ASUSWRT-Merlin Notes Revision as of Thursday, 28 May 2026 at 13:06 UTC

Installation

  1. Downloaded the original firmware just in
    case    .
    Then logged into router and backed up config in “Administration” →
    “Restore/Save/Upload Setting”.
  2. Got the enhanced firmware via this
    page     (scroll to the bottom).
    Verified MD5.
  3. Updated with new firmware. Rebooted via GUI. All was well.

Enabled manual assignment on “LAN” - “DHCP Server” and added devices and names. This wasn’t working before. Yay.

Dnsmasq

SSHed into router, created these files:

/jffs/configs/dnsmasq.conf.add
/jffs/configs/hosts.dnsmasq

Added this to dnsmasq.conf.add:

addn-hosts=/jffs/configs/hosts.dnsmasq

And whatever else to the hosts file. Restarted the service:

ps | grep dnsmasq
kill -9 <pid>
dnsmasq --log-async

Resources