[RT-AC68U] A dose of Quicksilver

[RMerlin]

Since I got things working decently enough for now with this test build, I decided to release it as a preview for RT-AC68U owners who want to at least jump on the Asuswrt-Merlin specific features.

In the line of "let's give cool names to special test builds", I give you: Quicksilver

This RT-AC68U build is based on FW 3.0.0.4.374_979, which makes it use code somewhere between 205 and 217. I got it to work decently enough so my USB3 hard disk gets mounted as a USB3 device - I was able to read a 1.2 GB file at over 50 MB/s over Ethernet. As usual, your mileage may vary, based on the USB3 cable you use and the USB3 HDD and enclosure themselves.

Consider this build to be a preview. Feedback related to either USB or wifi performance at this point is kinda pointless, as these are areas that should be addressed by Asus in the very near future. I'm mostly interested in hearing about the Asuswrt-Merlin specific features, such as Stealth Mode (I still use my own implementation rather than piggyback into Asus's code they implemented with their hardware switch), OpenVPN, etc...

The build was uploaded to Mediafire, in the beta sub-folder of the newly added RT-AC68U folder.

Also, I figured I couldn't let DD-WRT be the only custom firmware available for too long on this router

 

[desiromeo]

Awesome! Trying now

Hey Merlin I saw you mention in another thread about dd-wrt using a much newer kernel. Is there any benefit to this over asus-wrt kernel? Also i know custom firmware like dd-wrt used to not have the proprietary stuff of stock firmware which made us have to compensate some things for others. I read in the ddr-wrt forum that asus gives them the proprietary stuff so now there is no loss of features? Is this true? Can you explain?

 

[geops]

Where is that folder? I have no idea how to find your share on mediafire. Some help please...

 

[RMerlin]

Where is that folder? I have no idea how to find your share on mediafire. Some help please...

See the sticky post in this sub-forum for all the important links.

 

[RMerlin]

Awesome! Trying now

Hey Merlin I saw you mention in another thread about dd-wrt using a much newer kernel. Is there any benefit to this over asus-wrt kernel? Also i know custom firmware like dd-wrt used to not have the proprietary stuff of stock firmware which made us have to compensate some things for others. I read in the ddr-wrt forum that asus gives them the proprietary stuff so now there is no loss of features? Is this true? Can you explain?

New kernel generally implies better performance or more kernel-level feature, at the risk of introducing new issues. There is also a loss of routing performance, since using a non-official kernel means you can't use Broadcom's proprietary HW acceleration (CTF). That's why DD-WRT can't do WAN to LAN routing faster than 200-250 Mbits, while Asuswrt (and Asuswrt-Merlin) can hit well over 600 Mbits with HW acceleration.

Beyond that, you will have to ask BSlayer about it. My guess is, he simply has a Broadcom SDK which allows him to recompile the drivers, acsd, emf/igmp, etc... That does not include CTF however, as only Broadcom has the source code to that one.

I doubt he has the source code to Asus's own proprietary bits such as asuswebstorage or AiCloud (which are exclusive to Asus's routers anyway).

 

[wacko]

is it advisable to do a reset to factory defaults or hard reset after flashing?

 

[RMerlin]

is it advisable to do a reset to factory defaults or hard reset after flashing?

Shouldn't be required. Not that much has changed between whichever firmware you were running and this build.

 

[wacko]

Shouldn't be required. Not that much has changed between whichever firmware you were running and this build.

Thanks! I was on 205, it's just that re-keying in all the port forwarding is a pain...

 

[RMerlin]

Thanks! I was on 205, it's just that re-keying in all the port forwarding is a pain...

BTW, you can export and import easily over telnet:

nvram get vts_rulelist
nvram get dhcp_staticlist

nvram set vts_rulelist="what_you_got_with_the_other_command"
nvram set dhcp_staticlist="what_you_got_with_the_other_command"
nvram commit

That's what I just did here, as I swapped the AC56U with the AC68U so I can start testing it as my core router

 

[JGrana]

AC68U Quicksilver - Initial Obersvations

First, many thanks Merlin. It's like Christmas in October!
Great to have jffs, configs, scritps, SSH etc!

