Diversion Diversion - the Router Ad-Blocker

[L&LD]

Did a factory reset, re-installed FW, did another factory reset, setup my router (wireless, static ip, ssh,traffic, etc) then went to install Diversion. This time the install did not even complete. I went into a loop with numerous messages similar to "Waiting for cronjob...." After a few of those it the messages changes to "retrieving/getting files..." then back to waiting for conjob." Had to do another reset to recover. Router is working fine now albeit without Diversion.

Your router is certainly not in a 'good/known' state. Are you using a backup config file after resetting to factory defaults?

Reset the router via the GUI, reset the NVRAM via the WPS button method, reset jffs by turning on the format at next reboot option. Reboot the router at least three times after jffs is formatted, waiting up to 10 minutes after each reboot to let the router do its internal stuff and let the CPU cores settle down.

Now, with no other modifications to the router, install amtm. Insert the USB drive. Using amtm, format the drive to Ext4 with journalling. Create a swap file (I use 2GB on my installs). Install Diversion, which will install pixelserv-tls and Entware.

This should give you the results you are expecting. If not, there is something else going on with your router, or your network environment.

 

[Jonah]

Hey all, new here. I recently installed diversion on the latest version of ASUSwrt Merlin, and noticed that certain ads appear as show in the attached screenshot as a large gray block. Isn't the whole purpose of pixelserv to shrink these ads down to a single pixel?

 

[HuskyHerder]

@thelonelycoder er... anyone

I apologize if this is in the wrong spot. I feel it is but doing a forum search "ash_history" results ended up with me both here, and in the AMTM thread.

Anyway moved to 384.9 (clean slate) WPS, and via GUI to ensure clean start.
1. w/ format of USB via Zonkd method ext4 this time
2. Install typical AMTM, Diversion, Skynet, Stubby
3 CPU usage across both ~ 40-60%
4. Set "dhcp staticlist", "custom client list", via saved NVRAM settings in my custom backup config files. Then also my "custom icons" They are the only thing I ever restore. Everything else is hand coded back into my 5300.
5 No change in CPU

Let it run its course for a bit. A couple of hours later noticed it was still hung via HTOP with " Diversion ash_history".

Killed it via HTOP

CPU usage is now back to ~ 2-5% across both.

Since it was a relative new install, I didn't worry about killing it. Was it the wrong move ? Even if I did muck up, I am still happy, I remembered to check HTOP. So it's a win for the old noggin in one regard.

 

[L&LD]

Hey all, new here. I recently installed diversion on the latest version of ASUSwrt Merlin, and noticed that certain ads appear as show in the attached screenshot as a large gray block. Isn't the whole purpose of pixelserv to shrink these ads down to a single pixel?

View attachment 16368

Give us the actual URL so we can test too.

 

[cdikland]

Your router is certainly not in a 'good/known' state. Are you using a backup config file after resetting to factory defaults?

Didnt use the backup config file (which I created after the 2nd reset and before I installed Diversion) until after the third reset.

reset the NVRAM via the WPS button method,

Not familiar with this method. Can you elaborate?

 

[Zonkd]

Didnt use the backup config file (which I created after the 2nd reset and before I installed Diversion) until after the third reset.

Not familiar with this method. Can you elaborate?

Read all of this? It covers everything. http://www.snbforums.com/threads/faq-nvram-and-factory-default-reset.22822/

 

[cdikland]

This should give you the results you are expecting. If not, there is something else going on with your router, or your network environment.

Things are looking up. Followed your steps and it appears all is well. For now I will keep my AC68U running as the "production" router and keep my new 86U in "Test" but so far I am encouraged.

Thanks for the help

BTW: Can I use the same USB drive for Traffic???

 

[L&LD]

Things are looking up. Followed your steps and it appears all is well. For now I will keep my AC68U running as the "production" router and keep my new 86U in "Test" but so far I am encouraged.

Thanks for the help

BTW: Can I use the same USB drive for Traffic???

Glad to see it helped.

You should be able to use the USB drive for multiple things, but I don't use the Traffic tabs and can't guide you on how to achieve that.

 

[EmeraldDeer]

@thelonelycoder er... anyone

I apologize if this is in the wrong spot. I feel it is but doing a forum search "ash_history" results ended up with me both here, and in the AMTM thread.

