RT-AC66U B1 web UI freezing after update to 386.3_2 but found a solution

[greencfg]

Hello all,

Maybe this helps others who have this problem and also may be of use for the firmware developer.

When upgrading my RT-AC66U B1 to merlin 386.3_2, after reboot the Web user interface did not work. In some instances you could login, but after a while the pages would not load (timeout), other times not even the login worked. The router itself did its job of connecting my network to the internet though.

A hardware reset (with the WPS button) solved the problem, but of course I lost all the router settings. I reapplied a previous setting file from the same router but older firmware (384 I believe, although those settings were restored again and again since a lot older versions). The problem showed up again obviously, however I could connect to the router via ssh. I found out that the nt_center process used a lot of cpu. Found this thread about nt_center.db, deleted the file and everything started to work. Before deleting it, my nt_center.db was about 4 MB large. After reboot, a new one of 16 KB was created by the service.

So maybe this helps someone in a similar situation -- I know that after a fw update we should factory reset the router, but maybe there are others like me, who want to avoid reentering all the settings and then hope it works .

Incidentally, the many restorations of the same settings on various fw versions, also made the problem described in this other thread occur. On my router the name of the root account is changed, and it seems at some step the order of the SMB accounts in the SMB configuration was altered and it strangely interfered with the System settings tab in Administration. The solution described in post #9 there worked flawlessly, so maybe it could also help others.

Hope this helps.

 

[Tech9]

Hope this helps.

Reading the first 386 firmware update changelog helps too.

 

[greencfg]

Seeing that the first 386 fw changelog is from 30-Jan-2021, and as I said, I have updated directly to 386.3_2, no, it doesn't really. I actually read through the long changelog for all those previous versions, but somehow I missed that text, long way, 450 lines, down the file. I am probably not alone, so this is why I still think this may help someone.

And seriously, I waited much longer than 5 minutes so I don't think that db was ever updated properly on my router, maybe something else was happening there. Edit: I don't know if it was an hour, but as the internet worked, I googled a lot to find answers before restarting/reflashing.

 

[ColinTaylor]

And seriously, I waited much longer than 5 minutes so I don't think that db was ever updated properly on my router, maybe something else was happening there.

There are numerous posts in this forum reporting this behaviour when first installing 386. In many cases people had to leave their routers updating overnight, hours rather than minutes.

 

[greencfg]

Sorry, but what's your point? I didn't find any of those posts, otherwise I wouldn't have created, today, an account here specifically to help others in my situation. For both the problems I mentioned. I really don't understand the hostility, I just wanted to help, someone may find my post useful. That's all.

 

[ColinTaylor]

My point was only in reference to you saying you waited "much longer than 5 minutes". I was merely pointing out that even though the release notes say to wait "from 5 minutes up to an hour" there are numerous reports in these forums from people that had to wait much longer than that. That's all.