Ok, flashed the beta, hera are some initial observations

1) After initial boot, set enable JFFS and Enable Format JFFS. Did a reboot.
Tools showed jffs setup, not mounted. So, rebooted.
jffs now mounted - but 5Ghz radio was gone. System Status showed 5 Ghz settings correct. But, all my 5Ghz devices reported no signal. Also checked with an Android app - WiFi Analyzer - no 5 Ghz Radio. Rebooted - 5Ghz back and running fine.

2) I have 2 shares that my AC66U mounts. I copied the scripts over to the AC68U. One share showed up great. The other (a Windows 8.1 PC) mounted, but every time I attempt to access it or do an ls (ls /tmp/mnt/OMedia) I get an interesting error message:

ls: can't open '/tmp/mnt/OMedia': Value too large for defined data type

df shows that it has roughly the same number of blocks as the good mount and 1/2 the number of blocks used.

Did some Google and found that I needed to add "noserverino" to the options portion of the mount command. BTW, the mount type is "-t cifs".

Interesting that the mount command without noserverino works fine on the AC66U.

I am now wondering if there is some cause/effect when I attempt to plug my 1.5TB external USB 3.0 drive in. It hangs the router, either port. In watching the drive access, I see it come up fine, a few flashes indicating the OS likely mounting - then crash. This drive has lots of files (music, videos and photos). Pure speculation!!!! I will try the USB disk soon!

Overall though - looks great, many thanks!

 

[RMerlin]

2) I have 2 shares that my AC66U mounts. I copied the scripts over to the AC68U. One share showed up great. The other (a Windows 8.1 PC) mounted, but every time I attempt to access it or do an ls (ls /tmp/mnt/OMedia) I get an interesting error message:

ls: can't open '/tmp/mnt/OMedia': Value too large for defined data type

df shows that it has roughly the same number of blocks as the good mount and 1/2 the number of blocks used.

Did some Google and found that I needed to add "noserverino" to the options portion of the mount command. BTW, the mount type is "-t cifs".

Interesting that the mount command without noserverino works fine on the AC66U.

Different kernel. The kernel handles this, so 2.6.36 might behave differently from 2.6.22.19.

I am now wondering if there is some cause/effect when I attempt to plug my 1.5TB external USB 3.0 drive in. It hangs the router, either port. In watching the drive access, I see it come up fine, a few flashes indicating the OS likely mounting - then crash. This drive has lots of files (music, videos and photos). Pure speculation!!!! I will try the USB disk soon!

Do a fsck/chkdsk on the disk, in case its filesystem is corrupted.

 

[ronan_zj]

Thanks for the beta firmware, this version has the same issue from 205 can't find my USB3.0 external HD. I wish asus can release the new FW next week so Merlin can release the final version soon.

 

[RMerlin]

Thanks for the beta firmware, this version has the same issue from 205 can't find my USB3.0 external HD. I wish asus can release the new FW next week so Merlin can release the final version soon.

Disable the USB3 Interference Reduction option.

 

[ronan_zj]

Disable the USB3 Interference Reduction option.

Thank you, it works perfectly.

 

[Fester1952]

This router so far has been a big disappointment for me!
I have a RT-N66U with your 3.0.0.4.270.26 firmware and it is rock solid.
I have stuck with that firmware because it does everything I want the router to do, and it does it very well.
The only reason I bought the RT-AC68U is because I have the 2013 iMac that has AC wireless capability.
I have tried the Asus 3.0.0.4.374.134 and the 3.0.0.4.374.205.
I have now flashed with your Quicksilver release.
One issue I am having is really poor wireless performance on 2.4GHz.
I have 8 wireless security cameras, two that are at a distance from the router.
No issue on the N66U, no communication on the AC68U.
I have tried upping the Tx power, no improvement, changing channel bandwidth and control channel amongst many other things, no improvement.
The other issue is accessing these cameras via DDNS from the Internet.
No problem on the N66U, nothing with the AC68U. I did see in another forum that someone else is having a similar issue.
One big issue is it drops connectivity regularly, like every hour.
Both wireless lights on the front of the router stay on, the only option is to power cycle the router.
I am beginning to think that either the Asus wireless drivers are a bit flakey or I have a faulty router. I have gone back to my very reliable N66U for the time being.

 

[ronan_zj]

Try wait for another week because Asus will announce a new FW this week, and Merlin may need a week or two to compile code.

