Release Asuswrt-Merlin 386.1 is now available

[JIPG]

I have upgraded from my old RT AC87U to a new RT AX88U and the first thing I have done is installing FW 386.1 (to be honest I waited to have it released before buying the router ).

It is working without a glitch, so I would like to thank RMerlin (do not forget themiron with the last security patches in dsnmasq) for the great effort.

 

[Matthew Patrick]

Is it easy to downgrade, is the process exactly the same as installing new firmware?

I need 2.4ghz to be stable for some of my devices so if I get same issue I will need to downgrade.

Yeah it's just like when you do a clean install. Just install the 384.19, after it rebooted. Make sure it is now 384.19 if it is. I recommend to just go straight to wps reset. Since it apparently wipes the jffs too ... I do not reset since i already have a working 384.19 backup before going to 386 . So I just went to 384.19 and then restored both jffs and the backed up configuration..

The only thing I hate about 384.19 atleast in my AC86U is that it seems like there's a memory leak. Seems like it's from trend micro stuff but idk. I can see it go up in ram usage per hour and yeah I can see it pushing to swap usage after a day or two. And I don't use much addons. It's fixed on 386 though since I've run it for 2 days and the ram usage is consistent there. But yeah let me know if you experienced 2.4ghz problems as well. So far 4 and a half hour on 384.19 and 2.4ghz is still going strong. Will check it regularly to see if it happens here or not. I'd assume not

 

[krust]

Yikes! any luck after a hard reboot?

ll try today after work, will post here the results. The sad part is that everything is working just fine but the Ui/SSH .

 

[L&LD]

@Matthew Patrick, your 'ram usage issue' may be you.

If you flashed from 384.19_0 to 386.1_0 and then back to 384.19 and (without fully resetting the router) you restore your backup config file and backup JFFS file too, your router is far from a clean slate.

And that is assuming that the back config and JFFS files you're restoring are made from a fully reset 384.19_0 firmware base and the router was minimally and manually configured.

FYI.

 

[RMerlin]

It looks like the /rom/etc/init.d/ssl.sh file is missing there (for longer period of time), in /rom/etc/rc3.d/ there is the linked file S50ssl which points to it. Nothing terrible, only to know to clean it up.

Neither of these are used by the firmware. They are just leftovers from the Broadcom SDK that Asuswrt doesn't use.

 

[RMerlin]

Hi Eric, wouldn't it be appropriate to add also the other known and reported here bugs of this release (even if being more of a GPL thing and also existing in the official firmwares) ?

- Regression : Spikes in traffic monitor stats
- Phantom devices in network map
- Unstable 2.4Ghz band on RT-AX88U when channel bandwidth is set to 40Mhz

My rational is that having those at least mentioned in the 'known bugs' section would allow many users not to spend time with those issues, and for the rest save time in repeating that those are already known.

No, because some of these are old long-standing minor issues, and others look to me like end-user environment issues (40 MHz on the 2.4 GHz will always be unstable due to the large amount of interference in that band, this has nothing to do with the firmware). I only list things that are new, critical, and which I can actually reproduce.

 

[RMerlin]

I saw the change log for alpha 386.2 and realized I can stop waiting. There will NEVER be Instant Guard for the RT-AC68U will there? Unless Asus decided to release it, right?

It's a kernel issue, IPSEC modules don't work properly on that model's patched kernel.

 

[RMerlin]

Hey @RMerlin why would my LAN MAC address be all zeros, as reported by network map page and, the new AIMesh page. They both show my AX88U with no mac address just zeros. Could this be affecting my ability to connect to my AC68U through the AIMesh search for node feature? My AC68U access point has a lan mac address, and is visible in the above mentioned places, also with 386.1. How would one fix this issue? I have reset to defaults and setup again from screen shots three times now. Doesn't seem to make a difference to this issue. As far as AIMesh goes I never got connected no matter what I tried.

Release after release, your router always seem to constantly get weird issues that no one else has. I have to wonder what you are running or configuring on your router to get all of these weird issues, assuming it's not a defective router...

 

[bluzfanmr1]

I decided to do a factory reset of my RT-AC88U to see if that helps with the lock ups. After setting my router back up though and putting them back on my usual manual 5 GHz channel (44), I found that my iPad and iPhone were dropping a ton of packets. The connection was horrible.

I checked the Wifi professional page and saw that Enable IGMP Snooping and Multi-User MIMO now default to being enabled, when I previously had them disabled, so I changed them, but that made no difference. Airtime Fairness was already disabled (the new default?).

The only thing that worked was to switch my Wifi channel to auto which picked 153 at first and then later 157. That stopped the dropped pings on my iPad. My iPhone still has dropped ping for about 30 seconds and then seems to stabilize.

i checked the site survey and there is a nearby Wifi network on channel 44, but the strength is 10% so it shouldn’t interfere.

Any idea why channel 44 simply wasn’t working after a factory reset when it’s worked fine for years?


On a side note, on the site survey screen do the number of rings on the Wifi signal mean anything at all? Some of the ones with full rings have 5% signal. These are “open system“ networks, but that seems wrong.

I would leave Enable IGMP Snooping enabled as it optimizes wireless multicast traffic. I would also try forgetting the network connection on each Apple device and recreate a new one since the router was reset.

Have you tried using a wireless survey program to see what channels are being used around you and so you can pick the least congested or the one that gives you the best experience on the network? WiFi Explorer Lite is a good one to use on Apple devices.

 

[Matthew Patrick]

@Matthew Patrick, your 'ram usage issue' may be you.

If you flashed from 384.19_0 to 386.1_0 and then back to 384.19 and (without fully resetting the router) you restore your backup config file and backup JFFS file too, your router is far from a clean slate.

