RMerlin
Asuswrt-Merlin dev
Howdy folks,
3.0.0.4.374.33 is now available for download.
This release, which is based on Based on Asus's 3.0.0.4.374.726 GPL, has a fairly long list of changes. The highlights:
RT-N66U switch to SDK6.
Asus has now officially switched the RT-N66U to the same SDK (and wireless drivers) as used by the RT-AC66U. This new driver solves the numerous connectivity issues introduced by the 5.110 update that they attempted in the previous 3.0.0.4.3xx releases. However, this driver currently seems to suffer from a reduced signal strength and range. Therefore, I am making available an experimental version that is still based on the 5.100 driver (labeled "-sdk5" in the Experimental folder), which uses the same driver as used by Asus in the 3.0.0.4.276 release, as well as my previous 372.xx releases.
Various experimental features now moved inth the main build.
Asus has officially debuted Dual WAN and Repeater Mode in the official firmware. Therefore, I have now enabled these features (which were previously available in the experimental builds) in the regular builds. Dual WAN probably still has a few issues left to iron out, such as recovery from failover mode, but it's already usable for many users. No doubt that Asus will keep polishing it in the coming months. The Yandex DNS-based filtering option was also moved from the experimental builds into the regular build. This DNS-bsed filtering can be configured under Parental Control.
AiCloud 2.0
With 374.720 Asus has introduced AiCloud 2.0, which sports a greatly improved web interface for AiCloud.
Improved RT-AC56U support
I have implemented support for the RT-AC56U in most of the options of the robocfg tool. This includes the ability to retrieve the last MAC device seen on LAN ports, which will now be reported on the Sysinfo page, like with other router models. In addition, support for Syn Cookies was also enabled for the RT-AC56U kernel, as well as Advanced IP Routing (which fixes the Astrill VPN plugin).
Performance optimizations
Starting with this release, the firmware for all the MIPS-based routers (that means RT-N16, N66 and AC66) is now compiled with mips32r2 code enabled. This leads to general performance improvement throughout the firmware. The improvement was quite measurable when iperf was run through an OpenVPN tunnel, for example.
Also, more ASM optimizations were backported from OpenSSL 1.0.2, which led to a significant increase in SHA1 performance. The performance gain for AES was negligible, although the resulting code was a bit smaller.
Fixed Parental Control schedule not working
User Makkie2002 has rewritten part of the Parental Control code that was responsible for generating the firewall rules, which resolved issues where some schedules would not get properly applied, resulting in parental control not working.
Bugfixes over the 374 code
A few issues introduced by Asus with the 374 FW were fixed, such as the poor Samba performance on the N16/N66/AC66, the Wireless Key getting automatically focussed on the webui, and the erroneous NTP warning after changing wireless settings.. The IPv6 client list issues were also resolved.
Also some recent minidlna changes by Asus which would cause the scan to fail on very large collections were reverted. And, a long-standing memory leak in the http server was plugged.
And various other fixes: changing wireless settings no longer breaks Stealth Mode, OpenVPN keys can now be up to 4096 bits, Samba no longer sharing USB disks when you only activated its Master Browser/WINS servef functionality, and more. Please see the Changelog for complete details.
IMPORTANT:
Due to the SDK change on the RT-N66U, you *MUST* revert back to factory default and manually reconfigure your router if coming from an older firmware! The only exception is if you were previously running either the Pixie Dust release (3.0.0.4.374.32-sdk6), or a previous beta of 3.0.0.4.374.33 (except for the -sdk5 Beta, of course).
Asus also recommends doing the same for the other models, however feel free to try without doing so. It might work fine for most people, but be prepared to do a factory default reset + reconfiguration if you run into any odd issues.
And by "manually reconfigure", I really mean it. Reloading saved settings would totally nullify the action of resetting to factory defaults, since you will just end back to where you started, with all the same (possibly invalid) settings.
What's coming next:
There's currently nothing major planned for the next release yet, as after the September marathon that the various 374.32 betas were, I need a breather
I do have a few minor things I want to take care of. One thing I want to look at for instance is switching to a simpler versioning system. With Asus switching to a numbering system that is now kinda confusing as it looks quite similar to mine, except with a smaller last digit, I think a lot of those redundant numbers can be dropped for sake of simplicity. The current plan is to see if I can easily switch to a double digit version (for example: 374.34) without creating any major issue with the build environment.
I'm also hoping to have an RT-AC68U in the coming weeks so I will be able to implement support for that new router. As usual, keep an eye on either the SmallNetBuilder forums or my Tweeter feed for the latest info. Github is also a great place to monitor if you like to watch development as it occurs - I tend to commit back to Github on a regular basis, even if it means that half-finished code might end up on Github. I like the idea of allowing an early review of code and changes by other developers, rather than dump 3 weeks of work all at once on Github
And as usual, I'll be keeping an eye on new source code release by Asus.
In closing, a big thank you to all the testers who provided feedback during development of this new release, as well as all those who chose to send a little "thank you" gift through Paypal - all very much appreciated!
