Asuswrt-Merlin 3.0.0.4.266.23b is out

[RMerlin]

global monthly is no data at all, but per device monthly shows stats what appear to be right.

It probably means you didn't initialize the data files for the regular traffic monitoring. Go to the Tools -> OTher Settings, and check the first "Create or reset data files" to generate it.

In addition I have to change the data format (for me is dd.mm.yyyy) everytime I access the page it be cool if this was remembered.

It already does. The value is stored in a cookie named ymd (for daily pages) and ym (for monthly pages), and gets reused when you access those pages. Make sure you aren't blocking cookies on these pages.

 

[Chrysalis]

ok can confirm after I unblocked the cookie it remembers.

I did generate the files, the files that exist are.

tomato_cstats_10bf48e63ea2.gz
tomato_rstats_10bf48e63ea2.gz

is it missing from that?

it also now shows both 13th and 14th on daily, just the monthly blank.

 

[RMerlin]

ok can confirm after I unblocked the cookie it remembers.

I did generate the files, the files that exist are.

tomato_cstats_10bf48e63ea2.gz
tomato_rstats_10bf48e63ea2.gz

is it missing from that?

it also now shows both 13th and 14th on daily, just the monthly blank.

Not sure what else could be wrong then, it's working correctly here. Maybe check the System Log for any error message related to rstats.

 

[Tailhappy]

Long story

I just bought an ASUS RT-N16 since I decided that 1) DD-WRT support would make it a super router and 2) being an early adopter (beta tester) of the 802.1ac spec is a bad (and costly) idea, and USB support enabling NAS is a must-have feature.

After realizing I wasn’t Linus savvy enough to setup the USB NAT capabilities to my liking using DD-WRT (despite the ‘Optware the right way’ guide), I elected to relinquish the custom OS features and settle with the basic ASUSWRT GUI. Then I discovered this gem GUI developed by Merlin and my decent ‘6.5/10’ N16 router became a ‘9/10’ powerhouse. Props to Merlin for having the determination and skill to make it happen and then share it with the ASUS router community.

My new router works great and the added networking features seem fully functional ( I haven’t used them all of course, especially QoS). However I can’t help but requesting the GUI be ‘finished’ by making the N16 router rate a full 10/10. In my opinion here’s what it would take:

1) Multiple guest networks. Is there an inherent limitation of the N16 that prevents it from accepting multi-SSID’s like most other ASUS routers?

2) OpenVPN: Presumably the issue is that Merlin doesn’t own a N16 for proper debugging/development. That didn’t prevent the current ‘experimental’ GUI software from rocking way better than DD-WRT or Tomato. Any hope for including this Merlin?

* I initially added the radio RF power level controls to this list, but once I discovered the capability of the ‘wl txpwr’ command, I’m content using the embedded terminal to explore power tweaks.

Appreciative RT-N16 user.

 

[RMerlin]

1) Multiple guest networks. Is there an inherent limitation of the N16 that prevents it from accepting multi-SSID’s like most other ASUS routers?

Not sure exactly how these work at the low level, so I'd rather not mess with it and risk breaking it.

2) OpenVPN: Presumably the issue is that Merlin doesn’t own a N16 for proper debugging/development. That didn’t prevent the current ‘experimental’ GUI software from rocking way better than DD-WRT or Tomato. Any hope for including this Merlin?

Lack of NVRAM is the issue. The RT-N16 only has 32 KB, which isn't enough to store certificates and all the numerous settings required by OpenVPN. This would require rewriting a lot of the code to support disk-based certificates - something I'm not really willing to spend days on at this time, sorry.

You can still install OpenVPN through Optware/Entware however, but it will require manual configuration, which might not be that simple I'm afraid.

 

[Tailhappy]

Cool. Thanks for explaining where the limitations are. I'm content with the 9/10 solution.

 

[darksamus]

Not sure exactly how these work at the low level, so I'd rather not mess with it and risk breaking it.



Lack of NVRAM is the issue. The RT-N16 only has 32 KB, which isn't enough to store certificates and all the numerous settings required by OpenVPN. This would require rewriting a lot of the code to support disk-based certificates - something I'm not really willing to spend days on at this time, sorry.

You can still install OpenVPN through Optware/Entware however, but it will require manual configuration, which might not be that simple I'm afraid.

There is a away around the 32kb nvram size with it comes to installing the openvpn certificate. Since the RT-N16 has two usb ports, a usb stick can be use to store your openvpen certificate. Under your openvpen configuration, you point your certificate to the mounted usb stick...ie.. /mnt/sda1/

 

[RMerlin]

There is a away around the 32kb nvram size with it comes to installing the openvpn certificate. Since the RT-N16 has two usb ports, a usb stick can be use to store your openvpen certificate. Under your openvpen configuration, you point your certificate to the mounted usb stick...ie.. /mnt/sda1/

Which leads to what I wrote in my reply: lot of work required to implement this, not planned at this time.

