Release Asuswrt-Merlin 386.4 is now available

[Tim Storey]

RT-AX68U

"Firmware upgrade unsuccessful" message and returned to 386.3_2

 

[glehel]

It also means if your Internet connection goes down, your router will have no way of noticing it, and it won't make any attempt at reconnecting.

Thanks! I will test. maybe you need to write a script for it.

 

[Labdoc]

After a long wait, the new version of Asuswrt-Merlin is now available.

Dirty upgrade of RT-AX88U and RT-AX56U from 386.3_2 to 386.4. Works well, IPv4 and IPv6 via Mullvad VPN app with Wireguard on Win 11x64.

 

[autopilot]

Anyone running a dual wan setup updated? Any issues?

 

[joegreat]

RT-AX68U

"Firmware upgrade unsuccessful" message and returned to 386.3_2

Typically this means not enough free memory: remove USB devices and reboot - do the update immediately after boot - should then work.

Also a common error is that people use 86U firmware on 68U (or the opposite)...

 

[figorr]

The way WAN monitoring works is a bit similar to how Windows itself does. The router will try to resolve the hostname found in dns_probe_host, and make sure it matches one of the addresses found in dns_probe_content.

So for this to work, you need to ensure that:

1) Your router has working nameservers. That means on the WAN page you need to have DNS set to either automatic, or having at least one valid DNS configured. People who leave it to manual and keep both DNS1 and DNS2 empty will have issues - you MUST have at least one valid DNS configured
2) Some people (probably mostly IPv6 enabled users), make sure DNS Rebind is disabled on the WAN page, as some users have found it interferes with the test
3) Don't use a firewall/blacklist/whatever to block access to dns.msftncsi.com
4) People who used any kind of trick to prevent testing with dns.msftncsi.com in the past, these tricks no longer work, as monitoring MUST be working for the WAN state to be properly reported. So if you used any other kind of trick to prevent accessing this server, remove that trick.

I checked all these points and it seems they are correct

Points 1 & 2 seems Ok.

Regarding to point 3)

I thought maybe Skynet is doing something weird ... so ...

a) I added dns.msftncsi.com to the Skynet whitelist. With no luck
b) So then ... I disabled Skynet. And still no luck
c) I disabled DNS-over TLS. Nothing changed
d) I changed DNS Server 1 and DNS Server 2 to Google Servers. And the "Internet Status" stills shows as disconnected.

@scott420 had a similar issue by updating from alpha 2 to beta 3 (as it shows in Beta post #461 )

One more strange thing ...

If I use the Asus App it is also showing that Internet Status is Disconnected ... although I have internet connection.

 

[jerry6]

After a long wait, the new version of Asuswrt-Merlin is now available. 386.4 merges with GPL 386_45958 (plus a number of security fixes backported from newer code), updates various components, and also adds support for the RT-AX86S (uses the same firmware as the RT-AX86U).

The highlights of this release;

• Merges with GPL 386_45958.
• Adds support for the RT-AX86S (uses the same firmware as the RT-AX86U).
• HND firmware now include both the kernel module and userspace tool for Wireguard. There is no built-in support for Wireguard at this time, these are only included for end-user or third party usage. Asus is still working on their own implementation, which isn't available yet.
• OpenVPN server now supports IPv6, both for incoming connections, and for routing access to the LAN clients over IPv6. Note however that redirecting IPv6 Internet traffic through your server is not supported.
• Component updates: curl 7.79.1, vsftpd to 3.0.5, openssl to 1.1.1m, wget to 1.21.1, nettle to 3.7.3, dnsmasq 2.86, openvpn 2.5.5, tor 0.4.5.11, miniupnpd 2.2.3-git 20211017, inadyn 2.9.1 and amtm 3.2.2.
• jitterentropy-rngd was replaced by haveged. Haveged is more resource-intensive, but it works properly under older 2.6.x kernels.
• dnsmasq was reverted back to using nettle for its DNSSEC crypto handling (since openssl support never got mainlined and was increasingly problematic to support)
• miniupnpd now uses the real public IP address instead of any potentially (double-)NATed address for the WAN.
• Reworked DHCP hostname support to use Asus's own implementation.
• A couple of various bugfixes

Please review the Changelog for complete details.

Notes:

• 386.4 uses the new DHCP hostname implementation from Asus (your entries will automatically be converted to the new format on first boot). This means however that reverting to a previous firmware version will lose all of your defined static lease hostnames, so backup your configuration before upgrading if you expect you might need to downgrade afterward.

Please keep posts in this thread on this specific release. This thread will be locked after a few weeks once the release feedback has died down.

Downloads are here.
Changelog is here.

So far 386.4 is working well on my RT5300
Thanks for 12 years of trouble free FW upgrades

 

[AnClar]

Dirty upgrade of my four-unit AIMesh setup. Three RT-AC68U nodes and an RT-AC5300 main router wireless backhaul from 386.3_2 to 386.4. All up and running well. Thanks again, RMerlin!

