fw 380.70 bugs & problems

[Pila]

Loaded brand new Asus RT-AC66U_B1 with Merlin 380.70. It was empty, but I did reset it after flashing it. Then configured everything manually. I have other similar routers configured exactly the same. Most are also DoubleNAT-ted like this one.

1. For no reason at all, router keeps doing something with ddns_return_code and keeps messing with it and removing it! No other values saved to NVRAM (by me) have problems! Log shows nothing usefull. I set DDNS page to custom and tried both 0 and 30 in the forced field.

I am talking about: nvram get ddns_return_code which returns 200 when set.

Jun 23 09:18:02 ddns: Completed custom ddns update
Jun 23 09:38:02 ddns: Completed custom ddns update
Jun 23 11:48:02 ddns: Completed custom ddns update
Jun 23 12:09:57 rc_service: httpd 480:notify_rc restart_ddns
Jun 23 12:09:57 custom_script: Running /jffs/scripts/ddns-start (args: 192.168.10.10)
Jun 23 12:10:00 ddns: Completed custom ddns update
Jun 23 12:13:00 crond[482]: USER pila pid 17000 cmd /jffs/scripts/ddns-start
Jun 23 12:13:04 ddns: Completed custom ddns update
Jun 23 12:15:35 rc_service: httpd 480:notify_rc restart_ddns
Jun 23 12:15:35 custom_script: Running /jffs/scripts/ddns-start (args: 192.168.10.10)
Jun 23 12:15:38 ddns: Completed custom ddns update
Jun 23 12:18:00 crond[482]: USER pila pid 18532 cmd /jffs/scripts/ddns-start
Jun 23 12:18:02 ddns: Completed custom ddns update
Jun 23 12:43:00 crond[482]: USER pila pid 20674 cmd /jffs/scripts/ddns-start
Jun 23 12:43:03 ddns: Completed custom ddns update
Jun 23 12:46:06 rc_service: httpd 480:notify_rc restart_ddns
Jun 23 12:46:06 custom_script: Running /jffs/scripts/ddns-start (args: 192.168.10.10)
Jun 23 12:46:09 ddns: Completed custom ddns update
Jun 23 12:48:00 crond[482]: USER pila pid 21397 cmd /jffs/scripts/ddns-start
Jun 23 12:48:02 ddns: Completed custom ddns update

My ddns-start script runs every 5 minutes. You can see that on some ocassions router itself called the ddns-start with the proper argument (my script does not call it it with any args)

Here are the timestamped states of the unforutnate ddns_return_code nvram variable (there is a timestamp dd.mm.yy. hh:mm:ss and I added dot at the end after the response to make ti clear):

23.06.18. 12:15:38 ddns_query.
23.06.18. 12:18:02 .
23.06.18. 12:43:03 .
23.06.18. 12:46:09 ddns_query.
23.06.18. 12:48:02 .

So I am getting: empty response or "ddns_query" instea of 200. The same script works flawleslly on several other Asus routers with older firmware for years. What is wrong here? Why is this 200 dissapearing for no reason?

2. It would not work with any USB modem I have (back USB2 port). I have 2, they work perfectly on all other Asus routers with older fw. Here, they get recognized and work perfectly as long as I do not reboot the router. Then, they do not exist any more.

 

[Pila]

No comment about obvious bugs in the last legacy version? Seems to me this is not a stable version. It looks to me something is overwriting NVRAM where it should not. I do noo how it manage to have value "ddns_query". Overrrun. Hardly the only one.

Since my program is good it ignores such bugs and works as intended. But for others using DDNS that means their DDNS will be updated with the same WAN IP every few minutes when this value gets overrun! That may get them banned on some ddns servers.

Source code told me that when DDNS updates well, Asus puts 200 at the 2 NVRAM variables simultaneously. So we can check either:

nvram get ddns_return_code == 200
nvram get ddns_return_code_chk == 200

In the last 15 hours, the first one got overrun by a buggy fw 171 times on my ac66 B1. As I made some tweaks, I never got ddns_query as a result eny more. Only empty response. Overrrun.

The second variable was good every time. At the same time, my old routers with old fw never messed any of these two.

But, this is not a solution for this bug. If this NVRAM variable gets overrun every few minutes, there may be others.

And, I can not use USB modems at all with this firmware which is also a big bug.

Another small annoying bug: when ac66 boots, 2.4 WLAN is live normally quickly. Fora 5 GHz WLAN, I must wait minutes before it becomes visible.

This is not a stable legacy version bug a buggy one.

 

[Pila]

I just realized: this fw on the first page of Web GUI does not react to the state of the ddns_return_code any more. It shows my ddns is set with ddns_return_code set to empty.

I am mostly ignoring that display since my script handles ddns many times better than what is built into. It just informs the router it is set and ignores the router rest of the life.

What this Internet status box uses to say my custom ddns is set? Please, someone, so I do not have to fish around huge source code.

to test:

nvram show | grep ddns_return

both should show 200 when ddns is set.

then run:

/sbin/ddns_custom_updated 1

to set them both to 200, and then return to the test command. Within minutes, ddns_return_code gets cleared.

 

[bsdsource]

You may have stumbled upon a bug but Merlin is no longer making changes to the 380 code. Have you tried john's firmware?

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/fork-asuswrt-merlin-374-43-lts-releases-v32e4.18914/

 

[Pila]

You may have stumbled upon a bug but Merlin is no longer making changes to the 380 code. Have you tried john's firmware?

I am thinkinbg about John LTE. I do not believe I will be able to politely load such old fw to this new ac66 b1. It would not load Asuswrt-Merlin RT-AC68U_380.59_0 which I tried first.

My preference is for all my routers to have the same fw. Now it is the above and old version which ac68 b1 would not politely load.

Now I am testing if there are any other problems with this fw.

My first choice would be for this to work and to load it to my other routers. But, since this fw refuses to work with any of my USB modems after a router reboot, this is a no go.

My Second choice is to force ac68 b1 to work with older fw which I currently use. This I would like a lot

 

[Pila]

Would this procedure from anoither post enable me to downgrade?

1.* *SCP trxfilename (Mine is: RT-AC68U_384.5_0.trx) to the root directory of the router
2. SSH into the router
3. Issue command mtd-write2 {trxfilename} linux (Mine is: mtd-write2 RT-AC68U_384.5_0.trx linux)
4. Soft reboot

I would like to downgrade Asus RT-AC66U_B1 hw:B2 from the current Asuswrt-Merlin RT-AC68U_380.70 to old version: Asuswrt-Merlin RT-AC68U_380.59

And I know how scary that is and that newer firware is better and more secure. Well, I need it to work not to be newer and better, so I do not care about the previous scare

 

[bsdsource]

I've never installed firmware using the above listed method. How did you attempt to flash the older firmware? I would try using the ASUS restoration tool.

It's not previous scare, it's previously patched exploits. I would look closely at the patch notes from 380.59 (May 2016) to 380.80. There's a lot of security patches you will be missing.