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

[shabbs]

I'll remove the RT-AX88U beta 4 image. I can't even flash an updated build on top of it right now, it fails some more validation that I can't determine. More shenanigan from Asus in their model/version validation possibly. Getting so tired of dealing with this...

So, for those of us that were able to upgrade from B3, what's the course of action? My AX88U seems to be just fine. It's in AP mode, not Router mode.

 

[nzwayne]

Correct, but there is a difference in disabling the features and withdrawing. Me, I didn't see a diference just turning the features off. Only after I withdrew did I see a performance change. Not sure if there is one feature that's responsible or interoperability with several of them that causes the slowdown. Withdrawing is basically a shotgun approach to turning it all off...

With my AX88U on Beta4 enabling any one of the TrendMicro functions on Beta4, you cripple your download. With no TrendMicro functions listed in the agreement enabled, and then withdrawing from the agreement, resolves the Thruput issue.

 

[juniorsweet]

Hi again,
another High Temp issue about RT-AC86U.

I've just downgraded to 384.19 and noticed another thing.
The following setting: Energy Efficient Ethernet ENABLED

In 384.19 the following setting is ENABLED
In 386.1b4 is DISABLED

Other users confirm this too?

I've just tested this on my AC86U and can confirm the same.

I can also confirm that enabling EEE (pwr config --eee on) under b4 leads to unstable results, as @elorimer indicated. For the time being, I have reverted to 384.19.

 

[L&LD]

@RMerlin 386.1 Beta 4 Report:

I have updated a few routers (RT-AC68U, RT-AC86U, RT-AC3100, RT-AX86U's) to the latest RMerlin 386.1 Beta 4 (dirty upgrades, all, from previous RMerlin firmware).


The only notable things to post here are:

• A handful of RT-AC86U's won't upgrade to Beta 4 (even with a couple on Beta 3 already).
• A few RT-AC68U's needed to be (additionally, see below...) rebooted before accepting the firmware. Even a handful used as AiMesh v2.0 nodes with Beta 3 installed.
• Two RT-AC66U_B1 I've tried won't upgrade to this firmware, a popup showed instead (see below), I am waiting for a customer to verify if this worked on their RT-AC66U_B1.
• The popup stated something like,
  • " To comply with regulatory amendments, we have modified our certification rule to ensure better firmware quality. This version is not compatible with all previously released ASUS firmware and uncertified third party firmware. Please check our official websites for the certified firmware."
• In the end, I have not upgraded any RT-AC66U_B1's to Beta 4 at this time.

Before attempting to upgrade any of the routers above, these are the steps followed to ensure as smooth a transition as possible:

• Fully update all scripts, Entware, and amtm, as necessary.
• Safely remove all USB devices connected to the router via the GUI, (but physically leaving them in).
• Wait 5 minutes or more for the router to fully settle down before flashing the firmware for the specific router model being updated.
• Flash the AiMesh Nodes first, wait 5 minutes after they have flashed successfully, and reconnected to the main router before continuing.
• If necessary (if the above fails for any reason), reboot the AiMesh node(s) (via the main routers' GUI) before flashing the new firmware.
• Flash the new firmware to the main router.
• After 15 minutes or more after all routers/nodes have been updated, reboot the network (just the main router when not in AiMesh mode, or, using the GUI to reboot the main and AiMesh nodes at once).

I haven't had a chance to try upgrading any RT-AX88U's to Beta 4 (glad I didn't, after reading the previous few pages).

 

[Blacklistedcard]

Working for me!
View attachment 29285

Mine is missing the "Router Model" that's why it's failing. Just don't know why yet.

Router Model;
Skynet Version; (01/12/2020) (358a0e65e85afa8425897a993eb84b8c)
iptables v1.4.15 - (eth0 @ 192.168.1.1)
ipset v7.6, protocol version: 7
FW Version; 386.1_beta4-gb442b0b5d4 (Jan 8 2021) (4.1.51)
Install Dir; /tmp/mnt/sda1/skynet (50.3G / 56.2G Space Available)

/jffs/scripts/firewall: line 40: arithmetic syntax error
admin@RT-AX88U-5918:/tmp/home/root#

 

[Wisiwyg]

Stupid question..... Does anyone have skynet running on their AX88U with this beta?

Yes, under AMTM, and Diversion. Working as expected.

 

[Deleted member 22229]

WOW. Seems like a ton of issues with the new beta 4. I am at least very happy it seems great on the AX58U. I am guessing here the 386 code branch needs much more work before it's ready for prime time on several models.

 

[Kingp1n]

Indeed. After withdrawal, I'm getting the fastest speeds I've ever seen on this device.

Interestingly, the Time Scheduling parental control features of AiProtection are apparently still active, even after withdrawal. These are by far the most important part of AiProtection for me, so I may be able to run in this state indefinitely now.

Guess I haven't noticed any speed drops due to using cake-qos and withdrawal from Trend Micro stuff on my AX88U. Running beta 4 without issues. Great job RMerlin!