This router so far has been a big disappointment for me!
I have a RT-N66U with your 3.0.0.4.270.26 firmware and it is rock solid.
I have stuck with that firmware because it does everything I want the router to do, and it does it very well.
The only reason I bought the RT-AC68U is because I have the 2013 iMac that has AC wireless capability.
I have tried the Asus 3.0.0.4.374.134 and the 3.0.0.4.374.205.
I have now flashed with your Quicksilver release.
One issue I am having is really poor wireless performance on 2.4GHz.
I have 8 wireless security cameras, two that are at a distance from the router.
No issue on the N66U, no communication on the AC68U.
I have tried upping the Tx power, no improvement, changing channel bandwidth and control channel amongst many other things, no improvement.
The other issue is accessing these cameras via DDNS from the Internet.
No problem on the N66U, nothing with the AC68U. I did see in another forum that someone else is having a similar issue.
One big issue is it drops connectivity regularly, like every hour.
Both wireless lights on the front of the router stay on, the only option is to power cycle the router.
I am beginning to think that either the Asus wireless drivers are a bit flakey or I have a faulty router. I have gone back to my very reliable N66U for the time being.

 

[JGrana]

Different kernel. The kernel handles this, so 2.6.36 might behave differently from 2.6.22.19.



Do a fsck/chkdsk on the disk, in case its filesystem is corrupted.

Indeed. I did plug the drive into a Belkin router running Tomato. It mounted fine and showed files/dirs. I unmounted and attempted an e2fsck. Got a strange error message - couldn't issue some command. I had formatted it with Partition Wizard Home edition and there always was an 8MB chunk at the beginning of the disk I couldn't remove. Strange.

Plugged it into a Win 8.1 computer and reformatted it as NTFS. Copied all my music and photos.

Plugged back into the RT-AC68U USB 3.0 port - now works like a charm. I setup minidlna and it indexed everything. Merlin - you have the non-thumbnail minidlna 1.1.0 on this release? It went through the large number of photos fine.

Thanks for the tip and a very good pre-beta.

 

[geops]

This router so far has been a big disappointment for me!
I have a RT-N66U with your 3.0.0.4.270.26 firmware and it is rock solid.
I have stuck with that firmware because it does everything I want the router to do, and it does it very well.
The only reason I bought the RT-AC68U is because I have the 2013 iMac that has AC wireless capability.
I have tried the Asus 3.0.0.4.374.134 and the 3.0.0.4.374.205.
I have now flashed with your Quicksilver release.
One issue I am having is really poor wireless performance on 2.4GHz.
I have 8 wireless security cameras, two that are at a distance from the router.
No issue on the N66U, no communication on the AC68U.
I have tried upping the Tx power, no improvement, changing channel bandwidth and control channel amongst many other things, no improvement.
The other issue is accessing these cameras via DDNS from the Internet.
No problem on the N66U, nothing with the AC68U. I did see in another forum that someone else is having a similar issue.
One big issue is it drops connectivity regularly, like every hour.
Both wireless lights on the front of the router stay on, the only option is to power cycle the router.
I am beginning to think that either the Asus wireless drivers are a bit flakey or I have a faulty router. I have gone back to my very reliable N66U for the time being.

The 205 firmware has pretty good wifi performance. It was best for me in terms of stability. I was pushing over 20MB/s on both bands with it. The RMerlin test build seems to have worse performance (probably uses the wifi drivers from a different build) and sometimes has brief disconnects on one of my machines.

 

[ronan_zj]

Hi Merlin, I notice this beta also can't set WEP encrption to either 64 or 128 bit with Authentication Method set to "Open System", and I notice this is the bug from 217 build.

 

[RMerlin]

Plugged back into the RT-AC68U USB 3.0 port - now works like a charm. I setup minidlna and it indexed everything. Merlin - you have the non-thumbnail minidlna 1.1.0 on this release? It went through the large number of photos fine.

This is indeed the version without the thumbnail code. However I got someone plugging all the memory leaks left in both the original and Asus code, so expect the next FW release to have the full thumbnail code enabled. The person debugging it was able to generate a 100+ MB large database from all of his media files without any memory issue. Took four hours to complete, but it was all there.