[Fork] Asuswrt-Merlin 374.43 LTS releases (Archive)

[john9527]

EDIT: Looking at that Padavan option a bit more we can see it is a toggle for the Hardware Watchdog Timer. It sets a variable called watchdog_cpu which dictates whether or not it loads the rt_timer_wdg module. So this doesn't look to me to be a hardware watchdog at all but just an alternative timer source?

Not sure of the RALink implementation, but from what I've read the standard Linux kernel watchdog (if no hardware assist) sets up a new device, /dev/watchdog, then pings it at a specified interval. No response = reboot. It's still software based, but at least it's running in kernel space.

 

[rkcmaster]

What is an RT-N88U?

I'm sorry, typo. Meant RT-N66U, fixed.

 

[ianyp]

Wrong thread. (thanks guys)

 

[L&LD]

@ianyp you need to see the following link.

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/release-amcfwm-asuswrt-merlin-custom-firmware-manager.63227/

 

[PauloV]

So, I just woke up from my 4 year nap and thought about updating my firmware (20E3). I was all excited that there was a brand new one just fresh from the oven. Then I found the "upgrade Matrix" file...
AC68U (C1,E1), ASUS or Merlin 'E' Builds Restoration Tool Required No
AC1900,AC1900P, AC66U_B1 V27 or later 'E' Builds 'E' Builds GUI No No

Mine is an old AC1900 still chugging along. Do I really need a restoration tool and factory reset?
I don't remember doing that when I last jumped from 06 to 20.
Is there an in between version that I can just upgrade through the GUI and won't risk upsetting the old soldered joints?

 

[L&LD]

@PauloV Good Morning!

Flash the latest and see if it continues working well for you. If not, reset and reconfigure manually.

 

[PauloV]

Oh, ok... So the risk is just that it won't inherit the old settings? I think I can do that. I know I took some pictures four years ago. I just need to find them under this pile of newspapers that accumulated... Why are they still printing these things??
Thanks L&LD!!

 

[L&LD]

It's not really whether the old settings are inherited or not in the new firmware. It is whether the specific settings and variables in use for your network haven't been recycled into new meanings or functions. That and the fact of possibly newer drivers or new default settings for the old drivers is what may cause issues that a full reset and manual configuration will 'fix'.

Let us know how it goes!

 

[PauloV]

It's not really whether the old settings are inherited or not in the new firmware. It is whether the specific settings and variables in use for your network haven't been recycled into new meanings or functions. That and the fact of possibly newer drivers or new default settings for the old drivers is what may cause issues that a full reset and manual configuration will 'fix'.

Let us know how it goes!

Oh, alright then. I'll make sure to give myself some time in case sh*t happens. Thanks again for the long explanation.

 

[john9527]

@PauloV
You'll probably be OK with the move up....I try and take care to not break anything when moving forward. (Moving backward can be a problem when some settings are changed to support new options). But as you said, sometimes sh*t happens.

One thing to take note of in your situation. The jffs space for the AC68/like models was increased from 32M to 64M in V23. So you should save your current jffs before the upgrade in case you need to reformat jffs after.

 

[jrmwvu04]

I contemplated a separate thread for this, but all the googling I did led only back to this board and so I think it might be firmware related, so trying here first-

The avahi-daemon.conf file that the firmware generates on boot (/tmp/avahi/avahi-daemon.conf) has the following general lines...

[Server]
host-name=RT-AC1900P-XXXX
aliases=RT-AC1900P
aliases_llmnr=RT-AC1900P

...where the hostname is the router model followed by the last four characters of the Mac address, and then these two alias lines that are just the model. I wanted to remove the Mac address characters and I was trying to change the hostname via postconf files but it wasn't working because the host name can't be the same as the alias, which isn't surprising after I noticed that the aliases were there (I didn't see that at first). So looking around at man pages for avahi-daemon.conf, there are no mentions of these two alias entries. On a whim, I tried setting the hostname to just RT-AC1900P and removing the alias lines, and it seemingly works 24 hours in.

So my question - these alias and alias_llmnr entries don't seem to be standard practice, and as far as I can tell they don't do anything meaningful. So if they are intentional and useful, what is the purpose?

