ASUS RT-N66U Silently failing to upgrade DDWRT versions

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changeling
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Joined: 11 Jan 2022
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 12, 2022 14:33    Post subject: ASUS RT-N66U Silently failing to upgrade DDWRT versions Reply with quote
Hi all!

I have an old N66U that I am trying to get running DD-WRT as a part of a home networking project.

I understand that this router is fairly well supported by DD-WRT, and overall the installation has gone smoothly. (or as smoothly as a first time router firmware replacement can go, haha.) I am just having one problem that I can't find any documentation on.

This router has followed the following route of firmware upgrades:

1. Pulled out of my basement with 380.x on it. Not sure what the exact version was. It was incredibly buggy, so I had to get off of it.

2. Installed the Merlin WRT 374.43_52E7j9527 LTS build using the CFE/recovery mode method.

3. Installed dd-wrt v24 21676 NEWD 2 K3.x mega RT-N66U trx file from the Merlin WebGUI.

4. Attempted to install the dd-wrt v24 46979 NEWD 2 K3.x big RT-N66U trk from the DD-WRT WebGUI.

For this step, the firmware loaded, router reported a successful upgrade, the router rebooted, etc, but when I logged back into the webGUI, the firmware in the top right corner still reported the older DD-WRT installed in step 3.

Between each step I cleaned NVRAM, did some basic config, tested to confirm it wasn't hopelessly broken, cleared NVRAM again, then uploaded the next firmware as described above.

I used the listed versions because I found multiple forum posts for each describing them as working properly on this model. So far all but the last upgrade have gone smoothly.

I am mostly looking to upgrade to this new release for any security gains, for any extra features, and to bring the system as up to date as I reasonably can. If staying at the current DD-WRT version doesn't present any huge issues, that's a solution for me. Same with going back to MerlinWRT.

This router will be used to establish a DMZ for a little self-hosted website on an old Pi I have kicking around, so it doesn't need to do anything particularly fancy.


I am confused if I am simply missing something, or if I am doing it wrong. I have looked all over these forums and search engines for a similar issue, but it doesn't seem to come up. Any ideas? I would be happy to read any further documentation people can share. I've gone over all the major articles related to installing and updating DD-WRT that I could find, mostly from the Wiki and Peacock thread and this forum's search function.

Please and thank you, and have a nice day. Smile
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egc
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 12, 2022 15:23    Post subject: Reply with quote
Have you found the wiki:

https://wiki.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Asus_RT-N66U

To get the best out of DDWRT and the forum read the forum guidelines full of helpful pointers:
https://forum.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=324087

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Routers:Netgear R7000, R6400v1, R6400v2, EA6900 (XvortexCFE), E2000, E1200v1, WRT54GS v1.
Install guide R6400v2, R6700v3,XR300:https://forum.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=316399
Install guide R7800/XR500: https://forum.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=320614
Forum Guide Lines (important read):https://forum.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=324087
kernel-panic69
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Posts: 14125
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 12, 2022 15:44    Post subject: Reply with quote
Firefox/FF ESR Portable in private browsing mode; Asus mini CFE webserver (recovery mode); Asus firmware restoration utility. There have been noted issues upgrading from 21676 I seem to recall; you may want to also look into upgrading via CLI (see installation wiki in sig). Big thing of importance is the CFE version installed on your RT-N66U as to what firmware images you can flash. It's all discussed in the wiki.
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changeling
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 11 Jan 2022
Posts: 5

PostPosted: Wed Jan 12, 2022 15:56    Post subject: Reply with quote
kernel-panic69 wrote:
Firefox/FF ESR Portable in private browsing mode; Asus mini CFE webserver (recovery mode); Asus firmware restoration utility. There have been noted issues upgrading from 21676 I seem to recall; you may want to also look into upgrading via CLI (see installation wiki in sig). Big thing of importance is the CFE version installed on your RT-N66U as to what firmware images you can flash. It's all discussed in the wiki.


I'll try again with FF ESR portable, I was using IE based on guidance I read somewhere in the documentation for that build. (or something... the last couple days of perusing the documentation here is a blur)

CFE is version 1.0.1.9, (when I checked under MerlinWRT), which the last build I'm trying to move to should work with. DD-WRT shows that 64 KB of NVRAM are available in total, so I think the main issue of compatibility there is already solved.

If FF ESR doesn't work I'll try to command line update. I will see if I can find any other people's reports about updating from this hard-to-upgrade build and see if they have any specific wisdom.

I'll report back here if I find anything interesting and when I've tried something else. Thank you both for your replies.
kernel-panic69
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 12, 2022 16:34    Post subject: Reply with quote
@lazardo reported successful flash with the mega build.

Not exactly sure why you are zeroing in on that specific build but for image size comparison to current release:
Code:

dd-wrt.v24-46979_NEWD-2_K3.x-big-RT-N66U.trx       21-Jun-2021 05:14            25624576
dd-wrt.v24-48081_NEWD-2_K3.x-big-RT-N66U.trx       11-Jan-2022 06:40            25493504


I don't *think* the N66U has a hard-coded firmware image size limit, though. You will find out for sure if you flash via CLI if it reports that the image is too big.

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changeling
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Joined: 11 Jan 2022
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 12, 2022 20:41    Post subject: Reply with quote
Alright, so I got it to upgrade to 46979. I simply downloaded, set up, and launched the Firefox ESR browser.

I am going to be up front and say that I *may* have previously upgraded from 21676 to 21676 by uploading the same build twice, but I am not sure. When I went to upload the firmware just now I noticed that the files were in the opposite order that I had thought they were in, so it's possible I uploaded the wrong version last time and did in fact successfully upgrade from 21676 to 21676. I am sorry for the waste of time if that's the case.

Anyways for sake of discussion -



Quote:
Not exactly sure why you are zeroing in on that specific build but for image size comparison to current release:


Simply that to choose my "goal" version I found the most recent build thread where the N66U was mentioned as working fine for a given build #. Here: https://forum.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=329395&highlight=n66u

So I figured I'd go to that and see if anything is broken that that user isn't using. If there's a better methodology for choosing a build I would enjoy learning about it. I figured it was either what I did or try the latest and work backwards.
kernel-panic69
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 12, 2022 20:50    Post subject: Reply with quote
No, you actually did it right, looking for a report specific to your device, it's just that there are several builds since then that have updates and (possibly) fixes for what may be broken in that build. The thing is, if you run into issues, you will be told to upgrade to the current release and do a hard reset and reconfigure from scratch to see if the issue still persists before the developer(s) will take action most of the time.
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changeling
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Joined: 11 Jan 2022
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 12, 2022 23:01    Post subject: Reply with quote
Yeah, that was my plan if anything was broken. I figured it was better to jump from "entry" build to known good release before going to latest. Keeps the jump a little smaller and avoids the "nope, upgrade went fine, latest just happens to be completely broken on this device" headache. I am going to test any functionality I need before putting it onto the WAN and upgrade if any of that seems to be not right.
kernel-panic69
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Posts: 14125
Location: Texas, USA

PostPosted: Thu Jan 13, 2022 3:37    Post subject: Reply with quote
@Veritech reported success on 48081 on the RT-N66R, which is essentially the same router.
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