Kernel versions of latest routers with Merlin's FW

[Phantomski]

Sorry to be a pain, but doing a bit of a research and upgrade planning and I couldn't find an up to date and concise info about Kernel versions for router models.
Could I please kindly ask you to run uname -a on your router and post the output here, with the router type and Merlin's FW version?
In particular I'm interested in RT-AC86U, RT-AC68U, RT-AX86U, RT-AX86U Pro, RT-AX88U Pro, GT-AX6000, GT-AX11000, GT-AX11000 Pro, GT-AXE11000, GT-AXE16000

Many thanks!

I'll start with mine:

Asus RT-AC88U / Merlin 386.12
Linux RT-AC88U 2.6.36.4brcmarm #1 SMP PREEMPT Mon Sep 4 11:49:03 EDT 2023 armv7l ASUSWRT-Merlin

 

[keef]

Sorry to be a pain, but doing a bit of a research and upgrade planning and I couldn't find an up to date and concise info about Kernel versions for router models.
Could I please kindly ask you to run uname -a on your router and post the output here, with the router type and Merlin's FW version?
In particular I'm interested in RT-AC86U, RT-AC68U, RT-AX86U, RT-AX86U Pro, RT-AX88U Pro, GT-AX6000, GT-AX11000, GT-AX11000 Pro, GT-AXE11000, GT-AXE16000

Many thanks!

I'll start with mine:

Asus RT-AC88U / Merlin 386.12
Linux RT-AC88U 2.6.36.4brcmarm #1 SMP PREEMPT Mon Sep 4 11:49:03 EDT 2023 armv7l ASUSWRT-Merlin

Asus AX88U - Merlin 388.4

Linux RT-AX88U 4.1.51 #2 SMP PREEMPT Mon Aug 21 15:47:42 EDT 2023 aarch64 ASUSWRT-Merlin

Bj

 

[ColinTaylor]

RT-AX86U: 4.1.52 aarch64

RT-AC68U: 2.6.36.4brcmarm armv7l

 

[bennor]

RT-AX86U Pro - Asus-Merlin 3004.388.4:
Linux RT-AX86U_Pro-xxxx 4.19.183 #1 SMP PREEMPT Mon Aug 21 15:34:47 EDT 2023 aarch64 ASUSWRT-Merlin

 

[Crimliar]

The GT-AX6000 here is on version 4.19.183
I'm guessing this is LTS, and I believe there have been previous posts about this and it keeping things simple for Broadcom.
As opposed to the ARM SBC I use that recently updated from 5.15 to 6.1.25

 

[FernandoF]

RT-AC86U - Merlin 386.12
Linux RT-AC86U-xxxx 4.1.27 #2 SMP PREEMPT Mon Sep 4 12:17:28 EDT 2023 aarch64 ASUSWRT-Merlin

 

[RMerlin]

Early AX models are 4.1, newer are 4.19.

 

[TheOldMan]

ASUSWRT-Merlin RT-AX68U 3004.388.4_0-gdc67a14f98 Tue Aug 22 05:24:06 UTC 2023
Linux RT-AX68U-xxxx 4.1.52 #2 SMP PREEMPT Mon Aug 21 23:08:52 MST 2023 aarch64 ASUSWRT-Merlin

 

[Joshuajackson]

What’s this for

 

[ColinTaylor]

What’s this for

Judging by his other recent posts he appears to be (at least in part) trying to determine which routers can support SMBv2 in the cifs.ko module.

 

[Phantomski]

What’s this for

Just a bit of research. I've recently (again) spent some considerable time trying to make things work, only to realise it's an uphill battle due to implementation directly in kernel, which in case of our beloved routers are very old and very static (some backports notwithstanding). I am also planning an upgrade very soon and trying to figure out what would be a better option with some slightly easier future in this regard (yes, I know these AIO routers are not a very long term solution anyway). I have searched and searched but I couldn't find the information - hence the question.

Examples why it can be useful:
- Both GT-AX6000 and RT-AX88U Pro might be nearly identical hardware, but the FW/Kernel combination might introduce some subtle potential limitations
- Both 4.x and 5.x kernels went through some changes and those can be important in terms of which router can support what or which can offer potentially better performance regardless of HW (CIFS SMB3.1.1 / multichannel / mount as root fs / smb swap; bufferbloat mitigations; fast USB support; Wireguard; modern EC cryptography, drivers, ...)
- Some kernels are LTS and some not, which can have implications in terms of backports available and security

While it can be as easy as avoid all routers with 2.x and 3.x as they're all (or soon will be) EOL, or avoid everything that's not arm64 (easier now than before), or basically everything new worth buying is either 4.1 or 4.19, but that's precisely what I was trying to find out, because I didn't know.

 

[Phantomski]

Thanks very much for answers, keep it coming.

 

[glens]

'uname -r' would produce less cumbersome output, but in looking through various firmware files (power went and is still out here ATM) of recent models of any interest to me the kernels in use appear to all be 4.x (for the Broadcom units).

I suspect that Asus gets an evaluation kit from Broadcom for any potential SOC setup and that Asus does minimal work with the basic system thereafter. Also, that if any kernel-type stuff does get updated (big if, because I also surmise that any evaluation kit coming from Broadcom is a "done deal"), it would come from Broadcom and not done by Asus. If so, I don't see any backports coming as the core functionality is a done deal.

To each their own, but I would never concern myself with compliance with anything Microsoft. Been using GNU/Linux exclusively since the 2.0 kernel was spanking new.

 

[Nagy Imre]

4.19.183 #1 SMP PREEMPT Mon Aug 21 15:34:49 EDT 2023 aarch64 ASUSWRT-Merlin

Asus GT-AXE16000

 

[RMerlin]

There's no need to run an extensive survey, I already mentioned which kernel versions were used...

SDK HND 5.02: kernel 4.1
RT-AC86U
RT-AX58U
RT-AX86U
RT-AX88U
GT-AC2900
GT-AX11000
RT-AX68U
GT-AXE11000


SDK HND 5.04: kernel 4.19
ZenWiFi Pro XT12
GT-AX6000
GT-AXE16000
GT-AX11000_PRO
RT-AX86U_PRO
RT-AX88U_PRO

Anything older will be 2.6.36.

The current wave of Wifi 7 models are also based on HND 5.04, and therefore also use kernel 4.19.

All that information is also available on the Github repo, of for some reason one wants to know the exact sub-revision used by each SDK variants.

 

[sfx2000]

I suspect that Asus gets an evaluation kit from Broadcom for any potential SOC setup and that Asus does minimal work with the basic system thereafter. Also, that if any kernel-type stuff does get updated (big if, because I also surmise that any evaluation kit coming from Broadcom is a "done deal"), it would come from Broadcom and not done by Asus. If so, I don't see any backports coming as the core functionality is a don

The chipset vendors obviously provide SDK's for their SoC's...

I would not put Asus efforts as "minimal" as their code supports multiple vendors and generations of SDK's...

Sync up to RMerlin's Github and you can spelunk thru the code and see for yourself

 

[glens]

I've intended to, just ain't got a round tuit.

 

[glens]

What I meant by minimal was in terms of kernel stuff. Entirely supposition.

 

[sfx2000]

I would not put Asus efforts as "minimal" as their code supports multiple vendors and generations of SDK's...

I'd also like to add that while Asus might initially port in the Vendor SDK's, they continue to support it well after the vendor has moved on by porting over changes and backporting security fixes... and here, they've been more proactive than most, esp for sustaining devices well beyond their time in the market.