Release Asuswrt-Merlin 386.2 is now available

[Gregory Yurchenko]

I know it's very poor effort, but I rather state facts (for statistical purposes), then help more if I can. Here is my set up. Mesh of 3 routers 2 x AX92U with the primary one AC5300. Both of AX92U on latest Asus firmware as there is no Merlin version for them. The AC5300 is on Merlin 386.2 which I flashed over 386.1_2. Been using this set up for more than a year with latest releases and no issues. Now, after flashing Merlin 386.2 on AC5300 one of AX92U will drop connection to AC5300 randomly once a day, then usually in 2 - 5 minutes AC5300 reboots itself. This happening everyday at random times. Sound like I'm not the only one who is facing reboots.

 

[MvW]

I am also experiencing random restarts and weird behaviour since updating to 386.2

My AC86U is suddenly going mental! Anything I can do for her at this point?

xx

386.2 has been very stable for me, so it's either something in your config (most likely) or a hardware failure. I suggest you follow @L&LD's guide to start fresh and you'll have a stable router back in no time:

Best Practice Update/Setup Router/AiMesh Node(s) 2021

 

[Kees17760]

Sometimes when making configuration changes to wifi sections the AP will restart. Sometimes it will restart all of its own right in the middle of streaming stuff without a reboot.

Check the CPU temps. Perhaps your CPU's throttling.
I don't want to "fire up" the temperature discussion again, but there have been multiple reported issues about an excessive rise with FW 386.xx especially from AC86U (AC2900) model users.

 

[John Adler]

Hi,
early today my OVPN was disconnected although on the Status showed connected to my VPN Server
that happened a couple of times in the past, but with a manual connection everything was solved
So I added the last line to the configuration:

resolv-retry infinite
tls-client
remote-cert-tls server
disable-occ
auth-nocache

is this enough or is there a better way to avoid this issue ?
thks in advance for your help !

 

[Sptz]

Would it be ok to just dirty flash from 386.1_2 to 386.2? (AX88U)

 

[FTC]

Check the CPU temps. Perhaps your CPU's throttling.
I don't want to "fire up" the temperature discussion again, but there have been multiple reported issues about an excessive rise with FW 386.xx especially from AC86U (AC2900) model users.

Hi I am experiencing also a very stable behavior with 386.2, however I can see too that there is some strange behavior when changing wifi parameters. In my case there are no unexpected restarts, but I can see that many times after an unrelated wifi change (i.e setting or clearing ax mode or other params) the default control channel gets blanked and the system sets 'auto', and at that time also there appear some errors in the log file of the form 'kernel: FPM Pool x: invalid token 0xXXXXXXXX freed'.

 

[MvW]

Would it be ok to just dirty flash from 386.1_2 to 386.2? (AX88U)

Yes, you'll be fine. Unmount the USB drive (if any) from the main UI (just leave it) in, flash 386.2, it will reboot afterwards and automagically mount your USB drive (if any) again and you're good to go. Let it settle for 15 minutes, do a power cycle, and enjoy the ride.

 

[jerrytouille]

@RMerlin dnsmasq 2.85 is out fyi https://thekelleys.org.uk/gitweb/?p=dnsmasq.git;a=summary

 

[fg64]

Would it be ok to just dirty flash from 386.1_2 to 386.2? (AX88U)

I've had no problems with my dirty flash on the same model.

 

[banger]

There's a Feedback form on the stock firmware.

Already done that thanks for info.

 

[MvW]

@RMerlin dnsmasq 2.85 is out fyi https://thekelleys.org.uk/gitweb/?p=dnsmasq.git;a=summary

I always have to chuckle a bit when reading these kind of comments, sorry I hope you're not offended by it. I'm convinced that long before we normal mortals know something new is cooking, I'm sure Eric is already aware of it and probably already preparing it to integrate it into a new build.

 

[Lee MacMillan]

I got my AX86U on March 4th. It ran for a week or so with stock firmware (384.x.x I think) then I dirty flashed Merlin 384.19. I dirty flashed 386.1 when that was released. At some point, I realized the router was rebooting spontaneously every few days. Once I started keeping track, 5 1/2 days was the longest it went and 13 hours was the shortest time between random reboots. When I flashed 386.2, I did the recommended factory reset afterward and configured from scratch. I am now up 9 days without a random reboot. The only thing I have not done is re-attached my flash drive (which is more of a convenience than a necessity). I am now a believer in the factory reset after flashing new firmware recommendation!

 

[DiGz_Au]

Works for me on my RT-AX86U. What does the log tell you when you try to connect?

What log am I looking at? Easily flashed back to previous fw and TLS ftp log in works fine on my phone and computer remotely. Dunno what's changed here. Have you enabled TLS when logging in remotely to test it? It don't work.

 

[mmacedo]

3d21H and the 5ghz has restarted. Node is not stable.

Same here, my 5G radio on the node restarted at 5:30am. Everyone was sleeping. First line in the image below is the router, second line is the node:

The node itself didn't reboot, as its uptime is the same as the router. So, it was just the radio:

 

[CaptnDanLKW]

I finally have a real need for a Guest Network that's available across my Mesh Nodes. Like most I just started using GN2 to avoid the issues and buggy kernel log spamming when we moved to 386.1.

Now that 386.2 is based off a newer GPL, I was wondering if the stability of GN1 has improved?

(I did a quick test and noticed the buggy kernel noise was still there, which I can live with and filter out)

 

[MvW]

I finally have a real need for a Guest Network that's available across my Mesh Nodes. Like most I just started using GN2 to avoid the issues and buggy kernel log spamming when we moved to 386.1.

Now that 386.2 is based off a newer GPL, I was wondering if the stability of GN1 has improved?

(I did a quick test and noticed the buggy kernel noise was still there, which I can live with and filter out)

As far as I'm aware, if you can filter the kernel noise out or ignore it, it's safe to use (as in isolated if desired).

 

[RMerlin]

What log am I looking at? Easily flashed back to previous fw and TLS ftp log in works fine on my phone and computer remotely. Dunno what's changed here. Have you enabled TLS when logging in remotely to test it? It don't work.

I just connected with Filezilla, and it connected fine, using TLS.

Check the log on your client.

is this enough or is there a better way to avoid this issue ?

Without knowing what was your issue it's impossible to tell.

 

[jerrytouille]

I always have to chuckle a bit when reading these kind of comments, sorry I hope you're not offended by it. I'm convinced that long before we normal mortals know something new is cooking, I'm sure Eric is already aware of it and probably already preparing it to integrate it into a new build.

Sorry I'm new around here just trying to be helpful

 

[MvW]

Sorry I'm new around here just trying to be helpful

No worries, I wasn't trying to bash you. It's just there's a small group of people always trying to 'inform' Eric (RMerlin), probably most with good intentions, some with pushy intentions, but Eric is probably always at least x steps ahead of us. I don't intend to idolize him, but he undoubtly has a network of devs around him which makes sure he's aware of things to come way earlier than we, the public.

 

[mmacedo]

Same here, my 5G radio on the node restarted at 5:30am. Everyone was sleeping. First line in the image below is the router, second line is the node:
View attachment 32993

The node itself didn't reboot, as its uptime is the same as the router. So, it was just the radio:
View attachment 32989

View attachment 32991

Node radio restarted again (around 12:24pm):

That's all I have around this time:

Any suggestion?