 

[Transisto]

I'd like to report on some problem I have with ...4.266.23

I had a guest network that wouldn't disappear albeit being disabled in the UI, power cycle didn't fix it. I did Reset to factory default, nothing was really factory defaulted but it fixed the stuck Guess network.

I have a problem where WiFi download speed were slow and upload only around 0.05 mbps. This got somehow fixed after the factory default but speed are still half of that they should be. 300kb/s a few feet from the router, 5ghz and 2.4.

I still haven't found a way to manage the router from more than one IP at once. This is really annoying, Where is this feature hidden ? , Also I don't see any way to add users other than the root/admin. I mean REALLY ?

 

[RMerlin]

Those issues are all generic to Asuswrt and not specific to Asuswrt-Merlin.

I'd like to report on some problem I have with ...4.266.23

I had a guest network that wouldn't disappear albeit being disabled in the UI, power cycle didn't fix it. I did Reset to factory default, nothing was really factory defaulted but it fixed the stuck Guess network.

First thing I'd suspect with those issues are browser-specific. Try a different browser and see if it works better, I never had any issue here when I played with Guest networks.

I have a problem where WiFi download speed were slow and upload only around 0.05 mbps. This got somehow fixed after the factory default but speed are still half of that they should be. 300kb/s a few feet from the router, 5ghz and 2.4.

If you have the same issue on both 2.4 and 5 GHz then I'd check if you have the same issue with a different device. Also check if performance is back to normal with an Ethernet connection, to determine if the issue is wifi-specific or not.

I still haven't found a way to manage the router from more than one IP at once. This is really annoying, Where is this feature hidden ?

Asus designed it that way on purpose, not entirely sure why.

Also I don't see any way to add users other than the root/admin. I mean REALLY ?

Asus are aware of this limitation, and last word was they would work on implementing multiple users support in the future.

 

[placebo78]

@Merlin:
First I want to thank you for this nice FW. Very good work.

@all:
I do have one question/problem which drives me mad. I hooked up a HDD via USB. I can manage everything just fine, until I unhook it (for whatever reasons) or have power failure, so the HDD doesn't have any power at all. After that happens and hooking it up again, I still can see the HDD, but I can't use it, because it says unmounted. Maybe I am too stupid to know that, but is there a way, to mount the HDD again and still have all the contents working on it? Maybe with a telnet thing or so? Double clicking on it does not help.

It seems that, for example, a power failure destroys the partition table on the drive. The only chance to get it back to work is to create a new partition table via linux and then do a new format and then hook it up again. But this is no option, because I want to put my iTunes stuff on it.

I really am lost on this one. Please help.

Thanks in advance.

Greets
Placebo

 

[RMerlin]

It seems that, for example, a power failure destroys the partition table on the drive. The only chance to get it back to work is to create a new partition table via linux and then do a new format and then hook it up again. But this is no option, because I want to put my iTunes stuff on it.

If you wait for a while 20-30 mins, does it eventually mount itself? An unclean mount should normally get an automated filesystem check done by the router at boot time - this can take quite a while if your hard disk has a lot of files.

Otherwise, I would try just running a chkdsk on a Windows PC or fsck from the router (if the filesystem is ext2/ext3) rather than reformatting it. Also if you are using NTFS or FAT32, try reformatting using ext2/ext3 instead, as it has better recovery options when run from a Linux device such as the router.

Asus is currently developing a disk monitor service which will (from what I understand) handle running filesystem integrity checks on the disk as needed. That should hopefully take care of your issues as well once this new service is finalized by Asus.

 

[RocketJSquirrel]

I do have one question/problem which drives me mad. I hooked up a HDD via USB. I can manage everything just fine, until I unhook it (for whatever reasons) or have power failure, so the HDD doesn't have any power at all. After that happens and hooking it up again, I still can see the HDD, but I can't use it, because it says unmounted. Maybe I am too stupid to know that, but is there a way, to mount the HDD again and still have all the contents working on it? Maybe with a telnet thing or so? Double clicking on it does not help.

It seems that, for example, a power failure destroys the partition table on the drive. The only chance to get it back to work is to create a new partition table via linux and then do a new format and then hook it up again. But this is no option, because I want to put my iTunes stuff on it.

That's really odd. My attached Seagate USB HDD is fine after power failure. And I've had a lot of them in the last few weeks during installation of my rooftop solar panels.

If you wait for a while 20-30 mins, does it eventually mount itself? An unclean mount should normally get an automated filesystem check done by the router at boot time - this can take quite a while if your hard disk has a lot of files.

