Merlin Firmware - It's just amazing

[TheLyppardMan]

Having just ditched my new RT-AX86U (tied of course to ASUS stock firmware) for a new RT-AX88U running Merlin firmware, I am amazed at how much better the Merlin firmware is. No more system logs being filled with meaningless messages up to 20 times per second; no more seeing the RAM permanently stuck on 97% and most significant of all, no more slashing of my upload speeds by about 80% as soon as I switch on anything to do with Trend Micro. Add to that, all the extra customisations possible with Merlin firmware and the more informative GUI and I have to say that it all amounts to a splendid job, so many thanks to all who have used their incredible expertise to create and keep this project alive, so lesser mortals like me can enjoy the fruits of your labours. It really is appreciated.

 

[dfunked]

Glad that you found a good solution, and Merlin firmware is indeed great, but the issues you were having were only reproducible by you from what I've seen of the many threads you've posted...

It really does sound like you had some extremely bad luck with your AX86U and a replacement or nuclear reset probably would've eradicated these issues.
It's been perfectly stable for me so far. Fingers crossed for Merlin support!

 

[MaziahBebop]

No more system logs being filled with meaningless messages up to 20 times per second; no more seeing the RAM permanently stuck on 97%

Hey mate, loving this Merlin firmware too. Every day something new and interesting to look into. About the logs and ram though... those things can still happen (well my best log count so far is 3 per second for a 5 hour period), mostly when changing settings away from defaults, or adding in AMTM scripts.

 

[TheLyppardMan]

Glad that you found a good solution, and Merlin firmware is indeed great, but the issues you were having were only reproducible by you from what I've seen of the many threads you've posted...

It really does sound like you had some extremely bad luck with your AX86U and a replacement or nuclear reset probably would've eradicated these issues.
It's been perfectly stable for me so far. Fingers crossed for Merlin support!

I did try a full factory reset, but that didn't solve any of the problems and really, I shouldn't have to do that anyway with a brand new router (IMHO).

Regarding the thousands of log entries like this:-

Aug 24 13:45:23 kernel: invalid dirty_p detected: ffffffc000000000 valid=[ffffffc03ce8e740 ffffffc03ce8e880]
Aug 24 13:45:23 kernel: invalid dirty_p detected: ffffffc000000000 valid=[ffffffc03c825840 ffffffc03c825980]
Aug 24 13:45:23 kernel: invalid dirty_p detected: ffffffc000000000 valid=[ffffffc03cae2140 ffffffc03cae2280]
Aug 24 13:45:23 kernel: invalid dirty_p detected: ffffffc000000000 valid=[ffffffc03cb34240 ffffffc03cb34380]

I received the following reply from ASUS:-

"The router system has multiply different accelerated mechenism. One of it is to mark the massive packets which had ever appeared, and then if the router recongnize the marked ones could let them pass more quickly. But the storage space is limited, so when the loading is bigger then ever, the old records would be replaced by the new records and when the router encountered the useless old records would show the messages like this. Basically it would not affect the transmission speed.

So in short, this is when it replaced old data with newly written data to internal memory"

 

[TheLyppardMan]

Hey mate, loving this Merlin firmware too. Every day something new and interesting to look into. About the logs and ram though... those things can still happen (well my best log count so far is 3 per second for a 5 hour period), mostly when changing settings away from defaults, or adding in AMTM scripts.

Yes I know, I have had those sort of problems before when using amtm scripts, but I was advised to try using a faster flash drive, so I purchased a Samsung BAR Plus 32 GB Type-A 200MB/s USB 3.1 Flash Drive and that greatly improved things for me.

 

[thecheapseats]

thanks to all who have used their incredible expertise to create and keep this project alive, so lesser mortals like me can enjoy the fruits of your labours. It really is appreciated.

toys for today's kids...

 

[pcb]

I was gonna start a similar thread until I found mine. I had two pretty serious problems with my ASUS setup (one AC5300, two AC86Us), and my absolute last-ditch effort before tossing them all in the trash was installing Merlin. For each device I did a factory/hard reset first, then installed the Merlin firmware. Then I put them in an AiMesh configuration.

It's been a week and a half, and I haven't had to reboot any routers, and my performance/wi-fi reach is perfectly acceptable. Why is the Merlin firmware so much more reliable? (knock on wood) I mean... Asus should be shipping with Merlin, not the "factory" FW.

 

[juched]

To be honest, Merlin should not have any impact on those issues. The Trend Micro items are closed source, so there can be no changes to it, and the same for system logs, which come from kernel or drivers which are also not changed. I think you just got a different build on a different router and didn't hit those issues.

Glad you are happy with it though. Being able to "add" to my router is aditictive.

 

[pcb]

To be honest, Merlin should not have any impact on those issues. The Trend Micro items are closed source, so there can be no changes to it, and the same for system logs, which come from kernel or drivers which are also not changed. I think you just got a different build on a different router and didn't hit those issues.

More like about a dozen builds, across 4 different devices in the past year alone. (Also have a 68U that I was using as a wifi extender when I was running without AiMesh; with the AiMesh actually working well now I don't need the extender.)

While I understand your argument, I've been fighting these blessed things for the past year- one FW update after another- and this is the first time I've gone more than a week without having to reboot at least one of my routers to fix traffic or other basic functionality issues. I am a convert.

EDIT TO ADD: Wow, I just discovered that my Windows networking issues are resolved now, too! Since I've lived in this home I've never been able to "see" most of my computers and networked devices from other computers via Windows networking. (Love having to re-install printer drivers every time one of my kids has to print something!) But now, I can log into any given Windows 10 PC in the home and all computers see each other now. I had assumed this was all about Microsoft not being good at network stuff, so this was an unexpected bonus.