User AndyMS was working with asus. RMerlin may also be.
I've been sending them some code patches (the Sonos fix in build 144 is actually my code for example), but I haven't talked to them about anything related to nvram, sorry.
User AndyMS was working with asus. RMerlin may also be.
This is the latest I have from Adam from Asus, however that was a week ago:
Quote:
Adam_Kwong
Jun 19 (9 days ago)
to me
Hi Andrew,
Sorry for the late reply, I just got to your email. I have been out of office for the past week.
In regards to an update. The 64KB NVRAM firmware is still coming. I did notice that there was a recent update(3.0.0.3.144), which has been pulled. I am not sure the reasoning for pulling the firmware at this time but I know this firmware did not included 64KB or a few other features the team has been working on. I was informed firmware with 64KB of NVRAM should be available by next week.
I also checked with the team recently and DD-WRT work is still in progress. I do not have an exact time frame or update about that at this time.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Best Regards,
Adam K.
Customer Care Specialist J
ASUS Computers International
Joined: 26 Jan 2008 Posts: 13049 Location: Behind The Reset Button
Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2012 12:46 Post subject:
AndyMS wrote:
barryware wrote:
User AndyMS was working with asus. RMerlin may also be.
This is the latest I have from Adam from Asus, however that was a week ago:
Quote:
Adam_Kwong
Jun 19 (9 days ago)
to me
Hi Andrew,
Sorry for the late reply, I just got to your email. I have been out of office for the past week.
In regards to an update. The 64KB NVRAM firmware is still coming. I did notice that there was a recent update(3.0.0.3.144), which has been pulled. I am not sure the reasoning for pulling the firmware at this time but I know this firmware did not included 64KB or a few other features the team has been working on. I was informed firmware with 64KB of NVRAM should be available by next week.
I also checked with the team recently and DD-WRT work is still in progress. I do not have an exact time frame or update about that at this time.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Best Regards,
Adam K.
Customer Care Specialist J
ASUS Computers International
thanks for keeping us informed. Asus posted ~.151 and the asus forums show that flashing their firmware, the router does have 64k nvram. I was going to flash it last night but just never got around to it. No point actually unless I decide to run the stock firmware but for me, that is not an option. _________________ [Moderator Deleted]
I too would not want to use the stock firmware, so am going to wait until the unit is fully usable with dd-wrt. It is reassuring to know that Asus are working to support the dd-wrt builds though, kudos to them
Jan 1 00:00:10 kernel: _nvram_init: allocat header: 2280783872, size= 65536
That's fine, but they've been doing that since the 9.0.0.3.138, which I'm still running. They are increasing the size via the kernel, which does nothing for dd-wrt users.
ASUSWRT RT-N66U_9.0.0.3 Mon May 14 00:33:02 UTC 2012
admin@RT-N66U:/tmp/home/root# dmesg | grep '_nvram_init'
_nvram_init: allocat header: 2280849408, size= 65536
The symbol issue for the ext3 driver is caused by a lack of module dependencies, and is solved by inserting mbcache and jbd before ext3.
The ext2 crash, however, I can fully reproduce and not find a fix for. I have yet to attach to the serial console of my router (an ASUS RT-N66U Dark Knight), but any read/write to an ext2/3/4-formatted filesystem on an attached device - be it internal (microSD) or external (USB) through the stock kernel driver causes an instant panic and a reboot. This is as of both r19342 and r18936. As earlier revisions do not fully support this router, I can't go back further to test.
Once I acquire a proper 3.3V-I/O serial cable, I will grab panic logs - or hope that somebody else has in the interim.
Would help us in solving the ext2/3/4 issues that are happening with this router.
Posted: Sat Jun 30, 2012 22:52 Post subject: The world is running out of June
I'm going to preface this by saying I'm no longer a coder, and haven't been for close to 30 years.
Asus has not officially posted a firmware update on the US release, and with June about to be over all across the world, they will have succeeded in disappointing again.
Even if the firmware is available, they still haven't provided a mechanism for a CFE fix. Some of us have had this router now for almost 6 months, wanting to run it full-bore using DD-WRT, and haven't been able to do so.
Meanwhile, the RT-AC66U is about to ship. I understand that it can take time for things to work, and newer, better, and faster is always coming out. But I also think it would be damn nice for Asus to have had the foresight to deliver a product that could have been working with both channels and enough NVRAM to effectively support the associated settings, REGARDLESS of the firmware.
Sorry for the rant, but for those of us who don't buy routers every few months, this looked to be the one to keep for a few years, and I'm still stuck with it on stock firmware.
The DD-WRT team is great. Asus missed what should have been a fairly obvious issue early in design that other companies had already addressed, when it would have been trivial to resolve. I'm feeling like I need to treat Asus with far more scrutiny the next time I consider buying one of their various products I've purchased in the past.
(...) via the kernel, which does nothing for dd-wrt users.
The kernel source they're using will be released, along with any binary blobs (as part of their firmware) if necessary. How does that do nothing for us? Can we not apply (and update, as necessary) the patches that lead to 64k soft nvram for this device, and be on our merry way?
I realize it's less ideal than a CFE update, but it's still very clearly workable, which is proven by the fact that it's working properly in their firmware.
I have a quick question.
I'm considering buying a router that I want to flash with DD-WRT to use OpenVPN and I hesitate in between the E4200 V1 and the RT-N66U.
The RT-N66U seems to perform better than the E4200 V1, but is that 64/32Kb NVRAM issue a so big problem?
Awaiting a fix, how does it affect the router performance or behaviour?
I have a quick question.
I'm considering buying a router that I want to flash with DD-WRT to use OpenVPN and I hesitate in between the E4200 V1 and the RT-N66U.
The RT-N66U seems to perform better than the E4200 V1, but is that 64/32Kb NVRAM issue a so big problem?
Awaiting a fix, how does it affect the router performance or behaviour?
Thanks by advance!
You will definitely want more than 32K nvram if you intend to use OpenVPN.
Personally I think the RT-N66U is a better router overall. If you aren't in a hurry, I would give Asus a few more weeks to see what they come up with (they reiterated that they do have something in mind to solve the issue for DD-WRT, in addition to their kernel-level fix in their own Asuswrt). However if you are in a hurry, the current 32K nvram will be a serious obstacle to openvpn - unless you install openvpn through Optware, avoiding the reliance on nvram for storing the certificates.
If you aren't in a hurry, I would give Asus a few more weeks to see what they come up with (they reiterated that they do have something in mind to solve the issue for DD-WRT, in addition to their kernel-level fix in their own Asuswrt).
Would you wait to secure the fact that they indeed come up with a (software) fix, or because you suspect the fix could be hardware?
