[Beta] Asuswrt-Merlin 382.1 Beta is available

[pattiri]

As far as I see, Twitch is classified as "Net Control Packets" on this firmware and probably it's only me; if because of a reason firewall restarts all packets are being classified as default and only way to fix it is rebooting the router. That's why I've downgraded to 380.68_4 for now. Also RAM usage increases about 50 MB with 382.

 

[taffeys]

Check the forums, that issue actually comes up quite often in posts. Clients with a pre-existing lease after a reboot show up as wired or static despite being wireless or dhcp. It takes a lease renewal for the database to get properly updated.

Eric, sorry but doesn't happen. Two 2.4GHz clients are still showing as wired connections in network map after lease renewal. Something's not right.
But given what is going on with ASUS and third-party closed-source codes I'm getting very uneasy about with continuing with ASUS. I am on my 5th ASUS router but I have setup an Untangle NG system as a contingency. Need to decide on an AP to use if I need to make a big change.
I hope you can continue with your development efforts; if not I'm done with ASUS.

 

[Vexira]

Thanks for offering, but there isn't much users can do about it. Ultimately, it will depend on whether there's any way for Asus to provide me a way around this without having to break their licensing agreement with Broadcom and/or investing a significant amount of engineer time working on something that ultimately is only for a third party.

Asus's R&D probably already has their hands quite full with the recent WPA2 issues and something like 30-ish router models (plus all the wifi clients) in need of update, so it might take some time before I hear back from them one way or another.

At least I have a potential way around that I want to investigate in the coming days (splitting large nvram values into multiple small ones).

is it possble we could push them to not use stuff that needs to be closed off or to get future units to be soo diffrent that the firmware can only be used to asus hardware and not ported off to competitor devices, therefore preventing people like vortex and others forcing asus to close source

 

[Vexira]

also hardware accelrtion works now it seems to have fixed itself ctf is working with ai protection again not sure what the issue was, also is it possible to back port the new hardware acceleration from the 86u or is that restricted by kernel version and i need to buy a new router for said features?

 

[Odkrys]

Is Let's encrypt already ported on Merlin 382 ?

https://www.asus.com/us/support/FAQ/1034294/

And it seems Asus is likely to add IPSEC on several models.

https://www.asus.com/us/support/FAQ/1033576/

 

[RMerlin]

Is the nvram limitation in the SDK or is it specific to the RT-AC86U only? seems like a lib like that would be shared code among different models or anything using the 382 codebase. A kind of a "why reinvent the wheel".

It's part of the HND SDK, used by the RT-AC86U and GT-AC5300. libnvram is only closed source on the HND platform, and the wlcsm library that's rejecting the nvram doesn't exist on older platforms.

 

[RMerlin]

I hope you can continue with your development efforts; if not I'm done with ASUS.

All their competitors are worse. With Netgear, the whole web server is closed source, you can't add anything new to the webui. The firewall generation is also totally closed source. So, they add their own level of paranoia on top of Broadcom's own (already over the top).

Look, I have seen frigging MAKEFILES being slapped with a "Proprietary/Confidential" licence on them by Broadcom. There's jack shirt in there that could provide any technical advantage to a competitor.

There's a reason why so many third party developers dislike Broadcom. OpenWRT/Lede won't/can't support any modern Broadcom router. That's despite the fact that the open source community has been fixing Broadcom's shirt for them. I've myself fixed some silly buffer overrun in their kernel code. Brainslayer/Kong have been doing it too. But rather than acknowledge that and provide us with any kinda of support, they still try real hard to hide as much as possible from everyone else. Having seen how craptastic some if their code can be, makes me wonder if it's out of the need to "protect their IP", or just because they don't want the world to see how poorly written some of their stuff is. How many security issues would be found if the community gained access to their proprietary code? Researches still managed to find issues in their closed-source acsd daemon a few years ago despite it being closed. Makes me wonder what could be found in their ctf,wpa2, wps or upnp implementation.

I have little love lost for Broadcom. And I hate Qualcomm even more. Qualcomm's seriously hindering the Android developer community. And they've gone lawyer-happy quite a few times, unleashing their guard dogs on Github, looking for anything that has the words "Qualcomm" and "confidential" in them. They ended up sending DMCA takedown notices targeting many projects, including Cyanogenmod, and... some of their OWN Github repos. I kid you not.

 

[RMerlin]

Is Let's encrypt already ported on Merlin 382 ?

https://www.asus.com/us/support/FAQ/1034294/

And it seems Asus is likely to add IPSEC on several models.

https://www.asus.com/us/support/FAQ/1033576/

It's not even available on their own routers yet, so no.

