Asuswrt-Merlin - custom build of the Asus RT-N66U firmware

[RMerlin]

Updated OP, build 3.0.0.3.108.5 is now available!


3.0.0.3.108.5:
- NEW: Crond starts at boot time.
- NEW: init-start is a new user script that will be run early on at boot time (right after jffs is mounted, and before any service gets started)
- NEW: Can save traffic history to a custom location (USB or JFFS, for instance) to preserve it between reboots.
- NEW: Added Monthly traffic page (ported from Tomato)
- NEW: Added the Performance Tuning page (with temperature).
- FIXED: Webui authentication was bypassed by the web server
- FIXED: Httpd crash when uploading a FW or settings file over https - should simply fail now. For now you have to use http for flashing the FW or restoring your settings from a saved config file.

 

[angelsanges]

Updated OP, build 3.0.0.3.108.5 is now available!


3.0.0.3.108.5:
- NEW: Crond starts at boot time.
- NEW: init-start is a new user script that will be run early on at boot time (right after jffs is mounted, and before any service gets started)
- NEW: Can save traffic history to a custom location (USB or JFFS, for instance) to preserve it between reboots.
- NEW: Added Monthly traffic page (ported from Tomato)
- NEW: Added the Performance Tuning page (with temperature).
- FIXED: Webui authentication was bypassed by the web server
- FIXED: Httpd crash when uploading a FW or settings file over https - should simply fail now. For now you have to use http for flashing the FW or restoring your settings from a saved config file.

oh thanks!

in future is possible to patch wireless time scheduling?
actually it works bad....

if i want to turn on wireless at 8:00 am and shut it down at 01:00 am....i can't! Asus original firmware allows only "in-day" scheduling.

in other routers is possible this! ie: FritBox, Netgear...

for example we/you can modify the voice "Date to Enable Radio" in "Date to DISABLE Radio" so we set only the time when radio have to be off.


sorry for bad english!

 

[angelsanges]

- NEW: Added the Performance Tuning page (with temperature).


for me the graphic isn't working.

 

[shantanugoel]

Eric, I'm trying to run the scripts with the latest release (haven't tried on older ones) and they don't seem to work. My scripts are in /jffs/scripts (init-start and services-start) and both are marked executables. One just creates a dir in /tmp and other copies a file from jffs to filesystem. Both also log to syslog. But none of these things are happening.

 

[shantanugoel]

Also found one more issue with compilation. Any recent clones of the github repo (any branch) are failing to compile in busybox due to a missing router/busybox/Config.in file. Though all the other Config.in files in busybox folder seem to be generated but this one seems to be hand written and provided. What is weird is that I'm unable to locate it in any of the branches on github but strangely my previous local copy of the repo has it and it compiles fine. If I copy this file to any other cloned copy then that copy also compiles fine, otherwise doesn't.

Can you try cloning a fresh copy of the repo and try compiling?

Edit: I downloaded source tarball from busybox website for a few versions (including the 1.17.4 version that is used by asus) and their tarball supplies this Config.in file with the source so it is surely not generated, I think.

Edit 2: I think I figured out the issue. This file is also included in the asus source tarball but in the busybox/.gitignore file, they have a rule to ignore Config.in and hence this file never got uploaded to github. But since I started out with the tarball, my initial copy (from which I seeded github) works fine but not the fresh checkouts. Will fix this.

 

[RMerlin]

in future is possible to patch wireless time scheduling?
actually it works bad....

if i want to turn on wireless at 8:00 am and shut it down at 01:00 am....i can't! Asus original firmware allows only "in-day" scheduling.

Since build 108 is quite behind (Asus' latest public beta is build 116), I'd rather not waste too much time fixing their bugs when they might very well be already fixed in their latest version. Once their next official version is released, I might start taking a closer look at things they still haven't fixed and see what I can do.

 

[RMerlin]

- NEW: Added the Performance Tuning page (with temperature).


for me the graphic isn't working.

Make sure you are using a modern browser that supports SVG graphics. Chrome and IE9 both work fine, an up-to-date version of Firefox should also work. Also don't use any script blocker, as this graphic generation relies on Javascript.

 

[RMerlin]

Eric, I'm trying to run the scripts with the latest release (haven't tried on older ones) and they don't seem to work. My scripts are in /jffs/scripts (init-start and services-start) and both are marked executables. One just creates a dir in /tmp and other copies a file from jffs to filesystem. Both also log to syslog. But none of these things are happening.

Works for me.

ASUSWRT RT-N66U_3.0.0.3 Sun May 6 02:51:32 UTC 2012
admin@RT-N66U:/tmp/home/root# ls /tmp/000* -l
-rw-rw-rw- 1 admin root 0 Dec 31 2010 /tmp/000firewall
-rw-rw-rw- 1 admin root 0 Dec 31 2010 /tmp/000init
-rw-rw-rw- 1 admin root 0 Dec 31 2010 /tmp/000services
-rw-rw-rw- 1 admin root 0 Dec 31 2010 /tmp/000wan

admin@RT-N66U:/tmp/home/root# ls /jffs/scripts/ -l
-rwxrwxrwx 1 admin root 34 May 6 13:26 firewall-start
-rwxrwxrwx 1 admin root 30 May 6 13:25 init-start
-rwxrwxrwx 1 admin root 35 May 6 13:26 services-start
-rwxrwxrwx 1 admin root 29 May 6 13:26 wan-start


admin@RT-N66U:/tmp/home/root# more /jffs/scripts/*
#!/bin/sh
touch /tmp/000firewall

#!/bin/sh
touch /tmp/000init

#!/bin/sh
touch /tmp/000services

#!/bin/sh
touch /tmp/000wan

 

[RMerlin]

shantanugoel, keep in mind syslog might get started a bit late compared to these scripts. Try commenting out your your logger call.

