Advanced Merlin functions on RT-AC68 invoke screen of death

[BigSnicker]

So I've recently upgraded to the Merlin firmware (loving the added OpenVPN functionality), but I'm now running into a reproducible problem where the wireless side of the router shuts down when I try to invoke certain advanced functions. Here are two examples of how I can run into the problem:

Factory reset -> Do basic wireless set-up (works fine) - > Set-up VPN (works fine) -> Turn on detailed, custom location traffic statistics (screen of death)

Factory reset -> Do basic wireless set-up (works fine) - > Set-up VPN (works fine) -> Turn off NAT hardware acceleration (screen of death)

By screen of death, I mean the router generally shuts off all wireless clients, only allowing you to access a 192.168.1.1 page that says "Settings have been updated. Web page will now refresh.
Changes have been made to the IP address or port number....". Wired connections usually continue to work. Usually the only way I've managed to recover from that state has been to either log on via a wired connection and undo the recent change, and one time even the wired side couldn't get an IP address and it required a full factory reset.

Any suggestions? There's at least a 71% chance I'm doing something stupid....

 

[Nullity]

When you change certain settings, the wireless must restart... but you are saying it never comes back?


Have you reset your router to the Factory Defaults?
http://www.snbforums.com/threads/faq-nvram-and-factory-default-reset.22822/

 

[BigSnicker]

Correct, I can do even do a normal reboot and the wireless side still gives me the portal screen of death and no internet access for all wireless clients.

And yes, I end up having to do a full Factory Default reset when this occurs, but I can then recreate the error fairly easily as described in my original email. The router came really close to looking like a brick one time after I enabled advanced traffic statistics.

It works perfectly fine after a factory default reset (well, with the OpenVPN performance issues) as long as I don't touch advanced functions, so it's in service as we speak and I'll be able to try any troubleshooting advice tonight.

 

[BigSnicker]

I should probably also mention that I've tried changing browsers, pings and fully rebooting the clients to make sure it wasn't a client-side issue either.

 

[Nullity]

When the router loses wireless, what does the system log say? You might try logging into the router via telnet/SSH and running "dmesg", which will show more logging information that could be useful.


Edit: You say the device "generally" disconnects the wireless? So, sometimes the wireless works?

 

[BigSnicker]

Wow, well that was a terrifying hour I'd rather not go through again....

So I liked your suggestion and just went through the process to try to collect more log data for you, here's what happened.

1. Started with a fairly stable configuration with minimal changes from a factory default configuration
2. Tried to turn on traffic statistics by going to Tools->Other Settings and selected Custom traffic settings, a path on a local USB 3 hard drive, monitor all IPs and create new traffic files
3. Hit apply, waited through very long apply process
4. Router turned into a brick. Couldn't get IP addresses for wireless or wireline, which persisted after a simple reboot. Even rebooting all clients and trying to ping 192.168.1.1 returned 'network not connected', even after setting private static IP addresses. Normal factory default reset didn't work at all and I eventually had to use the following trick from Toms Hardware to get it speaking to me again:

____________________________________

From: http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2505922/reset-asus-ac68u-factory.html

I found a method to factory reset/rescue/recovery for the RT-AC68U that works every time.
Is it correct? I don't know, but it will get you to the Mini-CFE web page and allow you to (1) reset all variables and load firmware.

With power button off, hold the reset button, and the wifi on/off button and the WPS button.
Turn the power on, while holding the buttons.
Keep holding all three buttons until you get a fast blink led on the front.
Release only the wifi on/off and WPS buttons. keep the reset button pressed.
Release the reset button once the led on front starts to slow blink.

set your network to static ip 4 of 192.168.1.50
open a web browser and enter the router ip of 192.168.1.1

I pulled my hair out for months. And this solution works every time. I've done it 4 times myself.

__________________________________________

Very bizarre, and as I've said, turning off the NAT hardware acceleration seems to brick the thing similarly as well.

So needless to say, I wasn't able to retrieve any log data for you. :-(

P.S. Sorry for not being more explicit, but by "generally" disconnects the wireless I meant that sometimes it also disconnects the wireline. The wireless is always disconnected.

 

[Nullity]

I thought you could access the GUI. The system log should be accessible through the GUI by a button/tab on the left.

The common way to default the settings is to access the GUI and click "Restore Factory Defaults".

 

[BigSnicker]

I've been assuming that the on-board logs were wiped after going through that kind of reset I just put it through, but I've put the entire log here in case it's useful for you (http://pastebin.com/wdT2sXBA). Let me know if my credit card number is in there somewhere.

I think it's just showing my last reboot from a factory reset condition, and thus none of the actions I took to put it into a bricked state, but I could be wrong. Let me know if you have any insights or recommendations.

 

[RMerlin]

What firmware version? 380.57 is known to have issues with the RT-AC68U, you have to revert to 378.56_2, or switch to the alpha builds of 380.58.

 

[Nullity]

I've been assuming that the on-board logs were wiped after going through that kind of reset I just put it through, but I've put the entire log here in case it's useful for you (http://pastebin.com/wdT2sXBA). Let me know if my credit card number is in there somewhere.

I think it's just showing my last reboot from a factory reset condition, and thus none of the actions I took to put it into a bricked state, but I could be wrong. Let me know if you have any insights or recommendations.

Is this log before or after the wireless failure? If possible, getting the log after would be most beneficial.

 

[BigSnicker]

@RMerlin

Ahhhh, newbie here, so I just took the latest from the RT-AC68U Mediafire download page, which was 380.57.

I'll give the alpha build a try, since I'm bad that way, and will revert to 378 if I encounter any problems.

@Nullity

Yes, I misposted into this thread and couldn't figure out how to delete or move the thread into the merlin sub-forum. I'm going to try RMerlin's suggestion and use an alternate firmware, which hopefully will resolve these issues.

Thanks for the help from the both of you.

 

[BigSnicker]

Fascinating. I tried the latest alpha, but there was no improvement; activation of traffic statistics resulted in pretty much a complete bricking that required the three-fingered factory reset.

However, when I regressed to 378.56, everything worked as intended, so it appears you have a structural problem that's still in the latest available alpha load.

I've only had 378.56 installed for five minutes, so will let you know if the problem rears its head again after more testing. In the meanwhile, thanks for the save.

 

[BigSnicker]

btw, happy to help debug this problem if you need me to run any diagnostics or test any experimental loads.

 

[RMerlin]

Something is flooding your router (DDoS?). Way too many of these:

Mar  2 09:29:44 kernel: TCP: time wait bucket table overflow

 

[BigSnicker]

I noticed that as well. No idea what was causing it, but it doesn't show up in my more recent logs.

I've put another set of logs here using 378.56_2 (http://pastebin.com/CDA34yg4), but I've been testing it and it's been working fine so I wouldn't expect anything too usual. Only thing I noted was a ton of these:

Mar 2 14:10:26 kernel: [truncated] L/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/np
Mar 2 14:10:32 kernel: [truncated] L/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/npch ==NULL/np