Anyway moved to 384.9 (clean slate) WPS, and via GUI to ensure clean start.
1. w/ format of USB via Zonkd method ext4 this time
2. Install typical AMTM, Diversion, Skynet, Stubby
3 CPU usage across both ~ 40-60%
4. Set "dhcp staticlist", "custom client list", via saved NVRAM settings in my custom backup config files. Then also my "custom icons" They are the only thing I ever restore. Everything else is hand coded back into my 5300.
5 No change in CPU

Let it run its course for a bit. A couple of hours later noticed it was still hung via HTOP with " Diversion ash_history".

Killed it via HTOP

CPU usage is now back to ~ 2-5% across both.

Since it was a relative new install, I didn't worry about killing it. Was it the wrong move ? Even if I did muck up, I am still happy, I remembered to check HTOP. So it's a win for the old noggin in one regard.

If you see a process with high CPU and "Diversion ash_history" in the command, kill it immediately. I do not know exactly what this is, but I am sure it is not part of the router services. It happened to me early on, but not since. I thought I saw a Diversion release note in regards to this.

 

[Butterfly Bones]

If you see a process with high CPU and "Diversion ash_history" in the command, kill it immediately. I do not know exactly what this is, but I am sure it is not part of the router services. It happened to me early on, but not since. I thought I saw a Diversion release note in regards to this.

Yes, some errors reported and fixed.
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/diversion-the-router-ad-blocker.48538/page-89#post-457606
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/diversion-the-router-ad-blocker.48538/page-97#post-462101

Ash is a shell. lighter than bash, hence its usefulness in small appliances with less memory.

ash, the Almquist shell, is a POSIX compliant shell that is much smaller than bash. It is the default shell in multiple BSD variants. Its variant Debian Almquist shell(dash) is the default shell in Debian and Ubuntu Linux distributions for execution of shell scripts as opposed to interactive use.

https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Guide_to_Unix/Explanations/Choice_of_Shell

 

[thelonelycoder]

If you see a process with high CPU and "Diversion ash_history" in the command, kill it immediately. I do not know exactly what this is, but I am sure it is not part of the router services. It happened to me early on, but not since. I thought I saw a Diversion release note in regards to this.

As every *nix machine, the router keeps a history of shell commands one enters in a terminal session.
But the file the history is written to sits in a volatile directory ($HOME/root). Everytime the router reboots, the file is gone.
Diversion and before that AB-Solution keeps that file and sorts/removes duplicates. And since Diversion is the one keeping that file, 'diversion' is always at the top of the list when using the up arrow to show the history.

 

[elorimer]

Give us the actual URL so we can test too

Guessing it is www.nypost.com. Works as intended for me.

 

[elorimer]

BTW: Can I use the same USB drive for Traffic???

I do.

 

[Jonah]

Give us the actual URL so we can test too.

Guessing it is www.nypost.com. Works as intended for me.

It was NY post, but this site does it too. It's a site to test ad blockers:

https://pi-hole.net/pages-to-test-ad-blocking-performance/

 

[L&LD]

It was NY post, but this site does it too. It's a site to test ad blockers:

https://pi-hole.net/pages-to-test-ad-blocking-performance/

Both http://www.nypost.com/ and your link above works flawlessly here (no ads).

You have something else going on with your router or the Diversion install.

I would be doing a full reset to factory defaults, a minimal and manual configuration to secure the router and connect to your ISP, format the jffs partition followed by 3 reboots (wait 10 minutes between boot ups) and then installing amtm, formatting the USB stick with Ext4 with journaling, create a swap file, and install Diversion and let it install Entware and pixelserv-tls.

If you're still having issues, it may be an issue with the USB drive itself?

 

[Zonkd]

Hey all, new here. I recently installed diversion on the latest version of ASUSwrt Merlin, and noticed that certain ads appear as show in the attached screenshot as a large gray block. Isn't the whole purpose of pixelserv to shrink these ads down to a single pixel?

View attachment 16368

Did you import pixelserv-tls certificate on the device after new install?

 

[QuikSilver]

Has anyone tried to block facebook video ads? Just curious if that was possible or not. thanks!

 

[IT Guy]

Hello

Is it possible with the new diversion 4.0.7 to load whitelist from github?
Also so it auto syncs like 2 or 3 times a day?

 

[Zonkd]

Hello

Is it possible with the new diversion 4.0.7 to load whitelist from github?
Also so it auto syncs like 2 or 3 times a day?

Not currently, why????

 

[Zonkd]

Has anyone tried to block facebook video ads? Just curious if that was possible or not. thanks!

It’s not possible. Facebook delivers its ads on the same domain as everything else.