ASUS TM-AC1900 Dual Band Gigabit Router (Refurbished) Expired

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If you plan to flash it to ASUS stock or Merlin, you should use the CFE that works with ASUS AiMesh firmware. That CFE works with any firmware actually. But it is REQUIRED for a former TM-AC1900 to be used as an AiMesh router.


SNB forum Official Release AiMesh firmware v3-0-0-4-384-10007 for all supported products./ [snbforums.com]

ASUS official AiMesh website: https://www.asus.com/aimesh/

Flashing Guide:
Here is a guide for flashing this router to a full-fledged AC68U as well as clocking the processor to AC68U speeds: http://www.bayareatechpros.com/ac1900-to-ac68u/
Note: The web based CFE Editor ( https://cfeditor.pipeline.sh/) now has an option to create a 1.0.2.0 US Aimesh CFE. So you can use the http://www.bayareatechpros.com/ac1900-to-ac68u/ guide but select the Aimesh version for the Source CFE.

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Note: The steps below are one person's guide to converting the TM-AC1900. I feel it makes it overly complicated. Use it as an alternate method if you wish. However, it does make sense and is easier to flash the 376.3626 firmware at the same time as you install the new CFE using the following steps:

• ./mtd-write -i new_cfe.bin -d boot
• mtd-write2 FW_RT_AC68U_30043763626.trx linux (you'll need to WinSCP the AC68U_30043763626.trx to the router first)

ST1NGY
------------

Here are the steps with exact commands from the ssh session I followed to bring it to the ASUS
376.3626 firmware

1)I first logged into the router website (192.168.29.1) from a PC (where I set the IP statically as 192.168.29.2) to check if the T-mobile firmware on it already allowed me to enable ssh. [DO NOT connect router to the internet, otherwise it may update itself]. Between 2 of my routers, one of it had the option, and the other did not.

2)If you dont have, follow the steps at: https://slickdeals.net/forums/showpost.php?p=83628302&postcount=5445 to do NVRAM reset, get into recovery mode, and downgrade the firmware. Note this recovery mode has worked for me on 3 of such routers bought in the last month. Then I enabled the ssh option and got ready for updating the CFE. If 1) already allowed you to enable ssh, you can skip Step 2 of getting into recovery mode and downgrading firmware. However, do the NVRAM reset, and setting of the mode as AP, in addition to enabling ssh.

3)I inserted the USB stick into the ASUS router (which got mounted as /mnt/sda1), then did the following to get the original_cfe. See the contents of my USB flashdrive.
NOTE : I have blanked out the mac addresses and secret code with dummy values. Don't get confused by them.

rajeshh@(none):/tmp/home/root# cd /mnt/sda1/
rajeshh@(none):/tmp/mnt/sda1# ls
FW_RT_AC68U_30043763626.trx
RT-AC68U_378.55_0.trx mtd-write
RT-AC68U_380.69_0.trx
rajeshh@(none):/tmp/mnt/sda1# nvram get bl_version
2.1.2.2
rajeshh@(none):/tmp/mnt/sda1# rm original_cfe.bin
rajeshh@(none):/tmp/mnt/sda1# cat /dev/mtd0 > original_cfe.bin
rajeshh@(none):/tmp/mnt/sda1# ls -al original_cfe.bin
-rwxrwxrwx 1 rajeshh root 524288 Dec 31 16:06 original_cfe.bin
rajeshh@(none):/tmp/mnt/sda1# grep mac original_cfe.bin
et0macaddr=xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
0:macaddr=xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
1:macaddr=xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
rajeshh@(none):/tmp/mnt/sda1# grep secret original_cfe.bin
secret_code=nnnnnnnn
rajeshh@(none):/tmp/mnt/sda1# cd

4) Remove the USB, connect USB to Windows PC, and copy original_cfe.bin, and new_cfe.bin (the one downloaded from the wiki)
into the folder where cfe.exe is installed. Run cfe.exe and it will update new_cfe.bin with the mac addresses and secret
from the original_cfe.bin. Then put the updated new_cfe.bin back on the USB stick, and connect USB stick back to the router.
Then continue the following steps to apply the CFE, and the 376.3626 firmware from the USB stick.
NOTE: grep command with the original_cfe and new_cfe. Make sure values for new_cfe.bin look exactly the same for original_cfe.bin. Same for secret. If NOT, do not proceed.

rajeshh@(none):/tmp/home/root# cd /mnt/sda1/
rajeshh@(none):/tmp/mnt/sda1# grep mac new_cfe.bin
et0macaddr=xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
0:macaddr=xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
1:macaddr=xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
rajeshh@(none):/tmp/mnt/sda1# grep secret new_cfe.bin
secret_code=nnnnnnnn
rajeshh@(none):/tmp/mnt/sda1# find / -name "mtd-write*"
/sbin/mtd-write2
/tmp/mnt/sda1/mtd-write
rajeshh@(none):/tmp/mnt/sda1# ./mtd-write -i new_cfe.bin -d boot
rajeshh@(none):/tmp/mnt/sda1# mtd-write2 FW_RT_AC68U_30043763626.trx linux
linux: CRC OK
rajeshh@(none):/tmp/mnt/sda1# cd
rajeshh@(none):/tmp/home/root#
rajeshh@(none):/tmp/home/root# exit

5)Turn off power, perform NVRAM reset per 2) above.
6)Reset PC IP to 192.168.1.2. Login to browser at 192.168.1.1, and the new firmware login page should show.

From hereon, you can proceed to install other custom firmware. If you now connect to the Internet, it will auto-detect that there is an updated ASUS firmware, and update to the latest AiMesh firmware, although see my issues doing it on one router (Post # 381)

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