asus Download Master and 2x USB drives - issues

[simaka]

I am trying to create a stable & issue-free setup of asus ac86u with 2x USBs drives for Download Master (DM):

• 32GB (binaries)
• 512GB (downloads)

I tried multiple approaches and every approach has different issues. Details:

Initially I plugged in 1x 512GB USB-A drive in my asus, to host both the DM binaries and also downloads. However, when adding multiple torrent files quickly or a single torrent file for big download (e.g. few 10s of GBs), the DM UI gets stuck for long time, I assume until it preallocates all the disk space. I want to avoid buying a usb-A ssd drive (and a 90-degree USB-A adapter) for now.

So:

1. I tried turning off "preallocation" in settings.json (setting it to 0) - this didn't help. Still long time to wait for the DM UI to be useful again. I don't think this setting works.
2. Came up with an alternative idea - to add a 2nd, small 32GB flash drive only for the DM binaries - worked like a charm. The Download Master is very responsive, but:

• Changing the Complete and InComplete directories in settings.json to point towards the 512GB drive doesn't work - keeps getting rewritten to the default settings at startup (other modifications I made persist). So I assume it doesn't like the locations being out of the same device.
• I created symlinks for Complete and InComplete towards the 512GB drive - works, but every time I try to download a torrent larger than 32GB (size of the flash drive where the DM binaries are located), the UI complains there isn't enough space (there is plenty of space on the 512GB flash drive).

Does anyone have any ideas how to approach this?

 

[L&LD]

Stable and issue-free?

Don't use the RT-AC86U.

Don't use storage connected to the router via USB.

 

[simaka]

Stable and issue-free?

Don't use the RT-AC86U.

Don't use storage connected to the router via USB.

was afraid this will be the answer...

I assume that transmission is hardcoded to not allow path to the complete / incomplete dirs within the same filespace/device.I really don't want to go for compiling my own though..

If nobody has any better idea, I guess I will leave it as it is until I buy an ssd for it. Large torrent files will be downloaded in parts, selecting their files in groups.

 

[sfx2000]

Transmission can be rather, erm, optimistic on the default settings for number of connections...

I would limit to 10 downstream - those are the ones that are likely the best hosts for a given torrent in any case...

 

[Tech9]

I guess I will leave it as it is until I buy an ssd for it

The result will be very similar. Don't waste your time and money. Home routers have some features good for marketing purposes only.

 

[bennor]

Does anyone have any ideas how to approach this?

Download Master is what it is and some (many?) have various issues with it. For Transmission an alternative, if one's Asus router supports Asus-Merlin, is to use Entware and install Transmission that way. One may have better (or not) luck that way downloading content.

Installing Transmission through Entware

Third party firmware for Asus routers (newer codebase) - RMerl/asuswrt-merlin.ng

github.com

But as others have indicated, you may end up wasting your time for little gain or upside trying to use a router and it's limited hardware for things its not very good at doing and wasn't really designed for. As already indicated certain "features" of these routers are really just marketing.

 

[simaka]

Download Master is what it is and some (many?) have various issues with it. For Transmission an alternative, if one's Asus router supports Asus-Merlin, is to use Entware and install Transmission that way. One may have better (or not) luck that way downloading content.

Installing Transmission through Entware

Third party firmware for Asus routers (newer codebase) - RMerl/asuswrt-merlin.ng

github.com

But as others have indicated, you may end up wasting your time for little gain or upside trying to use a router and it's limited hardware for things its not very good at doing and wasn't really designed for. As already indicated certain "features" of these routers are really just marketing.

was not aware that there is a transmission alternative with Merlin. I am running asus-merlin, so I might actually go over to check. Is it a more fully-featured transmission, with the transmission web-gui I remember from ~15 years ago?