 

[ColinTaylor]

So my question - these alias and alias_llmnr entries don't seem to be standard practice, and as far as I can tell they don't do anything meaningful. So if they are intentional and useful, what is the purpose?

Looking at the code the alias_llmnr appears to do nothing (there's a TODO comment) and alias creates a CNAME for the real name. Don't what the implication of that is as I don't use Avahi. (Although I can't actually find the part of the source code that creates those two lines in the config so I'm missing a piece of the puzzle somewhere.)

 

[john9527]

So my question - these alias and alias_llmnr entries don't seem to be standard practice, and as far as I can tell they don't do anything meaningful. So if they are intentional and useful, what is the purpose?

Not sure....just a carry over from the ASUS code. Only thing I can think of off the top of my head is that it's somehow related to their implementation of the iTunes server and/or TimeMachine.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Not sure....just a carry over from the ASUS code. Only thing I can think of off the top of my head is that it's somehow related to their implementation of the iTunes server and/or TimeMachine.

Am I going blind, but I don't see where these lines are added to the config file? All I can find is this.

 

[dave14305]

Am I going blind, but I don't see where these lines are added to the config file? All I can find is this.

I only see it in Merlin @ https://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin.ng/blob/master/release/src/router/rc/services.c#L5253

EDIT: or it's new and John hasn't pushed it yet to Github?

374.43_43E9j9527 (28-April-2020) ARM SDK, MIPS,ARM KRACK
* CHANGED: rc: avahi: update to 0.7

 

[ColinTaylor]

I only see it in Merlin @ https://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin.ng/blob/master/release/src/router/rc/services.c#L5253

EDIT: or it's new and John hasn't pushed it yet to Github?

Thanks Dave. Yes it's in John's as well.

I really can't get my head around the github search facility. AFAIK you can't search for anything in John's repository because it's not "popular enough". I can search in Merlin's which usually works but for example if I search for "avahi_config" it returns timemachine.c but not services.c.

 

[john9527]

I really can't get my head around the github search facility.

Doing searches directly on github is pretty much an exercise in futility/frustration
Better off installing git and making a local clone if you enjoy poking around in the source (and gitk if you like a gui).

 

[jrmwvu04]

Not sure....just a carry over from the ASUS code. Only thing I can think of off the top of my head is that it's somehow related to their implementation of the iTunes server and/or TimeMachine.

I sort of figured as much based on any and all searches pointing exto asuswrt implementations. So far, configuring it my way hasn’t produced any ill effects.

Otherwise, thanks for all the looking into it folks. Your efforts are far more than I’d have come up with.

As an aside, all of this is on my radar because I was toying with disabling avahi. I can’t say that doing that caused it, but I had a lot of network stutter and poor performance over the two days it was off. We have quite a few Cupertino devices among us at our house, so I am not entirely surprised.

 

[Shampoo]

Hi y'all.
I'm familiar with the Merlin series of firmware, but I'm not familiar with what a fork is.
Also thank you John in advance for your time and effort, as we all know time is one of the most valuable resources, not renewable.
I have an Asus RT-AC66R, and am curious about changing its firmware from Asus factory to 3rd party, except for that fact that it's no longer supported by Merlin.
So I'm wondering how this firmware is with the latest vulnerability updates?
I'd figure it's difficult, near impossible for one person to keep up with this as a hobby, since vulnerabilities are non-stop these days.
Thanks in advance!

 

[Luis Ceron]

Hi y'all.
I'm familiar with the Merlin series of firmware, but I'm not familiar with what a fork is.
Also thank you John in advance for your time and effort, as we all know time is one of the most valuable resources, not renewable.
I have an Asus RT-AC66R, and am curious about changing its firmware from Asus factory to 3rd party, except for that fact that it's no longer supported by Merlin.
So I'm wondering how this firmware is with the latest vulnerability updates?
I'd figure it's difficult, near impossible for one person to keep up with this as a hobby, since vulnerabilities are non-stop these days.
Thanks in advance!

Go to the very first post and read where it says this fork does include... I started using my rt-ac56u and rt-ac56r again after finding this firmware that rmerlin does not support anymore.