 

[dr_lucas]

All their competitors are worse.

What about Linksys WRT line?

 

[RMerlin]

What about Linksys WRT line?

You have to replace the firmware with OpenWRT if you want any kind of customization. Their own firmware contains plenty of closed source components.

The only thing really open with it is the fact that Marvell provide an open-source driver, so the OpenWRT devs can use it. I've seen reports that its performance isn't the same as their proprietary driver however, so it might be a cut-down version.

 

[Pir8pete]

On the RT-AC86U using Merlin 382.1 Beta is the site survey working for anyone? under Wi-Fi Radar, Wi-Fi Site Survey I get nothing when I hit scan.

same thing for me, it's super beta. give it sometime

 

[RMerlin]

same thing for me, it's super beta. give it sometime

Wifi Radar does work, you have to enable data collection on its Configuration page. This is specified in the changelog.

 

[Pir8pete]

@Merlin

I completely missed it, odd though cuz it does show some data like the 5G channel where it's sitting in the line up without "enable data collection" turned on so i makes you think it's half broken.

Here's a suggestion: when you click on the Wi-Fi Radar tab you need to toggle the "enable data collection" Then all settings to show up on the page? that way ppl won't get confused and think it's broken?

 

[Pir8pete]

I have had my 86 running for days and it seems the 2.4G Wi-Fi is weaker then my 1900P. The 5G is the same or better on the 86.

I have tried all kinds of settings and nothing changes it. The 1900P is close to default baerly changed anything and the signal power is stronger right off the bat

Anyone else noticing this issue?

 

[PolarBear]

i still using the AC66U, I been thinking about getting the AC86U

I was also considering the AC86U as an upgrade path to my three AC66U.

If there's no Merlin, then I guess it would be the (much cheaper) AC68U.

 

[amplatfus]

Hi.
Thank you @RMerlin for continuous development.
I think factory reset is mandatory after flash this beta.
Could you please confirm?
All the best!

Sent from my ONE A2003 using Tapatalk

 

[hvluu]

Don't know if this happens to any one but this occurred when I ran the openvpn-event script.

Oct 21 01:49:52 ovpn_split[1678]: + ipset create ovpn_split iphash
Oct 21 01:49:52 ovpn_split[1678]: ipset v6.32: Set cannot be created: set with the same name already exists
Oct 21 01:49:52 ovpn_split[1678]: + ipset flush ovpn_split
Oct 21 01:49:52 ovpn_split[1678]: + iptables -t mangle -A PREROUTING -m set --match-set ovpn_split dst -j MARK --set-mark 0x88
Oct 21 01:49:52 ovpn_split[1678]: iptables: No chain/target/match by that name.

 

[RMerlin]

Here's a suggestion: when you click on the Wi-Fi Radar tab you need to toggle the "enable data collection" Then all settings to show up on the page? that way ppl won't get confused and think it's broken?

I have very limited control over the Wi-Fi Radar stuff, as it's proprietary Broadcom stuff - that's why for instance it doesn't use Asuswrt's regular visuals.

I think factory reset is mandatory after flash this beta.
Could you please confirm?

I didn't do one on my RT-AC88U and everything is working fine. Everyone's experience will vary, so at this time, it's not mandatory, but as usual someone should be prepared to do one if anything unusual comes up.

 

[Marc66]

I was also considering the AC86U as an upgrade path to my three AC66U.

If there's no Merlin, then I guess it would be the (much cheaper) AC68U.

AC66U owner as well. My next router will be a Mikrotik


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[yk101]

For some reason, my RT-AC88U is missing tune2fs. Is that expected on this build?

admin@RT-AC88U:/tmp/mnt/sda2# e2fsck
Usage: e2fsck [-panyrcdfvtDFV] [-b superblock] [-B blocksize]
        [-I inode_buffer_blocks] [-P process_inode_size]
        [-l|-L bad_blocks_file] [-C fd] [-j external_journal]
        [-E extended-options] device

Emergency help:

 -p                   Automatic repair (no questions)
 -n                   Make no changes to the filesystem
 -y                   Assume "yes" to all questions
 -c                   Check for bad blocks and add them to the badblock list
 -f                   Force checking even if filesystem is marked clean
 -v                   Be verbose

 -b superblock        Use alternative superblock
 -B blocksize         Force blocksize when looking for superblock
 -j external_journal  Set location of the external journal
 -l bad_blocks_file   Add to badblocks list
 -L bad_blocks_file   Set badblocks list

admin@RT-AC88U:/tmp/mnt/sda2# tune2fs
-sh: tune2fs: not found
admin@RT-AC88U:/tmp/mnt/sda2#