any special or extra procedures that I should perform when I want to put back the ofw after it has already been flashed with 3rd party fw?

thanx.

katie.
 
I have weird problems with shell scripts containing "case" often used in init.d scripts.
Every script containing "case" will only randomly execute.
Out of ten manual tries maybe only about two or three will execute, every time totally random.
I don't know if this is a Tomato, USB or an Optware error.
I have Optware installed on an internal sdcard in the RT-N66U.
Everything else I use the sdcard for works like a charm.

Workaround I use at the moment is to edit scripts so that they are called like five times
in a row and then I have to hope that is enough for one successful execution.

I experienced this on tomato-K26USB-1.28.RT-N5x-MIPSR2-085V-AIO.trx and just now moved up to tomato-K26USB-1.28.RT-N-MIPSR2-088V-AIO.trx but it seems this problem is still around.

Below is an example on how I have had to edit pptp.wanup in order to be relatively sure the pptp server is started when router boots.

#!/bin/sh
if [ ! -f /tmp/ppp/chap-secrets ]; then
mkdir -p /tmp/ppp
ln -s /opt/etc/ppp/chap-secrets /tmp/ppp
fi
sleep 4
/opt/etc/init.d/S20poptop restart
sleep 2
/opt/etc/init.d/S20poptop restart
sleep 2
/opt/etc/init.d/S20poptop restart
sleep 2
/opt/etc/init.d/S20poptop restart
sleep 2
/opt/etc/init.d/S20poptop restart

The S20poptop init.d script contains "case" which I narrowed it down to be the reason for this weird behavior.

Anyone experienced anything similar?
 
As i said 1-2 pages before, the /bin/sh (busybox) is frackED UP! It is bullshit²
At least with the Shibby-Tomato version..

I tried to compile some things and many scripts abort, because the are not running fine or aborting on some random positions..

Or in 2 out of 3 times, the configure scripts are not able to detect the host, target or build system (even when you EXPORT the variables!!)


I tested shibbyV87
 
As i said 1-2 pages before, the /bin/sh (busybox) is frackED UP! It is bullshit²
At least with the Shibby-Tomato version..

Yep, something seems to be totally broken with Shibbys RT-N66U builds.
I posted a notice about this on what I believe is Shibbys forum.
Hopefully he looks into it because as it is now Shibbys Tomato is totally useless on the RT-N66U. :(
 
Well, just when you make many things in terminal/shell...

So for me and you: Yep, its useless..


But I make stability/uptime tests with V87Shibby and it is running since 8 days without reboot and speed/wifi is still good :)



A workaround you can try:
.) First install bash via optware
.) Edit the /etc/passwd file via vi or nano (install it via optware) and change the last entry in the line with user "root" to "/opt/bin/bash" (instead of "/bin/sh")
.) After reboot the passwd file is back to the same :D (so dont reboot for testing ;) - but if you are not able to login anymore, just reboot)

I dont have enough time for testing, but try this and report if the bug is still there, because I dont know if it will still be using /bin/sh, because the script says so (#!/bin/sh)

If it is working, I can make a sed-command which replaces the /bin/sh in passwd during startup..
 
I dont know if it will still be using /bin/sh, because the script says so (#!/bin/sh)

I just tried this and the error remains so it seems it still use /bin/sh no matter the changes.

This is a test script that I used.


#!/opt/bin/bash

case "$1" in
test)
echo "test working"
;;

*)
echo "Usage: `basename $0` {case parameter failed}"
;;
esac


Running this script manually a few times in a row gives me the following result.

root@RT-N66U:/tmp/home/root# /opt/etc/init.d/test test
test working
root@RT-N66U:/tmp/home/root# /opt/etc/init.d/test test
Usage: test {case parameter failed}
root@RT-N66U:/tmp/home/root# /opt/etc/init.d/test test
test working
root@RT-N66U:/tmp/home/root# /opt/etc/init.d/test test
test working
root@RT-N66U:/tmp/home/root# /opt/etc/init.d/test test
test working
root@RT-N66U:/tmp/home/root# /opt/etc/init.d/test test
Usage: test {case parameter failed}
root@RT-N66U:/tmp/home/root# /opt/etc/init.d/test test
test working
root@RT-N66U:/tmp/home/root# /opt/etc/init.d/test test
test working
root@RT-N66U:/tmp/home/root# /opt/etc/init.d/test test
Usage: test {case parameter failed}
root@RT-N66U:/tmp/home/root# /opt/etc/init.d/test test
test working
root@RT-N66U:/tmp/home/root# /opt/etc/init.d/test test
test working
root@RT-N66U:/tmp/home/root# /opt/etc/init.d/test test
Usage: test {case parameter failed}
root@RT-N66U:/tmp/home/root# /opt/etc/init.d/test test
Usage: test {case parameter failed}
root@RT-N66U:/tmp/home/root# /opt/etc/init.d/test test
Usage: test {case parameter failed}
root@RT-N66U:/tmp/home/root# /opt/etc/init.d/test test
test working
root@RT-N66U:/tmp/home/root# /opt/etc/init.d/test test
test working
root@RT-N66U:/tmp/home/root# /opt/etc/init.d/test test
test working
root@RT-N66U:/tmp/home/root# /opt/etc/init.d/test test
test working
root@RT-N66U:/tmp/home/root# /opt/etc/init.d/test test
Usage: test {case parameter failed}
root@RT-N66U:/tmp/home/root# /opt/etc/init.d/test test
Usage: test {case parameter failed}
root@RT-N66U:/tmp/home/root# /opt/etc/init.d/test test
test working
root@RT-N66U:/tmp/home/root# /opt/etc/init.d/test test
test working
root@RT-N66U:/tmp/home/root# /opt/etc/init.d/test test
Usage: test {case parameter failed}
root@RT-N66U:/tmp/home/root# /opt/etc/init.d/test test
test working
root@RT-N66U:/tmp/home/root# /opt/etc/init.d/test test
Usage: test {case parameter failed}
root@RT-N66U:/tmp/home/root# /opt/etc/init.d/test test
test working
root@RT-N66U:/tmp/home/root# /opt/etc/init.d/test test
Usage: test {case parameter failed}
root@RT-N66U:/tmp/home/root# /opt/etc/init.d/test test
test working
root@RT-N66U:/tmp/home/root# /opt/etc/init.d/test test
test working
root@RT-N66U:/tmp/home/root# /opt/etc/init.d/test test
Usage: test {case parameter failed}
root@RT-N66U:/tmp/home/root# /opt/etc/init.d/test test
Usage: test {case parameter failed}
root@RT-N66U:/tmp/home/root#


