Beta Asuswrt-Merlin 388.1 Beta is available for select models

[underdose]

Upgraded from beta_1 to beta_2 and syslog is spammed with the message below which was not present before beta_2.

Nov 16 12:14:04 RT-AX58U kernel: +++++ BRCM skipping port_feat_c_connection for warm reset
Nov 16 12:16:08 RT-AX58U kernel: +++++ BRCM skipping port_feat_c_connection for warm reset
Nov 16 12:17:00 RT-AX58U kernel: +++++ BRCM skipping port_feat_c_connection for warm reset
Nov 16 12:18:32 RT-AX58U kernel: +++++ BRCM skipping port_feat_c_connection for warm reset
Nov 16 12:18:33 RT-AX58U kernel: +++++ BRCM skipping port_feat_c_connection for warm reset
Nov 16 12:20:02 RT-AX58U kernel: +++++ BRCM skipping port_feat_c_connection for warm reset
Nov 16 12:20:11 RT-AX58U kernel: +++++ BRCM skipping port_feat_c_connection for warm reset
Nov 16 12:21:48 RT-AX58U kernel: +++++ BRCM skipping port_feat_c_connection for warm reset
Nov 16 12:21:55 RT-AX58U kernel: +++++ BRCM skipping port_feat_c_connection for warm reset
Nov 16 12:22:02 RT-AX58U kernel: +++++ BRCM skipping port_feat_c_connection for warm reset
Nov 16 12:22:50 RT-AX58U kernel: +++++ BRCM skipping port_feat_c_connection for warm reset
Nov 16 12:23:27 RT-AX58U kernel: +++++ BRCM skipping port_feat_c_connection for warm reset
Nov 16 12:25:17 RT-AX58U kernel: +++++ BRCM skipping port_feat_c_connection for warm reset

Searching on Google returned a few topics, mostly about faulty USB storage devices/cables, but as far as I can tell my TimeMachine backup HDD and USB stick for Entware work without any problems. TM backups complete without any errors and Entware + user scripts work as intended.

I guess it's just a notice and doesn't effect the end user, but wanted to report anyway.

 

[clavas]

Myself just Purchased a GT-AX6000 on Friday and will be running stock for quite awhile. I will wait for the stock 388 firmware to be released, see how that goes and then maybe install Merlin at some point in time.

I have had GT-AX6000 for approx 4 weeks running stock with no issues other than dual WAN (failover with fallback does not work.)
I have a 4G ISP as fallback and can easily achieve 80-100Mbps as backup internet when needed but have to manually switch.

How difficult can it be for Asus to fix this dual WAN failover feature they advertise?

Patiently waiting for stock 388 to see if this fixes dual WAN but not hopeful. If that is the case looks like 388 Merlin (release version) with dual WAN script addon for me.
Does the addon even work with 388?

Not having Wireguard is a pain as I have 1Gig internet so OpenVPN becomes a bottleneck on some clients.
May come down to whoever wins the race to release 388 between Merlin and stock

 

[hancox]

Yes. The crash was occurring when it wasn't being bypassed. The temporary fix from Asus will now always bypass it.

Thanks for confirming the test results.

Slightly related to this, and while you have the engineers on the line about fc...

Flow cache on the AX86U has caused major issues with QoS (believe stock and with Merlin Addons) for a while now. Some of the original classification bugs appear to have been worked out, but fc actually throttles download speed.

This is reproduceable by enabling QoS, and then comparing *not router-run* speedtests with fc enabled and disabled. Router-run speedtests aren't impacted.

 

[Blackfyre]

I installed betas 1&2 on my AX86U over the weekend. On both versions, I had the same Wi-Fi issue in that there was noticeable delay in loading anything (not visible on Ethernet).

It is almost like a massive ping before it would resolve and start loading data. Like 10-20 seconds of delay, a lot of times just getting an error loading pages in the browser.

I didn’t see anything funky in logs but had to revert back to latest stable as my family wasn’t pleased. Issue is gone on the stable version (386.7_2).

Since I haven’t seen others posting about this, my guess is it is one of the 3rd party add-ons I am using causing a conflict. Probably need to do a nuclear reset when the final 388.1 is released.