 

[shantanugoel]

Make sure you are using a modern browser that supports SVG graphics. Chrome and IE9 both work fine, an up-to-date version of Firefox should also work. Also don't use any script blocker, as this graphic generation relies on Javascript.

yeah, works for me in chrome.

Works for me.

shantanugoel, keep in mind syslog might get started a bit late compared to these scripts. Try commenting out your your logger call.

damn.. syslog wasn't a problem as I tried without that as well but just realized after seeing your example that I forgot to add shebang at the beginning.. idiot me will try again after adding it.

Edit: Yes, works well after adding the shebang apologies for the false alarm..

 

[shantanugoel]

For anyone else compiling out there, just a note that gperf package is also required for this (if you are enabling media server). I had this installed earlier because of some other packages I compile, but I removed those and so this got uninstalled as well and then the compilation broke for the firmware because without this, two of the generated files in libid3tag (frametype.c and compat.c) are empty and so linking minidlna breaks.

 

[shantanugoel]

Eric, sent you a pull request for scripts that are run before a partition is mounted and after a partition is mounted.

pre-mount is useful for many things, the most common use being running e2fsck on a file system automatically before it is mounted

post-mount is useful for things like that can be autorun when a partition is mounted. e.g. running rc.unslung or another process that can start your optware related program installations on boot up. Other scripts like services-start are not useful for this because they are not really in sync with when a partition is exactly mounted. e.g. services-start some times run even before the system actually mounts a partition and makes it available.

Please let me know if this is ok or needs more changes.

 

[drinkingbird]

I can't seem to get scripts to do anything. Is this possibly because I'm set to AP only mode?

Also noticed on the new stats saving feature, it doesn't let you "save" after changing to default or ram, always reverts to jffs.

 

[RMerlin]

I can't seem to get scripts to do anything. Is this possibly because I'm set to AP only mode?

Shouldn't matter, tho I didn't specifically test it. Make sure you don't forget the shebang at the start of the script.

Also noticed on the new stats saving feature, it doesn't let you "save" after changing to default or ram, always reverts to jffs.

Confirmed. I will have to investigate that one.

EDIT: Fixed. Will be included in the next release. For now you can use telnet to manually set the path to "" if you want to move it back to RAM:

nvram set rstats_path=""
nvram commit

I also see nvram saving is enabled, which it shouldn't -I probably ended up including the wrong copy of that asp file in the firmware release, hence the general brokage of that setting

 

[drinkingbird]

Never mind on the script thing, idiotic mistake, I created a /jffs/scrips by accident. On the plus side, I'm relearning VI.

RE the bandwidth stats, I just didn't want to wear my flash if not necessary, I have much more in-depth bandwidth reporting on my router and switch via SNMP and netflow so no need to save the stats on this.

Shouldn't matter, tho I didn't specifically test it. Make sure you don't forget the shebang at the start of the script.



Confirmed. I will have to investigate that one.

EDIT: Fixed. Will be included in the next release. For now you can use telnet to manually set the path to "" if you want to move it back to RAM:

nvram set rstats_path=""
nvram commit

I also see nvram saving is enabled, which it shouldn't -I probably ended up including the wrong copy of that asp file in the firmware release, hence the general brokage of that setting

 

[tonydickinson]

Hi,

I have just upgraded to the RT-N66U router from an Apple Airport Extreme.

I am in Singapore and will be changing from Starhub MaxOnline 100 cable to Starhub 150 fibre at the weekend, for internet only.

I am hoping that I will be able to use the N66U router as unfortunately the Apple router cannot clone MAC address etc to connect to the OpenNet ONT.

Thanks to Merlin et all.

 

[RMerlin]

I am hoping that I will be able to use the N66U router as unfortunately the Apple router cannot clone MAC address etc to connect to the OpenNet ONT.

Should be fine, there is a MAC Address clone option on the WAN page.

 

[Bun-Bun]

As a fan of the stock Asus firmware I would be interested in seeing additional NAT opttions added. Having no NAT loopback is my biggest gripe about the Asus firmware so far.

 

[RMerlin]

As a fan of the stock Asus firmware I would be interested in seeing additional NAT opttions added. Having no NAT loopback is my biggest gripe about the Asus firmware so far.

It should be possible to implement it by using the firewall-start script, and basing the script something like what is documented here:

http://opensimulator.org/wiki/NAT_Loopback_Routers

Here, I'm seeing more and more stability issues with firmware 108 that are starting to seriously annoy me. I will most likely release one last bugfix release based on 108, after which I'll wait for Asus to provide a more stable release on which I can resume work. Today, I had to setup an SSH tunnel to be able to remotely access my desktop at home, since the VPN would cause my router to reboot whenever there was too much activity... This is getting seriously frustrating, for a 175$ router.

 

[RMerlin]

I posted a quick tutorial on how to setup Optware for this router on my website: http://www.lostrealm.ca/tower/node/93.

Optware will allow you to easily install more programs on your router. For instance, the first thing I installed myself was "nano", a text editor that is much more user-friendly than vi.

All you need is a USB disk formatted in ext2 or ext3 - NTFS will cause issues down the road.