Beta Asuswrt-Merlin 386.1 Beta (stage 2) is now available

[Mutzli]

I was able to flash my AX88U with Beta4b without using the recovery tool and on first try. Just turned off Trend Micro and flashed right over Beta4. Speeds also look much better with B4b.

 

[MSuomi]

AX88U. Updated to beta4, just checked and saw all the fuss. Downloaded the Beta4b and flashed it without problems.
Using adaptive QOS but not TM's AiProtection.

 

[jernau]

RT-AC88U Upgraded to beta4, interesting that I upgraded from 384.19 and noted that after flashing the router threw up the manual reboot needed message at which point it had deleted all existing settings and started up in setup wizard mode. Was going to do a clean reset in any case.

I have AIProtection features enabled and all seem to be working correctly including network map etc which did not function correctly at when I tried out 386 Beta1.

@Merlin again many thanks for your hard work !!

##EDIT##

Unfortunately found out this build does not play well with Apple MAC for some reason, despite no issues with the rest of the network clients I could see a macbook air on the network was randomly failing DNS lookups, could not connect to the app store and could not perform any speed tests. Very odd but had to revert back to 384.19 to get it back up and running again

 

[Kingp1n]

Thanks for testing the beta 4 rebuild. One more test for you guys:

1) Test performance with the Trend Micro engine enabled with this test build.
2) Test again with the beta4b build that I just uploaded to the Test Builds folder

Are either or both of these now giving you your usual performance? I can't test for sure myself, my performance is slightly lower than usual right now, however I suspect it's an ISP node congestion issue, as the performance drop isn't that big (350/400 Mbps down, and 25/50 Mbps up).

The first beta 4 had a downgraded TM engine. In 4b I rebuilt once again with the 41535 engine (but still with the SDK fix in place that resolved the flashing issues).

I had to chance to test the beta4b build. Everything is working as expected. Wow....RMerlin, thanks for quick fix.

 

[Kingp1n]

I was able to revert to the ASUS stock firmware without using the tool. I was not able to revert to beta 3.

Someone also reported you can downgrade to 384.19 1st without using the tool if you're on the bad "initial" beta4.

 

[dmtg]

the beta4b solved my problems

 

[HiTekRedneck]

People with failed RT-AC68U upgrades, what exact model and revision do you have? It should be on the sticker under the router.

I've got 6 AC68Us. Went from 384.19 to 386.1-beta3 and -beta4, with no problems. I flashed, then did a factory reset, followed by minimal setup and then WPS reset and final setup.

One is setup as a router with AI protection on, QOS off, Diversion, Skynet and DnsCryp, and used as a firewall. From there to an Edge-router ER-X and then to two subnets - one with two APs and the other with three APs. I am using AD DNS and DHCP. I have had them setup both as regular APs and as Mesh APs. MS Edge Ookla speedtest shows 86/29, Merlin speedtest shows the same for a 75/30 fiber connection. The only performance isue I've noticed is Speedtest loses about 10% when I am monitoring 11 cameras on one subnet from the other subnet (kind of expected...).

The only thing I have noticed is that the Internet Traffic on the Network Map screen used to show some traffic under previous firmware versions, but doesn't show any traffic under 386.1x.

 

[maxbraketorque]

Has anyone compared temperatures and router power states between 384.19 and 386.1b4b for an AC86U? Would be interesting to see.

 

[RMerlin]

@RMerlin on my 86u temps are still 90 degrees after a night doing nothing.

Running what firmware exactly? Beta 4 doesn't contain any fix to that.

 

[brself2]

@RMerlin, you are very much appreciated. Thank you for all of your hard work and dedication to the ASUS community. I just made a PayPal donation.

 

[kernol]

I uploaded a beta4b build for the RT-AC86U which overrides the closed source portion that was disabling CPU wait state. Same test-build folder as the RT-AX88U build.

Will that by any chance restore the released stock 386 code portion of power control to your compiled code for the RT-AX86U ?