I had a similar issue with Beta 1, and you just reminded me, I forgot to mention it here. Some of the values in the WiFi Professional tab were jumbled up and had weird characters and values in them which were wrong.

Anyway, if you want to compare, here are my performance focused WiFi 5Ghz settings. For WiFi 2.4Ghz I don't focus on performance, since only legacy devices use it, but I also had to fix the settings there too. Also, AX86U

If someone has further tips to pull more PERFORMANCE out with settings, I would appreciate it. But I done these settings based on my own research and testing.

 

[Mazz]

I have had GT-AX6000 for approx 4 weeks running stock with no issues other than dual WAN (failover with fallback does not work.)
I have a 4G ISP as fallback and can easily achieve 80-100Mbps as backup internet when needed but have to manually switch.

How difficult can it be for Asus to fix this dual WAN failover feature they advertise?

Patiently waiting for stock 388 to see if this fixes dual WAN but not hopeful. If that is the case looks like 388 Merlin (release version) with dual WAN script addon for me.
Does the addon even work with 388?

Not having Wireguard is a pain as I have 1Gig internet so OpenVPN becomes a bottleneck on some clients.
May come down to whoever wins the race to release 388 between Merlin and stock

I had issues with VPN Fusion Exeption list, i had trouble getting my Laptop to activate. I have 1.5Gig interwebs and i wanted the Laptop to use my VPN software(Wireguard Protocol) so i can get some speeds. I eventully got it to activate after about 10 tries with removing the latop from the list and re-adding it. I know it will be easier once the 388 firmware comes out, i just don't want to play around right now, took almost a day to get it working right.

 

[Martineau]

If they don't make it easily downloadable from their webui, there must be a reason. I suspect it's tied to how WireGuard relies on private keys to handle all authentication instead of a username/password. Maybe they don't have a centralized method of generating/storing these private keys.

As per the admission by Jason A. Donenfeld that there are known limitations of his Wireguard protocol....in particular the obfuscation/tracking concerns

hence NordLynx provides their additional front end obfuscation layer

 

[cc666]

As per the admission by Jason A. Donenfeld that there are known limitations of his Wireguard protocol....in particular the obfuscation/tracking concerns

View attachment 45544

hence NordLynx provides their additional front end obfuscation layer

View attachment 45545

Is there a way to get the Nord Lynnx to run on the router end? There are no config files for this as I have Nord VPN and was looking to impliment this on the router end. For the heck of it I tried it on my windows 11 laptop and it is just as fast as Wireguard.

CC

 

[RMerlin]

Hey! Thanks for your work @RMerlin . But since I upgraded from 386.7_2 to 388.1 beta 2 I have big WiFi issues. After the upgrade I manually restarted the router as usual but didn't do a factory reset of it. Here's the log found in System Logs, seems to be a Broadcom problem:

dcd crashes are a very old long-standing issue (and they are related to Trend Micro, not Broadcom). So far Trend Micro has failed to fix the problem, all you can do is ignore it. It won't have any effect on networking, it`s only tied to the Trend Micro DPI engine.

 

[RMerlin]

I guess it's just a notice and doesn't effect the end user, but wanted to report anyway.

Try a complete power cycling, i.e. unplug the power from the router with the switch still turned on, wait 5 seconds, then plug it back in.

As per the admission by Jason A. Donenfeld that there are known limitations of his Wireguard protocol....in particular the obfuscation/tracking concerns

People really should just stick to OpenVPN when using a VPN tunnel with the goal to obfuscate their online activity. WireGuard is a great idea when the goal is to remotely connect two sites that you control. Having it implemented at the kernel level as just a dedicated network interface makes things nice. Not so good for what most people here want to use their VPN for.

 

[JTnola]

View attachment 45230

Wow. Thanks for the info. I def missed this factoid.

 

[underdose]

Try a complete power cycling, i.e. unplug the power from the router with the switch still turned on, wait 5 seconds, then plug it back in.

Thank you, that did the trick. It also fixed 2.4GHz not broadcasting which I recently found.

Note to myself: Do a power cycle after firmware upgrade.