Otherwise, I would try just running a chkdsk on a Windows PC or fsck from the router (if the filesystem is ext2/ext3) rather than reformatting it. Also if you are using NTFS or FAT32, try reformatting using ext2/ext3 instead, as it has better recovery options when run from a Linux device such as the router.

fsck on the router doesn't work, as I mentioned in a post a while back. My suspicion is that it's such an old version, it can't handle today's large drives and something overflows.

 

[placebo78]

Thx for the quick replys.

No, it doesnt help, if I wait for 30min or more, it stays unmounted. It also doesnt matter which file system I choose, results are always the same
So, either the HDD is really broke (but its brand new and on a PC it works just fine) or the routers FW itself (not you) is not capable of handling this Seagate 3TB version. I still have some smaller HDD sizes flying around, but I honestly wanted to have my Itunes stuff on 1 big HDD, but I guess I can kiss that goodbye.

Greets
Placebo

 

[RMerlin]

There are numerous reports of issues with either large hard drives or hard drives using 4K Advanced Format. People have talked with Asus's tech support about this, but no word yet as to if/when that would be resolved. The old kernel the firmware uses probably doesn't help much (compared to the newer Ralink-based routers that are moving to a 3.x kernel).

 

[RMerlin]

fsck on the router doesn't work, as I mentioned in a post a while back. My suspicion is that it's such an old version, it can't handle today's large drives and something overflows.

The Busybox version used by Asuswrt is starting to be long in the tooth. Its fdisk command for instance does not support 4K sector sizes.

I did some preliminary tests at upgrading it, but the complicated part is that the Busybox version used by Asuswrt has been quite extensively modified. Some of it is code that was backported from newer version, but I don't know if there is any custom code in there as well. I might eventually devote more time on this.

BTW, I dug through a competitor's firmware a few months ago (I can't recall if it was DLink or Linksys), and their Busybox version was even older than Asus's.

 

[placebo78]

So, any HDD up to 2TB should be ok, right?

I do have some other questions.

I would like to use the nzb function. I set up my server and from my PC it works just fine, uploading a nzb file. Today I tried it via my Iphone 5 and for the first time I was not amused about it. Because of the lack of "uploading a file to anywhere from the Iphone", I wasnt able to get it to work. The copy and paste method also did not work, because you have to submit once more, after you pasted in an url. So does anyone know a little workaround? I also tried a filehoster, but its the same. You always have to submit the url, so no go from the Iphone. That sucks just a little.

@Merlin: Is there a way to make the "Download Tools" Section Iphone useable? That would rock.

One question about the spinning down funktion: How does it exactly work, when will it kick in? I know, I can set up lets say 5min. Do I have to be logged out, to get it to work? Please let me know, thx in advance.

Greets
Placebo

 

[RMerlin]

So, any HDD up to 2TB should be ok, right?

I have a theory (untested) that drives with 4KB sectors (as opposed to the traditional 512-bytes sectors used for decades) will have issues. That could explain why my own Hitachi 3 TB was working fine when I tested it, as it emulates 512 KB sector sizes.

So unfortunately there is no definitive answer to this yet.

I do have some other questions.

I would like to use the nzb function. I set up my server and from my PC it works just fine, uploading a nzb file. Today I tried it via my Iphone 5 and for the first time I was not amused about it. Because of the lack of "uploading a file to anywhere from the Iphone", I wasnt able to get it to work. The copy and paste method also did not work, because you have to submit once more, after you pasted in an url. So does anyone know a little workaround? I also tried a filehoster, but its the same. You always have to submit the url, so no go from the Iphone. That sucks just a little.

@Merlin: Is there a way to make the "Download Tools" Section Iphone useable? That would rock.

Download Master isn't actually part of the firmware, but a separate package that gets installed separately. So, nothing I can do at the firmware level for this.

One question about the spinning down funktion: How does it exactly work, when will it kick in? I know, I can set up lets say 5min. Do I have to be logged out, to get it to work? Please let me know, thx in advance.

It will run a daemon that will ask your HDD to spin down after the configured timeout. No need to stay logged in, however you must ensure there is nothing accessing that hard disk. Download Master will constantly access the disk, so it will prevent it from ever spinning down.

 

[RocketJSquirrel]

Do we know authoritatively whether a given HDD will last longer spinning full time or part time?

 

[RMerlin]

Do we know authoritatively whether a given HDD will last longer spinning full time or part time?

Depends entirely on your usage scenario. If you use the drive once every few days, you will probably increase its life. If you access it once a day, you will probably not get much change on its life, but will be saving on power/noise. That scenario will match that of many home PCs that get powered off every nights.

If you still want an actual authoritative answer, then you will have to track down the HW specs of specifically the exact HDD model you are using, and look up for how many power up/down cycles they are rated, and the average MTBF.