 

[Suzib6sw]

Upgraded my AX88U to 4b and my ax58u aimesh node to beta 4 from stock firmware. My 58u node would not show or accept any wifi clients and sometimes even show disconnected. Anyone else have similar experiences?
View attachment 29315
Update: did a hard reset on my ax 58u and now it doesn't even show an AIMesh setup function

Do a wps button reset on the node. And add it back on the main router. You May need to use ethernet from a lan port on the main to the wan o n the node

 

[Tom Ames]

Temp drop from 86*C --> 81*C 15 minutes after going from b4 to b4b.

Thanks for all you effort, Merlin!

 

[Darkje]

Running what firmware exactly? Beta 4 doesn't contain any fix to that.

Then i mis understood. I thought ec97c100d2 would fix the temps.

 

[visortgw]

@RMerlin So I am a bit confused this afternoon...

1. I pulled out another RT-AC68U that I had in my basement as a spare. I successfully flashed it to Merlin 384.19. Then I successfully flashed to 386.1 Beta 4. I tried to re-flash 386.1 Beta 4, but it failed with the compliance banner. I rebooted, and then I was able to successfully re-flash 386.1 Beta 4.
2. I connected to the remote RT-AC68U that failed to update yesterday. I was able to successfully flash to 386.1 Beta 4.
3. I connected to three (3) separate remote RT-AX88U routers that were stuck on 386.1 Beta 4 (i.e., I was unable to revert to Beta 3 or flash to Beta 4b test build). I successfully flashed all three (3) to Beta 4b test build today.

All appears to be good on all fronts now! Is it possible that there is some sort of AIProtection "phone home" validation that was screwed up yesterday?

Also, there is no hardware rev info on the sticker on any of the RT-AC68U nodes that I have. Is there any way to pull the info that you are looking for from either the GUI or NVRAM?

 

[heysoundude]

Temp drop from 86*C --> 81*C 15 minutes after going from b4 to b4b.

keep us posted on what it settles to, please. it will have been heat-soaked and will take time to cool.
my AC86 is running at 71-72C in 18-19C ambient on 384.19. I can accept a few degrees increase, but would prefer to keep things on the cooler side without going to an active solution
I accept that electronics will always emit heat from work while powered, but if coding updates are supposed to optimise how they operate, shouldn't power consumption and heat drop off as that happens?

 

[juniorsweet]

Thanks Merlin for providing the updated beta4b for the AC86U!

I just flashed the new 386.1b4b firmware from 384.19 and saw the following changes:

CPU temp went from 72C (384.19) to 77C (386.1b4b). I've been running the b4b for about an hour and the temp appears to have leveled off. CPU temp had been 82C under 386.1b4.

pwr config settings were as follows:
384.19_____386.1b4b
ENABLED__ENABLED CPU wait
ENABLED__ENABLED Ethernet Auto Power Down
ENABLED__DISABLED Energy Efficient Ethernet
ENABLED__ENABLED Switch Deep Green Mode

 

[Kees17760]

Thanks Merlin for providing the updated beta4b for the AC86U!

I just flashed the new 386.1b4b firmware from 384.19 and saw the following changes:

CPU temp went from 72C (384.19) to 77C (386.1b4b). I've been running the b4b for about an hour and the temp appears to have leveled off. CPU temp had been 82C under 386.1b4.

pwr config settings were as follows:
384.19_____386.1b4b
ENABLED__ENABLED CPU wait
ENABLED__ENABLED Ethernet Auto Power Down
ENABLED__DISABLED Energy Efficient Ethernet
ENABLED__ENABLED Switch Deep Green Mode

Is it possible to change EEE on B4b and set it to enabled, just to see if CPU temp drops a little more?

 

[ahyrych]

384.19 - +71 C (b1&2 the same), 386.1 b3 - +82 C, 386.1 4b - +76 C (with pwr config --wait on)

 

[RMerlin]

Will that by any chance restore the released stock 386 code portion of power control to your compiled code for the RT-AX86U ?

Different SDKs, unrelated.

All appears to be good on all fronts now! Is it possible that there is some sort of AIProtection "phone home" validation that was screwed up yesterday?

More likely is that something is getting corrupted or uninitialized, so we get random results.

Is it possible to change EEE on B4b and set it to enabled, just to see if CPU temp drops a little more?

Don't mess with the switch, it will affect latency.