 

[brummygit]

Another AX88U running smoothly for 12 hours now. No Trend Micro components, just Cake-QoS. Also 2 x AX56U nodes using ethernet backhaul running without issue.

 

[paul0363]

Indeed. After withdrawal, I'm getting the fastest speeds I've ever seen on this device.

Interestingly, the Time Scheduling parental control features of AiProtection are apparently still active, even after withdrawal. These are by far the most important part of AiProtection for me, so I may be able to run in this state indefinitely now.

Same for me - parental controls are a must! (The time scheduling element at least - I can control web site access through third party DNS).

Seeing the same as everyone else so far on my RT-AX88U with Beta4 - need to disable all the TrendMicro components and withdraw from the privacy agreement otherwise the download on my 500Mbps connection is throttled to 60Mbps. As noted the parental controls remain active and don't seem to affect the throughput.

The withdrawal notice mentions DDNS and I have this enabled also without issue.

 

[tdhite]

Hi tdhite,
in my opinion a temperature of 79 degrees instead of 64 isn't so normal, with some people reporting also 90 degrees or more, even with some CPU forced stops. But, as I stated before, that's my personal opinion and nothing more.

What about the Traffic Analyzer and QoS bandwidth monitor? Do they work as expected on your RT-AC86U with latest beta? On mine Traffic Monitor goes out of scale after a few seconds and Statistics are completely unusable, reporting KB instead of GB. Same problem also on QoS bandwith monitor.

Let me know.

Thank you.

Bye.

Not worried about the temps -- not earth shattering temps and they're quite stable.

As for Traffic Analyzer -- works fine. The scale is dynamic and the chart faithfully scales to the maximum bandwidth currently within the time frame of the chart. When larger values pass off the left of the chart (out of time scope), it faithfully re-scales properly. So if you have a large spike and generally otherwise low, flat bandwidth utilization, it will scale to that large spike and make the low values seemingly uselessly displayed. That's the nature of the beast, imho. I'd suggest refreshing the page if spikes or the like are making things less than visually optimal -- to me the system is doing precisely what is intended (and correctly so).

As for QoS -- I don't do QoS via the interface at all. All traffic shaping (when I do that) is via tc/filters and ip(6)tables rate limiting. That always works. To date, I've never used the UI for such configurations.

 

[RMerlin]

WOW. Seems like a ton of issues with the new beta 4. I am at least very happy it seems great on the AX58U. I am guessing here the 386 code branch needs much more work before it's ready for prime time on several models.

The issues are model-specific. Only the RT-AX88U is currently broken. RT-AX86U works much better than the beta 3 build. And no known new issue with the RT-AX58U.

That's why model is critical when reporting any issue.

 

[cybrnook]

@RMerlin I can't seem to locate mtd-write2, do you have a handy way to flash back to beta3 from ssh for RT-AX88U users to bypass gui restrictions?

 

[ExtremeFiretop]

Known issues:

• RT-AX88U syslog spam when using Guest Network 1 (issue that will have to be resolved by Asus, only workaround is to switch to Guest Network 2)
• I need further testing of the Speedtest on the RT-AX56U and RT-AX58U, results don't seem right. (Seems fine so far)
• Downgrading the RT-AC68U to a previous version will require a factory default reset (Not a bug, just the same side effect as previous models when they switched to encrypted password storage)
• High CPU temperature on the RT-AC86U (same issue as in beta 3, not resolved yet due to closed source components involved)
• RT-AX88U performance issues for some users, also cannot flash other firmware images on top of beta 4 (Beta 4 pulled for this model)

Thank you for updating the known issues and pulling beta 4 for the AX88U @RMerlin
I think that was the right choice and call to make as someone not so familiar just finding this thread might find himself/herself in a tough spot.

(At least it's documented now, so if they did download B4 before it was pulled, the risk is on them!)

 

[ugandy]

for us that already installed beta4 on ax88, we won't be able to install the next upgrade? will i need to use the recovery tool?

 

[ExtremeFiretop]

for us that already installed beta4 on ax88, we won't be able to install the next upgrade? will i need to use the recovery tool?

It sounds like it's a possibility based on @RMerlin 's experience trying to update his with an updated build.
I know for a fact I couldn't go backwards to any firmware (B3 or an older stock firmware) without rescue mode..

 

[Ozymandias]

RT-AX56U - dirty flash, alpha to beta, to beta4.
Speedtest is returning expected results with approx 35% cpu.

 

[dmtg]

I install the offical release for rt-ax88u and after install again 386.1beta3 to solved the downgrade problem beta 4 for others

 

[dmtg]

for us that already installed beta4 on ax88, we won't be able to install the next upgrade? will i need to use the recovery tool?

Install the officially release Asus 2020/10/13 69.39 MBytes
ASUS RT-AX88U Firmware version 3.0.0.4.384.9579 after install New firmware do you want

 

[AntonK]

Holy Smokeronies!

So here's what the attached capture shows for my Comcast 200/5 connection (usually provisioned a bit above that):

15:58 - test with beta3
18:04 - test with beta4 (Yikes!)
18:16 - test with beta4 (after powering-off router, rebooting modem, powering-on router)