Beta Asuswrt-Merlin 3004.388.4 beta is now available

[TheLyppardMan]

Switching to/back from any major firmware versions a full reset is most likely required for stable and reliable router/network operation.

As is switching between stock Asus and RMerlin builds (even if they're on the same nominal 3.0.0.X builds).

Nothing changes this fact.

Will some be able to switch without a full reset? Of course.

How lucky do you feel?

How important is a stable/reliable network to you?

It is far more straightforward to do a full and proper reset than to try bungling through an unstable router trying to diagnose and fix what is wrong. When that avenue fails, a full reset is required/recommended here in the end anyways.

Save yourself a few days or weeks of that and just get the router/network to a good/known place immediately and if any troubleshooting is required, it won't be a wild goose chase of unknown interactions between internal variables of different firmware and the defaults they are expecting to see/work with (not to mention the almost unlimited additional variables of how one may have their router/network set up for their environment too).

I don't understand why some think a full reset is such a chore. 15 minutes buys you sanity.

And if you have a network that requires hours of setting up to work as you want? Maybe your expectations, workflows and choice of hardware need to be questioned and brought in line with the capabilities of the Asus hardware we have (today).

The good time-saving thing about Merlin firmware is it's possible to backup the list of network devices, including any user-specified icons, which makes setting up from scratch much easier. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a way to do that with the official firmware, although I suppose that if one had a backup for a particular firmware version, that could be used, but if the version had changed since the backup were made, that wouldn't be recommended (presumably).

 

[Natty]

The good time-saving thing about Merlin firmware is it's possible to backup the list of network devices, including any user-specified icons, which makes setting up from scratch much easier.

That sounds REALLY useful. I must have missed that feature. How would I back up the devces (DHCP allocations?) and icons?

 

[bennor]

How would I back up the devces (DHCP allocations?) and icons?

YazDHCP is one way:

YazDHCP - YazDHCP - feature expansion of DHCP assignments (increasing limit on the number of DHCP reservations)

v1.0.6 Updated 2023-11-18 Feature expansion of DHCP assignments using AsusWRT-Merlin's Addons API to read and write DHCP assignments, increasing the limit on the number of reservations. YazDHCP is free to use under the GNU General Public License version 3 (GPL 3.0). This project is hosted on...

www.snbforums.com

 

[Dedel66]

That sounds REALLY useful. I must have missed that feature. How would I back up the devces (DHCP allocations?) and icons?

You need three "tools":
1. Backup of settings via GUI
2. Backup of JFFS-partition via GUI
3. Backup of DHCP reservations via YazDHCP

 

[karateca]

Sorry to post about this here again but I am pretty confident that this is a firmware problem as my settings (below) have not changed one bit from my previous ones (and I try to keen things as close to default as possible) and I have only been unable to get Plex remote access with this version of AsusMerlin and with no other changes to my plex server either. Why has it stopped working as soon as I upgraded to this beta?

View attachment 52287View attachment 52288View attachment 52289

Same problem here, was working perfect, but update router for try this beta and boom cant access from outsite, i use asustor for this and first i think was reverse port but not.

 

[rwheaton1]

Just an update....I have been using beta2 since Thursday and still no problems.

 

[TheLyppardMan]

That sounds REALLY useful. I must have missed that feature. How would I back up the devces (DHCP allocations?) and icons?

I use this method, which I saved from a previous enquiry about the same thing:

and I keep the saved files on my Synology NAS so I can restore them if needed at some point in the future, thus:

 

[sl4fko]

BACKUP the clientlist:

nvram get custom_clientlist > /mnt/sda1/entware/custom_clientlist.txt




RESTORE:

nvram set custom_clientlist="`cat /mnt/sda1/entware/custom_clientlist.txt`"



Watch out for the correct path in your case!

 

[ColinTaylor]

I use this method, which I saved from a previous enquiry about the same thing:

View attachment 52381
and I keep the saved files on my Synology NAS so I can restore them if needed at some point in the future, thus:

View attachment 52383

While copying those files is fine for backup purposes I would strongly discourage people from restoring nvram variables that way because it bypasses the router's API and cache. It's possible you will corrupt the other nvram variables. You should use the official API, nvram set. For example:

nvram set custom_clientlist="$(cat custom_clientlist.txt)"
nvram commit

 

[MDM]

My first loss of 100/160 - fell back to 52/160 with the newer WiFi drivers since the alfa, and the reason? (log says Radar detected) wait for it... Thunder and lightning that started at that precise time!!

Talk about False positive!

 

[clweb]

Yes I think that may happen by near thunder. I experienced it also with my AX58U.

 

[RMerlin]

August 15th, 2023: Beta 3 is now available. Changes since beta 2:

a58ac601af (HEAD -> master, origin/master) Updated documentation
afab150ab6 rc: Samba was getting restarted twice in a row in wan_up() due to duplicate code
987521103d qca-ar3k-fw: Added missing bluetooth firmware for XT12
8df077d52f rc: move ovpn nvram reset to init_nvram() to better match upstream
8745bb4eae rc: update ntpd sync events to reflect upstream changes to ntpclient sync events
3a5ea653f6 rc: restart DDNS on WAN interface going up again as before 23588 merge
9e01e85092 shared: ping_target_with_size() child should exit once done
a184dacb11 rc: fix bad merge
d0db77362e Bumped revision to beta 3
3616499f54 HND5.04: fix missing ethctl userspace tool
e401469c2b rc: mount WAN interface before adjusting its MTU

 

[Clark Griswald]

Dirty from beta2 went smooooooth!
Teenagers moaned during the fw flash, but no complaints since upgrade!
Thank You RMerlin!!!
EDIT: Absolutely Zero Issues, since flash VPNs, speeds (lan/wan), and connectivity are working well!

 

[NiklasO]

Running fine on my GT-AX6000.
Except for the 2.5G LAN led always on when cable connected but I have seen that reported earlier. The led is just on. Not blinking with activity or anything. Just shining away in the night, in my bedroom.

View attachment 52226

Thanks @RMerlin! Fixed in beta 3.

 

[maxbraketorque]

August 15th, 2023: Beta 3 is now available. Changes since beta 2:
...

Listed changes sound great. Could be the "one".

 

[ColDen]

Also "jumped" to beta3 from beta2. So far so good!

 

[cc666]

August 15th, 2023: Beta 3 is now available. Changes since beta 2:

a58ac601af (HEAD -> master, origin/master) Updated documentation
afab150ab6 rc: Samba was getting restarted twice in a row in wan_up() due to duplicate code
987521103d qca-ar3k-fw: Added missing bluetooth firmware for XT12
8df077d52f rc: move ovpn nvram reset to init_nvram() to better match upstream
8745bb4eae rc: update ntpd sync events to reflect upstream changes to ntpclient sync events
3a5ea653f6 rc: restart DDNS on WAN interface going up again as before 23588 merge
9e01e85092 shared: ping_target_with_size() child should exit once done
a184dacb11 rc: fix bad merge
d0db77362e Bumped revision to beta 3
3616499f54 HND5.04: fix missing ethctl userspace tool
e401469c2b rc: mount WAN interface before adjusting its MTU

Dirty flash over that test build, running flawlessly. Thank you!

CC

 

[joegreat]

Jumped from 388.2_2 directly to 388.4_beta2 - update, reboot and all good!

And now on Beta3 - still all good on my main router (AX88U)!

 

[Dedel66]

Smooth update from beta_2. Maybe just a revision bump for ax88u?

 

[kernol]

RT-AX86U - fully functional and stable on Beta3.
160MHz sits at full speed on WiFi 6 devices thanks to stock driver updates on newly merged GPL.