3.0.0.4.374.33 is now available for download.
This release, which is based on Based on Asus's 3.0.0.4.374.726 GPL, has a fairly long list of changes. The highlights:
RT-N66U switch to SDK6.
Asus has now officially switched the RT-N66U to the same SDK (and wireless drivers) as used by the RT-AC66U. This new driver solves the numerous connectivity issues introduced by the 5.110 update that they attempted in the previous 3.0.0.4.3xx releases. However, this driver currently seems to suffer from a reduced signal strength and range. Therefore, I am making available an experimental version that is still based on the 5.100 driver (labeled "-sdk5" in the Experimental folder), which uses the same driver as used by Asus in the 3.0.0.4.276 release, as well as my previous 372.xx releases.
Various experimental features now moved inth the main build.
Asus has officially debuted Dual WAN and Repeater Mode in the official firmware. Therefore, I have now enabled these features (which were previously available in the experimental builds) in the regular builds. Dual WAN probably still has a few issues left to iron out, such as recovery from failover mode, but it's already usable for many users. No doubt that Asus will keep polishing it in the coming months. The Yandex DNS-based filtering option was also moved from the experimental builds into the regular build. This DNS-bsed filtering can be configured under Parental Control.
AiCloud 2.0
With 374.720 Asus has introduced AiCloud 2.0, which sports a greatly improved web interface for AiCloud.
Improved RT-AC56U support
I have implemented support for the RT-AC56U in most of the options of the robocfg tool. This includes the ability to retrieve the last MAC device seen on LAN ports, which will now be reported on the Sysinfo page, like with other router models. In addition, support for Syn Cookies was also enabled for the RT-AC56U kernel, as well as Advanced IP Routing (which fixes the Astrill VPN plugin).
Performance optimizations
Starting with this release, the firmware for all the MIPS-based routers (that means RT-N16, N66 and AC66) is now compiled with mips32r2 code enabled. This leads to general performance improvement throughout the firmware. The improvement was quite measurable when iperf was run through an OpenVPN tunnel, for example.
Also, more ASM optimizations were backported from OpenSSL 1.0.2, which led to a significant increase in SHA1 performance. The performance gain for AES was negligible, although the resulting code was a bit smaller.
Fixed Parental Control schedule not working
User Makkie2002 has rewritten part of the Parental Control code that was responsible for generating the firewall rules, which resolved issues where some schedules would not get properly applied, resulting in parental control not working.
Bugfixes over the 374 code
A few issues introduced by Asus with the 374 FW were fixed, such as the poor Samba performance on the N16/N66/AC66, the Wireless Key getting automatically focussed on the webui, and the erroneous NTP warning after changing wireless settings.. The IPv6 client list issues were also resolved.
Also some recent minidlna changes by Asus which would cause the scan to fail on very large collections were reverted. And, a long-standing memory leak in the http server was plugged.
And various other fixes: changing wireless settings no longer breaks Stealth Mode, OpenVPN keys can now be up to 4096 bits, Samba no longer sharing USB disks when you only activated its Master Browser/WINS servef functionality, and more. Please see the Changelog for complete details.
IMPORTANT:
Due to the SDK change on the RT-N66U, you *MUST* revert back to factory default and manually reconfigure your router if coming from an older firmware! The only exception is if you were previously running either the Pixie Dust release (3.0.0.4.374.32-sdk6), or a previous beta of 3.0.0.4.374.33 (except for the -sdk5 Beta, of course).
Asus also recommends doing the same for the other models, however feel free to try without doing so. It might work fine for most people, but be prepared to do a factory default reset + reconfiguration if you run into any odd issues.
And by "manually reconfigure", I really mean it. Reloading saved settings would totally nullify the action of resetting to factory defaults, since you will just end back to where you started, with all the same (possibly invalid) settings.
What's coming next:
There's currently nothing major planned for the next release yet, as after the September marathon that the various 374.32 betas were, I need a breather
I do have a few minor things I want to take care of. One thing I want to look at for instance is switching to a simpler versioning system. With Asus switching to a numbering system that is now kinda confusing as it looks quite similar to mine, except with a smaller last digit, I think a lot of those redundant numbers can be dropped for sake of simplicity. The current plan is to see if I can easily switch to a double digit version (for example: 374.34) without creating any major issue with the build environment.I'm also hoping to have an RT-AC68U in the coming weeks so I will be able to implement support for that new router. As usual, keep an eye on either the SmallNetBuilder forums or my Tweeter feed for the latest info. Github is also a great place to monitor if you like to watch development as it occurs - I tend to commit back to Github on a regular basis, even if it means that half-finished code might end up on Github. I like the idea of allowing an early review of code and changes by other developers, rather than dump 3 weeks of work all at once on Github
And as usual, I'll be keeping an eye on new source code release by Asus.
In closing, a big thank you to all the testers who provided feedback during development of this new release, as well as all those who chose to send a little "thank you" gift through Paypal - all very much appreciated!