 

[davidwford]

Dirty upgrade from 386.3_2 to 386.4 and all seems ok, except for the following in the system log, which keeps repeating every 5-30 minutes;

Jan 2 18:25:14 kernel: CPU: 1 PID: 4445 Comm: dcd Tainted: P O 4.1.51 #2
Jan 2 18:25:14 kernel: Hardware name: Broadcom-v8A (DT)
Jan 2 18:25:14 kernel: task: ffffffc0287c7440 ti: ffffffc029ac0000 task.ti: ffffffc029ac0000
Jan 2 18:25:14 kernel: PC is at 0xf711139c
Jan 2 18:25:14 kernel: LR is at 0x1dd14
Jan 2 18:25:14 kernel: pc : [<00000000f711139c>] lr : [<000000000001dd14>] pstate: 600f0010
Jan 2 18:25:14 kernel: sp : 00000000ffa9a1f8
Jan 2 18:25:14 kernel: x12: 00000000000a2050
Jan 2 18:25:14 kernel: x11: 00000000f63ff024 x10: 00000000000a23c4
Jan 2 18:25:14 kernel: x9 : 00000000f63ff958 x8 : 00000000000a287c
Jan 2 18:25:14 kernel: x7 : 00000000f63ff990 x6 : 00000000000a2876
Jan 2 18:25:14 kernel: x5 : 0000000000000000 x4 : 00000000f63ff93c
Jan 2 18:25:14 kernel: x3 : 0000000000000000 x2 : 00000000ffa9a1d4
Jan 2 18:25:14 kernel: x1 : 000000000007d75a x0 : 0000000000000000

 

[dazedandlost]

Here to report a flawless and effortless dirty u/g a few moments ago from 386.3_2 to 386.4. Now to do a clean install to the ax86u (which has been waiting for this), sweep off the cobwebs, and get to running that.

Many packets full of thanks to Merlin and all.

 

[RMerlin]

I checked all these points and it seems they are correct

Post the output from the following commands by running them from your router:

nslookup dns.msftncsi.com
nvram get dns_probe_host
nvram get dns_probe_content

 

[Goned75]

RT-AX88U update ok thanks for the works @RMerlin

 

[RMerlin]

Dirty upgrade from 386.3_2 to 386.4 and all seems ok, except for the following in the system log, which keeps repeating every 5-30 minutes;

Known issue generally caused by pixelserv-tls (or any other addon that adds a custom network interface), which causes the TrendMicro dcd daemon to crash. Nothing I can do about it, you will have to uninstall pixelserv-tls.

 

[Correlor]

I checked all these points and it seems they are correct

Points 1 & 2 seems Ok.

View attachment 38180

Regarding to point 3)

I thought maybe Skynet is doing something weird ... so ...

a) I added dns.msftncsi.com to the Skynet whitelist. With no luck
b) So then ... I disabled Skynet. And still no luck
c) I disabled DNS-over TLS. Nothing changed
d) I changed DNS Server 1 and DNS Server 2 to Google Servers. And the "Internet Status" stills shows as disconnected.

@scott420 had a similar issue by updating from alpha 2 to beta 3 (as it shows in Beta post #461 )

One more strange thing ...

If I use the Asus App it is also showing that Internet Status is Disconnected ... although I have internet connection.

View attachment 38182

@figorr
Did you try to change your router's mac-address on the 'WAN' page. Maybe your provider is doing something wrong. When I put in a fake mac-address (copy of my 5g address with one digit changed) I will get a new ip-address from my provider.

 

[XIII]

The way WAN monitoring works is a bit similar to how Windows itself does. The router will try to resolve the hostname found in dns_probe_host, and make sure it matches one of the addresses found in dns_probe_content.

Is successfully resolving the hostname sufficient?

Or are there additional tests? (Like ping?)

(I'm still on Beta 2, but hope to upgrade later tonight; my router can currently resolve dns.msftncsi.com, but ping of that address has 100% packet loss)

 

[PR3MIUM]

Known issue generally caused by pixelserv-tls (or any other addon that adds a custom network interface), which causes the TrendMicro dcd daemon to crash. Nothing I can do about it, you will have to uninstall pixelserv-tls.

for me it showed up in my earlier dirty flash as:
kernel: Hardware name: unknown
then another line with unknown/unknow/unknown right after it.

after it i did a clean flash from main asus wrt to 386.4 with a reformat of the jffs partition option,
no errors or simillar after this fresh cleaning

 

[RMerlin]

Is successfully resolving the hostname sufficient?

It should be, tho I haven't tried to analyze the entire wan monitoring code path. Make sure the resolution works from the router itself however, not from your LAN.

 

[Makaveli]

Seeing this in the log.
I currently have Traffic Analyzer turned off as I don't use it.

Jan 2 11:27:26 RT-AX88U-0B10 rstats[1206]: Problem loading /mnt/Scripts/Traffic history/tomato_rstats_0c9d92030b10.gz. Still trying...
Jan 2 11:42:26 RT-AX88U-0B10 rstats[1206]: Problem loading /mnt/Scripts/Traffic history/tomato_rstats_0c9d92030b10.gz. Still trying...
Jan 2 11:57:26 RT-AX88U-0B10 rstats[1206]: Problem loading /mnt/Scripts/Traffic history/tomato_rstats_0c9d92030b10.gz. Still trying...

 

[RMerlin]

Seeing this in the log.
I currently have Traffic Analyzer turned off as I don't use it.

Jan 2 11:27:26 RT-AX88U-0B10 rstats[1206]: Problem loading /mnt/Scripts/Traffic history/tomato_rstats_0c9d92030b10.gz. Still trying...
Jan 2 11:42:26 RT-AX88U-0B10 rstats[1206]: Problem loading /mnt/Scripts/Traffic history/tomato_rstats_0c9d92030b10.gz. Still trying...
Jan 2 11:57:26 RT-AX88U-0B10 rstats[1206]: Problem loading /mnt/Scripts/Traffic history/tomato_rstats_0c9d92030b10.gz. Still trying...

That's from Traffic Monitoring, not Traffic Analyzer.

 

[Makaveli]

That's from Traffic Monitoring, not Traffic Analyzer.

Got it
That seems to be working fine so will ignore it