 

[octopus]

Seem there is not any auto refresh on VPN - Status page as it was before.

 

[Damit1]

Well, another bug I thought that would resolve on its own, but it just won't!

AX56U- A device that is connected Wired- is shown in network map as well, all goody so far.
Checked maybe a reboot to the device would do, but not changed.
Beta2 obviously.

But! in the Ethernet Ports section, it shows no port connected.

A bug? Cache refreshed, tried 3 different browsers and and tried 2 different access devices (access through Desktop PC and Android Tablet, Smartphone- just not show it.
Thank you

From network list

From the Ethernet Ports section

 

[bits]

This is reproduceable by enabling QoS, and then comparing *not router-run* speedtests with fc enabled and disabled. Router-run speedtests aren't impacted.

I have found the geforce now QoS works well and gives me full speed and A+ buffer bloat results on 100mbit/sec connection.

 

[Ranger802004]

I have had GT-AX6000 for approx 4 weeks running stock with no issues other than dual WAN (failover with fallback does not work.)
I have a 4G ISP as fallback and can easily achieve 80-100Mbps as backup internet when needed but have to manually switch.

How difficult can it be for Asus to fix this dual WAN failover feature they advertise?

Patiently waiting for stock 388 to see if this fixes dual WAN but not hopeful. If that is the case looks like 388 Merlin (release version) with dual WAN script addon for me.
Does the addon even work with 388?

Not having Wireguard is a pain as I have 1Gig internet so OpenVPN becomes a bottleneck on some clients.
May come down to whoever wins the race to release 388 between Merlin and stock

@clavas if you switch to Merlin check out my WAN Failover script: www.snbforums.com/threads/dual-wan-failover-script.78978/
As far as working on 388 it does work, I am personally running 388.1-beta2 and my failover events email notifications have been working fine and logs don’t show any issues with functionality throughout the script. I also have not had any reported issues from 388 as of yet.

 

[RMerlin]

Seem there is not any auto refresh on VPN - Status page as it was before.

It does auto-refresh for me. Look for any Javascript error in the browser console that may be preventing the refresh from happening.

But! in the Ethernet Ports section, it shows no port connected.

That new portmap implementation is quirky on some models. It's closed source so outside of my control. On my GT-AXE16000 for instance it doesn't even appear at all, as the backend fails to generate the required data.

 

[Farley]

Thank you, that did the trick. It also fixed 2.4GHz not broadcasting which I recently found.

Note to myself: Do a power cycle after firmware upgrade.

This is really interesting...

My two-week old GT-AX6000 had an odd problem on the beta firmware, where 2.4GHz would refuse connections after I had used the WPS button to toggle the WiFi off and on. (I do use this fairly often.)

I rolled back to the last stable Merlin firmware, did a hard reset and it's all working now.

But I wonder if a power cycle might have fixed the 2.4GHz problem.

Does anyone else have a GT-AX6000 on the beta with the WPS button configured to toggle the WiFi? If so, would you mind doing that test? If 2.4GHz still works I might try upgrading to the beta again.

As an aside, what's the effect of a regular power cycle like that on a router? Good, bad, indifferent?

 

[Shonk]

I have just updated my GT-AX6000 to Beta2 from 386.7.2

My DDNS (Google Domains) was showing an exclamation mark
I disabled IPv6 Update in DDNS (i have native ipv6) and its working fine now for ipv4
is this a google problem or router problem?

 

[hancox]

I have found the geforce now QoS works well and gives me full speed and A+ buffer bloat results on 100mbit/sec connection.

100Mbit isn't a good test case here - too little bandwidth to be impacted.

GEForce disables fc and hardware acceleration though, and is more of a black box. Cake is known entity, and works, with the same drawbacks.

 

[samw5]

Anyone seen issues where the router will suddenly show the initial config page after reboot?

Router is working perfectly fine, router is then restarted (either manual or via scheduled reboot) then I lose internet but wifi, DHCP... is still configured and allows me to connect to the router.
I can navigate to other subpages manually (doesn't prompt for password).

I literally have to hard reset and reupload the saved config to get it back up and running.

Any thoughts?