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Corrupted config pages

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LukeH

Occasional Visitor
Hi,
I have a RT-AC56U with Merlin 378.53 at the moment.
Some of my config pages are corrupted looking like the attached one. This happens from any major browser including Android phone when I checked. Also tryed to clear browser cache.
This situation persisted trough upgrade from previous Merlin (which was first Merlin installed) yet I don't belive it started as soon as I installed Merlin.
Any help? I tried searching for similar issues but couldn't find anything.
Thanks,
Luke
 

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  • router_vpn.png
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How full is your nvram? I had something not dissimilar, and when I moved the OpenVPN keys and certs to jffs, thereby reducing the size of nvram used, the problem went away.
 
NVRAM usage 53326 / 65536 bytes
JFFS 2.05 / 62.75 MB

How would I do what you are suggesting?
 
Have you reset the router to factory defaults and then manually and minimally configure the router to secure it and connect to your ISP?
 
Have you reset the router to factory defaults and then manually and minimally configure the router to secure it and connect to your ISP?
I didn't try that yet as I'm a bit afraid I may end up loosing my VPN settings for example which I use and, if that won't fix the issue, I won't be able to set it up again.
That's why I'm trying to find out more about this before trying factory defaults and seems strange to me that noone seems to have ran into this.
 
Hi Luke, 53k nvram (out of 65k) does not suggest your problem is nvram related. (I hit my problem at around 60k). You didn't say in your original posting how you got to 378.53 and whether or not you carried out the essential restore to factory default at the 378.51 ( I think) point. Anyway, I understand your reluctance to lose OpenVPN settings. You could try copying the certs and keys into Notepad++ (in Unix format) and then pasting back afterwards. I don't know if John's nvram save/restore facility would make life easier. (I've never used it. It seems a superb time-saver, but, because I'm at the bottom end of the learning curve, I like to manually enter settings (and discover pages in the webui that I hadn't previously paid attention to.)). One thing though: RMerlin has announced that the next update .55 will see the OpenVPN cets and keys moved to the JFFS partition. I've no idea if this means that some work will be required to set up OpenVPN again, or re-export config files, but, if it does, it might just be worth hanging on until then and then doing the restore to factory default, which, for all I know, might just be required anyway.
 
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The main reason for this is some user input field (client names, passwords, usernames) contains special characters (single quotes, double quotes, dollar sign, brackets, etc). They should only use alphanumerics, dash and underscore.

If you are comfortable with the Linux command prompt, you count find and edit them in nvram. Or do a factory reset, then enter them without any of the special characters. Merlin's next release has additional checking to make sure you can't enter them.
 
John, you are so right!

I couldn't get WinSCP to log into my Raspberry Pi. By a real stroke of luck, I found a forum post: WinSCP doesn't like the "£" sign. Sometimes I think we get the balance of risk very wrong: I'm far more likely to end up wasting a day or two because I stupidly used special characters, than a cohort of foreign-government hackers is going to devote resources to hacking my Raspberry Pi malicious-website-blocking DNS server.
 
You didn't say in your original posting how you got to 378.53 and whether or not you carried out the essential restore to factory default at the 378.51 ( I think) point.
I mentioned I had only one previous version of Merlin before this (it could have been .51 if for some reason ther was no intermediary one), before that had the official firmwere up to date. Never did a factory default restore.
You could try copying the certs and keys into Notepad++ (in Unix format) and then pasting back afterwards. I don't know if John's nvram save/restore facility would make life easier.
I'm not afraid that I have to generate new keys or go trough the config process again. I'm afraid that if the factory reset won't fix the issue I won't have the VPN setting page where to input them.
Regarding the nvram tool I'd rather avoid it as the long talk there kind of scares me...pretty much a beginner here.
The main reason for this is some user input field (client names, passwords, usernames) contains special characters (single quotes, double quotes, dollar sign, brackets, etc). They should only use alphanumerics, dash and underscore.
If you are comfortable with the Linux command prompt, you count find and edit them in nvram. Or do a factory reset, then enter them without any of the special characters. Merlin's next release has additional checking to make sure you can't enter them.
This means those special chars would have ended up in the corrupted pages (as opposed to page X corrupted because something in page Y)? I can't imagine I did such in the Open VPN page unless the certificate itself could cause this issue...would that be possible?

EDIT: What I have done at some point after flashing was to unplug the router instead of pushing the button when I was asked to manually reboot. Could that cause any issue?
 
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.....I'm not afraid that I have to generate new keys or go trough the config process again. I'm afraid that if the factory reset won't fix the issue I won't have the VPN setting page where to input them.
Regarding the nvram tool I'd rather avoid it as the long talk there kind of scares me...pretty much a beginner here.......

If you didn't have the pages present after the factory reset, which takes you back to the state immediately after you flashed, then you'd simply reflash, though that's a scenario I find hard to imagine: if something had gone wrong during flashing, I suspect a corrupted config page would be the least of your problems.

And I doubt unplugging the router to reboot rather than using the power button could cause any problems. I expect the power button similarly breaks the mains supply.

John's point about special characters in the SSID is also valid: I've made that mistake, too, and struuggled to get an Internet radio working. I think I've got the message now about such characters.

Assuming the SSIDs are valid, if you are not bothered about the manual effort post restore to factory default then go ahead and do it; just have a copy of the firmware handy in the extremely unlikely case you feel the need to reflash again afterwards. And let us know how you got on.
 
No, the certs should be fine....how about your SSIDs which are displayed at the top of every page?
Indeed my SSID was "Luke's" Changed that but the issue was not fixed. But I also had my devices named like "Luke's LG"...changed that and now that page recovered, strange as that string doesn't appear on the page unlike the SSID. EDIT: but appears in the page source
Thanks a lot guys.
 
Excellent. Well done, John. A valuable reminder to avoid like the plague those pesky, time-wasting special characters.
 
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