I have gotten the R7000_380.69_2 XWRT/Merlin firmware for R7000 working on the R6400v2.
So far, it's working fine and everything seems stable - including 5GHz and overall Wifi. I didn't need to make any changes to the firmware to get it to work. This is likely because from looking at both R6400v2 and R7000 specs, the 6400v2 seems like a refreshed R7000 with adjacent chips in their respective families - Think iPhone 5C vs. the iPhone 5.
How I got it working:
WARNING: PLEASE DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK - JUST BECAUSE IT WORKED FOR ME DOES NOT MEAN SOMETHING CANNOT GO WRONG FOR YOU.
- Installed Tathagata's DD-WRT build
- Downloaded the XWRT-Vortex AsusWRT-Merlin firmware R7000_380.69_2 from their official site
- Used the .chk file to prep the router from DD-WRT's firmware upgrade option
- Used the .trx file to upgrade to Merlin, again using DD-WRT's firmware upgrade option
- Once the router booted, went through the basic setup wizard
- Factory reset the router thrice using AsusWRT Merlin's web UI
- Configured the router as per requirements
Notes:
- The router may reboot multiple times before the web UI is accessible
- The boot speed *seems* a little slower compared to what I had on DD-WRT, but this may just be placebo
- Overall network performance is on par with stock/DD-WRT
Also, considering this worked out better than expected (so far), it may be possible to switch to the AdvancedTomato build for R7000 using DD-WRT as well. If someone tries this (again only at their own risk), please post about how this works out for you.
Best,
Prakhar
Wow prakhar. This is fantastic news! I just get two new r6400v2 and I wanted to get put asuswrt on them. Better if using vortex version. I will try this weekend to experiment and will come back here with news. Thanks again for sharing.
Thanks for reporting and trying this. If this is stable the combination is gold: cheap router with awesome firmware.
Please report back after a few days about stablitity. Thanks!
Good news, guys! I have this v2 hardware as well- looking forward to the reported results. I put the latest non v2 DD-WRT on my system a couple of months ago, and it worked... however, the wireless performance was horrible, especially at 5GhZ. Had to flash back to stock as a result, so hopefully this Merlin hack is stable.
I tried this. Each time I try to do the DD-WRT firmware from the stock firmware, i get a message saying that the firmware is incompatible. I'm using the latest stock firmware for the r6400r2, which is V1.0.2.52_1.0.39. I've tried both the R7000, as well as the old r6300 firmares with the same result. With previous Netgear firmware, I was able to upgrade to 3rd party firmware no problem.
Is there a new step involved now, or did Netgear block the ability to install 3rd party firmware in the last stock update or two?
Can you please provide me what is the board id of R6400v2? I recover my router from death but mac and s/n are a mess.
nvram get board_id
For some reason nvram show / get aren't pulling the board_id in my case. Not sure the exact reason. But I did find this on another forum, maybe it'll help:
# nvram show |grep board
boardrev=0x1601
pci/2/1/boardflags=0x30000000
boardtype=0x0646
pci/1/1/boardflags=0x80001a00
pci/1/1/boardvendor=0x14e4
boardflags2=0x0
board_id=U12H332T20_NETGEAR
size: 36946 bytes (94126 left)
pci/1/1/boardflags2=0x00108000
boardflags=0x110
pci/2/1/boardvendor=0x14e4
pci/2/1/boardflags2=0x300002
pci/2/1/boardflags3=0x0
boardnum=32
Google it once to be sure.
Thanks for this. I was able to flash with this about an hour ago. It definitely did quite a few reboots both on its own and forced, but eventually it seems stable.
Just a quick update. It is stable as long as I do not log-in to the router panel. Logging in seems to restart and reset the router, clearing all settings.
Also, any tips to roll it back to Tathagata's DD-WRT? When I try and load that firmware, it does not take it.
As I said before, settings do not survive reboots...
Only way to go back to stock or Tathagata's DD-WRT is using serial port connection. I learned in the hard way. Now I have done it lot of times. I will do a kind of tutorial for "serial recovery procedure on R6400v2" on next days.
For me the settings do survive (including when I login to the Admin UI). I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that I changed the admin username - in retrospect, my settings didn't stick until I set my username to 'prak'.
nikedude, you may want to try this - reset the router once more and when it asks you to setup login details, change the username from 'admin' to something else (if you've not tried that already). See if that helps? Maybe it writes settings properly only when the user management area of memory is written including the user name.
Sounds strange, but let us know if you try this and it works.
Thanks yecarrillo, looking forward to it.
What are you gaining from the Merlin build over Tathagata's build? I have two 6400v2 routers setup for VPN use with the Tathagata firmware for several months and it has been stable. Doubt I would try this unless there is a substantial benefit. Thanks in advance.
How did you get r6400v2 back to stock from dd-wrt? I've been trying (dd wrt interface and tftp) and have had no luck.
The only reason I would want to use this is Ab-Solution. Can anyone confirm this works?
With xvortex everything works until reboot or power down! Once rebooted everything start again , so nothing works.
Check my previous response (https://www.myopenrouter.com/comment/42323#comment-42323). See if that helps.
hello,I have flash R7000_380.69_2 XWRT/Merlin,How to back to dd-wrt
I am really not sure what goes on in the mind of Netgear. The 6400v2, 7000 and 6700v3 seems to be almost identical. In fact, the 6400v2 and the 6700v3 have the same FCC ID. Oooops ! ;) I picked up a 6400v2 myself lately and use Kong's DDWRT...
Hello. boot loop problem in r6400v2 similar case.Nokia ca-42 cable available. which pins on the router rx-tx-gnd please help me?
hello. when will you do the guide? similarly i returned to r7000 from xwrt. now the router does bootloop. I will be glad if you help. Thank you.