Quite bad odds of getting a script to fully execute.
 
Some problems with memory management i guess..

Did you ever try the Toastman-Tomato versions?

Nope never tried Toastman. I got the RT-N66U just a lil over a month ago.
I'm totally fresh on running custom firmwares on routers.
My prior experiences of embedded linux is mostly on other small devices like NSLU2 and Guruplugs.

I might give Toastman a try but I have just set everything up in a fabulous way here, fwrules, portmappings, optware etc etc. Everything is just so sweet except this annoying "bug".
It feels so messy having to start all over again.

These memory management problems that you suspect is the reason for the issues, are they hard to solve for Shibby you think?

You think this is a RT-N66U problem or a more general Shibby problem affecting other routers as well?
 
Well, I have no other device with tomato-USB (just Asus WL500gP with Oleg-FW), so I cannot say if it is a general firmware problem or just a problem with the router + chipset + broadcom firmware itself..

But I dont think it is a general tomato problem, because this is a huge bug...



And if you dont want to test other firmwares, just try other shell´s (tcsh, zsh) and see if bug is still there!


And what i forget earlier: If you change the /bin/sh entry in the passwd file, you have to login new, so that the login-shell is BASH (or whatever you set there) and not /bin/sh anymore!!
Otherwhise it is still /bin/sh and if you call bash from /bin/sh, maybe the bug is still there..

When I am at home tonight, i will upload another bash-version which i managed to compile on the router.. We can also try that version..
 
And what i forget earlier: If you change the /bin/sh entry in the passwd file, you have to login new, so that the login-shell is BASH (or whatever you set there) and not /bin/sh anymore!!
Otherwhise it is still /bin/sh and if you call bash from /bin/sh, maybe the bug is still there..

Yep I did that mistake in my first try, but when trying it again i note that both /bin/sh and /opt/bin/bash gave the exact same irregular results.

I'm all in testing ideas that you come up with. Might even try Toastman too, I just so much want Shibby to work since I feel it better fills my needs.

BTW. Still no reply on the Shibby forum. I assume you know which one that is and that you read there too right?
 
Last edited:
Nope... Dont know shibbys forum... I am also new here :D Found it via google, when I was searching on how to open the Asus-Router for inserting the micro-SD card ;)
 
And if you dont want to test other firmwares, just try other shell´s (tcsh, zsh) and see if bug is still there!

I have now tested with tcsh and zsh. Tcsh didn't work with the case directive that I use for testing and zsh gives the very same result as sh and bash.
 
Loaded up toastman's latest builds, tomato-K26USB-NVRAM60K-1.28.04 97.1MIPSR2-Toastman-VLAN-RT-N-E xt.trx. I like how it has up to 6guest wifi and pptp vpn server/client!
 
Loaded up toastman's latest builds, tomato-K26USB-NVRAM60K-1.28.04 97.1MIPSR2-Toastman-VLAN-RT-N-E xt.trx. I like how it has up to 6guest wifi and pptp vpn server/client!

Hi,

Except these, Do you notice anything better than Shibby builds?
 
Wrong forum...see this post.

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showpost.php?p=39663&postcount=158

Will need to translate one of the links in the post.

Hmm true. But it seems Shibby is communicating at that other site too.
I'm gonna try to make an account on that polish forum and hopefully get a hold of him because there is still no reply elsewhere.

It's weird not more people is reacting to this which seems to be a serious low level bug. I guess these faults might affect the over all performance and stability of the router even if not playing with Optware etc.

It would be great if others could try to replicate these issues so that we can rule out local issues that thE_29 and I might have.

UPDATE:
I made an acc there now and I have sent Shibby a private msg. Hope he replies soon. :)

UPDATE 2:
Got a reply from Shibby who says that test script runs just fine for him so now I'm really confused.
I have tried three different Shibby builds with erased NVRAM in between.
Maybe I have a faulty unit. Bad RAM maybe.
 
Last edited:
Hi,

Except these, Do you notice anything better than Shibby builds?

Before the uprade to Toastman, I was using Shibby's V083. Shibby's does not have cifs client which is what I wanted. In terms of wif range/throughput... same as shibby's. I think the core of all tomato firmware are the same, just with different features.

I would like to see tomato firmware go past the 1.28 major release, such as 1.29 and have upgraded drivers for support of "beam forming"
 
Before the uprade to Toastman, I was using Shibby's V083. Shibby's does not have cifs client which is what I wanted. In terms of wif range/throughput... same as shibby's. I think the core of all tomato firmware are the same, just with different features.

I would like to see tomato firmware go past the 1.28 major release, such as 1.29 and have upgraded drivers for support of "beam forming"

Thanks, much appreciated.
 

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