And that is assuming that the back config and JFFS files you're restoring are made from a fully reset 384.19_0 firmware base and the router was minimally and manually configured.

FYI.

Nonono. It's been like that before the going back to 384.19. And on 384.19 I've WPS reset + normal reset and jffs reset more than twice. And the end results were the same. It's a real thing. I didn't really look into it since it seems to climb slowly enough that it's not really a problem I guess. But yeah. 386 has fixed it for me. Atleast for that minor problem

 

[ToXic_DST]

Welcome to the forums @ToXic_DST.

Please read the changelogs and the first post of this thread for the answers.

ok im read )))) Speedtest powered by Ookla (note: can be limited by your router's CPU speed)

Welcome to the forums @ToXic_DST.

Please read the changelogs and the first post of this thread for the answers.

 

[GHog]

So here is my feedback,

2 routers setup in mesh mode. Using wireless for node connection not wired backhaul mode. Master is a RT-AX88U and node is an V1 RT-AC68U router. Both were running the 384.19 merlin firmware prior to update. No issues other than ASUS not passing live device access time back to master router. Have brought that to ASUS attention since it does not look like it has anything to do with RMerlin firmware.

Updated both routers Saturday evening when traffic in house stopped for the evening. Update master first and then node. Updated went without a hitch. Looked good. Next day did a full power cycle on both. First powered down master and the node. Let sit for 10 minutes and then powered up master first, waited for all led to come on and then the node.

Been running for a week without issues. My DSL is a 40d/5u subscription. No bonded line. My speed test came out same as before, 40/5. Did noticed QOS was on by default. Turned off and did test again. No difference. I also use AiProtection and that being on did not slow things down.

All in all mesh network working great. Let QOS stay in auto and that was the only thing I changed. I do not use smart connect and always select control channels based on traffic in area.

The only mesh issue again seems to be an ASUS bug. This time when I log into master and look at connected devices, the only live data is from master. Nothing from node. No Rx/Tx data or access time. Also when using the phone app, prior AiMesh 1.0 would only show what was currently connected and talking to router. Now app show everything that has connect to router whether it is currently connected or not. Connected devices do show current data rates up and down.

 

[sentinelvdx]

My LAN/WAN went down again today on my RT-AC88U. That’s less than 2 days after it went down last time and that was less than 2 days after I upgraded to 386.1.

Wifi didn’t go “down” per say, but if I disconnected from WiFi I couldn’t get back on.

Having this happen twice in 2 days is more or less unheard of. Something seems off with this update.

Do a hard reset and configure it all over again. I've been running 386.1 on my AC88U and didn't face any issue like that since this build has been released.
Also check the syslog if after hard reset issue continues to find what could be causing it.

 

[Crazy]

Did a dirty update from 384.19 to 386.1 on my RT-AC5300. Everything seems to be fine, cpu temp went down by 2 degree C, it is sitting at 68C now. But did noticed my traffic log not working correctly. I’ve have cleared the database and will see if that fix the problem.

 

[Rob Q]

I don't know if it's the firmware or even a setting or maybe even it could be that I did a full factory reset with the router but I find that Netflix and my other video streaming services are loading up more quickly, also 4K HDR playback is instant now. Before it would take a few seconds to load. As for streaming 2160p content on YouTube, that has constant buffering issues. Not sure if it's something on there end?
For video playback I am using my Roku TV on the 5 GHz network, no neighbouring networks are on this control channel or even near it and I've got it maxed out to 80 MHz wide. The distance from the router is about 10 feet and nothing is between them.
As for streaming on the 2.4 GHz, that player is only limited to HD content (Older Roku streaming stick). I never seen Netflix load a movie so fast before and that is on the other side of the house and has a brick wall in between.

Preamble Type: Short (2.4GHz)
Universal Beamforming: Disable (2.4/5GHz)

Regardless, I am very happy with this update!

 

[scottegos2]

My RT-AC5300 crashes continually with 386.1. I don't think it's lasted longer than 12 hours. This is even after doing the factory reset and fresh install, then entering my config in manually (to rule out bad backups). Not seeing anything noteworthy in the syslog. No problems at all with 384.19. Pretty vanilla setup (Qos off, no VPN, no scripts, smartconnect on).

 

[L&LD]

@scottegos2, first you flashed the firmware you want to use/test. Then you did a full WPS reset, correct?

 

[FTC]

No, because some of these are old long-standing minor issues, and others look to me like end-user environment issues (40 MHz on the 2.4 GHz will always be unstable due to the large amount of interference in that band, this has nothing to do with the firmware). I only list things that are new, critical, and which I can actually reproduce.

Understood. At least we can agree to disagree about some of those being 'minor' and I just hope Asus recognizes them and fixes them once in a future GPL.

 

[Rob Q]

Amazing what a factory reset can do. I'm going to be doing it every time I move to new major branch. It's such a help that I wish they'd just remove the ability to restore settings from another version to another. Or maybe remove it entirely. 384 configurations should only reapply to 384, and flashing any new version should force a factory reset on people on first boot. While people will complain no matter what, I think this would be a good feature to add to Merlin and in the end benefit its reputation since all the clowning around seen in this thread would be reduced by probably 75%.

Before the upgrade and reset, I had 25MB of RAM left, now it's to to 180+MB free! :O
By the way, Diversion and Skynet with amtm are working perfectly.

 

[Crazy]

My RT-AC5300 crashes continually with 386.1. I don't think it's lasted longer than 12 hours. This is even after doing the factory reset and fresh install, then entering my config in manually (to rule out bad backups). Not seeing anything noteworthy in the syslog. No problems at all with 384.19. Pretty vanilla setup (Qos off, no VPN, no scripts, smartconnect on).

Did you disable aiprotection? When mine was on it crashes quite often, been off for at least over a year now. My next is to try parental scheduling and see I it works properly.