Firmware update: Asuswrt-Merlin 384.10

Asus uses Tomato-derived firmware called Asuswrt for its newer routers, such as the RT-AC87 and RT-AC5300. This firmware is, with the exception of a few drivers, open source, whereby the closed binaries are included. Asuswrt-merlin, in turn, is a modified version of the original firmware from Asus. It includes bug fixes and minor improvements, but still tries to stay close to the original, so that it remains possible to add new features that Asus introduces to the code.

With Asuswrt-Merlin 384, the team started from scratch with a clean 384 firmware from Asus. It turned out to be too difficult to transfer the changes from version 380 to version 384. At the moment it doesn’t work with all models yet. The complete changelog is up this page Here are the highlights in a nutshell:

The highlight:

• Added OpenSSL 1.1.1b in parallel to 1.0.2. The most relevant services linked against 1.1.1:
  • httpd (the webui)
  • OpenVPN
  • in-a-dyn
  • strongswan
  • netatalk
  • vsftpd
  • net-snmp
  • Tor
  • wget
• The userspace “openssl” tool is called openssl11.
• Merged with GPL 384_5640 (RT-AX88U)
• Updated components: OpenSSL 1.0 (1.0.2r), OpenVPN (2.4.7), curl (7.64.0), Tor (0.3.5.8), Strongswan (5.7.2). dnsmasq (2.80-g6799320)
• Fixed Samba compatibility issue with recent Tuxera NTFS driver.
• Fixed NFSv2 support (and enabled on HND models).
• Enhancements to OpenVPN key/certs storage and management
• Enhancements to Classification page, which should be faster, and offer filtering
• Various other fixes and tweaks