Can't change firmware

[Ronb55]

I have a T-Mobile Cell that has been flash to use Asus RT-AC68U firmware...Right now it's running the latest from Kong but acting oddly. I tried in recovery mode to flash to RMerlin but failed, can't telnet into router from Windows 10. Tried TFTP, TFTP2 and TFTPD32 with no luck.

 

[martinr]

It's possible you need to first flash with the intermediate firmware 378.55 (not 378.50 as initially mentioned in the following post)
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/merlin-update-firmware-wont-update-rtac68u.33543/

Do read the post through, especially L&LD's input at the end.

• The RT-AC68U and RT-AC56U need to be at least on firmware 378.55 (or the last 378.xxx version from Asus) before you can flash 380.xx, due to the partition sizechange."

from https://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin/wiki/Installation

 

[thelonelycoder]

I have a T-Mobile Cell that has been flash to use Asus RT-AC68U firmware...Right now it's running the latest from Kong but acting oddly. I tried in recovery mode to flash to RMerlin but failed, can't telnet into router from Windows 10.

I have no idea what these sentences mean.

What exact Router model do you have and what is Kong?
To me it sounds like you flashed Merlin firmware on a router model with a built in Modem.
This will fail as Asuswrt-Merlin does not work on router models with modems built in.

 

[ColinTaylor]

what is Kong?

I believe that "Kong" is a version of DD-WRT.

 

[thelonelycoder]

I believe that "Kong" is a version of DD-WRT.

King Kong, not King Merlin?

 

[Xentrk]

I have a T-Mobile Cell that has been flash to use Asus RT-AC68U firmware...Right now it's running the latest from Kong but acting oddly. I tried in recovery mode to flash to RMerlin but failed, can't telnet into router from Windows 10. Tried TFTP, TFTP2 and TFTPD32 with no luck.

On one AC88U I have, I used the dd-wrt wiki procedure for ASUS routers to flash Merlin FW on a router that had stock ASUS FW on it. http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Asus_TFTP_Flash. It appears you may have tried that though since you said you tried tftp?

On this page, http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Recover_from_a_bad_flash, go to the section with "Windows" highlighted in bold text. Try the procedure it recommends. But use Merlin FW.

And finally, you may need to configure your windows 10 client to use a static ip address, such as 192.168.1.5 before you start all of this. Also, subnet gw 255.255.255.0 and gateway the IP address of your router. This may be the issue why you can't telnet into your router.

 

[Ronb55]

Thanks but the router died, I guess it had some faulty hardware for months. Had to reset once a day or wireless would slow or stop...May try a R7000 next time