Hello,

 

I received a few weeks ago some new Lime2 boards. Using compiled Armbian kernel leads to a network problem: no IP is set and network does not work

 

I have messages when connecting Ethernet cable:

sun7i-dwmac 1c50000.ethernet eth0: Link is Up - 100Mbps/Full - flow control rx/tx
Link is Up - 100/Full

The ip a command gives:

2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 02:02:02:cc:cc:cc brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet6 fefe::fe:xxx:xxx:9307/64 scope link
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

I think the problem is related to the new revision of the board as described here : Ethernet PHY is changed to RTL8211E replacing the obsolete RTL8211CL no need for kernel patches

 

But searching through the kernel options did not give me any clue, and nothing works.

 

What is to be done to make network up again ? Is there something to reconfigure on an existing armbian installation ?

 

Are there some files to modify ?

 

Hi again,

 

I think I have found what is not working, but I do not manage to achieve it : I need to re-compile u-boot

 

According to this message I need to disable CONFIG_RTL8211X_PHY_FORCE_MASTER which is enabled in current u-boot configuration for A20 Lime2 eMMC

 

This gives me the following patch:

diff --git a/configs/A20-OLinuXino-Lime2_defconfig b/configs/A20-OLinuXino-Lime2_defconfig
index 8fd7c64..96d9d0e 100644
--- a/configs/A20-OLinuXino-Lime2_defconfig
+++ b/configs/A20-OLinuXino-Lime2_defconfig
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ CONFIG_CMD_DFU=y
 CONFIG_CMD_USB_MASS_STORAGE=y
 # CONFIG_CMD_FPGA is not set
 CONFIG_DFU_RAM=y
-CONFIG_RTL8211X_PHY_FORCE_MASTER=y
+CONFIG_RTL8211X_PHY_FORCE_MASTER=n
 CONFIG_ETH_DESIGNWARE=y
 CONFIG_AXP_ALDO3_VOLT=2800
 CONFIG_AXP_ALDO4_VOLT=2800

My problem is that it does not seem to be taken into account by u-boot compilation process

 

So the network does not work after boot sector update with freshly compiled u-boot.

 

After compilation I should get a file in /usr/lib/u-boot/A20-OLinuXino-Lime2-eMMC_defconfig that contains the following line:

CONFIG_RTL8211X_PHY_FORCE_MASTER=n

But all I get is :

CONFIG_RTL8211X_PHY_FORCE_MASTER=y

I noticed that a file configs/A20-OLinuXino-Lime2-eMMC_defconfig was created besides A20-OLinuXino-Lime2_defconfig

 

I created a second patch for this file, without success.

 

So what is the process to make modification (or patch) for this specific file which seems to be created during compilation process ?

 

I managed to compile without RTL8211X_PHY_FORCE_MASTER enabled by:

• removing the add-lime2-emmc.patch

sudo mv lib/patch/u-boot/u-boot-sunxi/add-lime2-emmc.patch lib/patch/u-boot/u-boot-sunxi/add-lime2-emmc.patch.disabled

• editing the existing (or creating) configs/A20-OLinuXino-Lime2-eMMC_defconfig file and setting CONFIG_RTL8211X_PHY_FORCE_MASTER=n
• running compile.sh with FORCE_CHECKOUT=no

But, I still do not have network. So now I wonder where to search

SOLVED

 

The problem did not come from software nor installation: it is a hardware related problem

 

I tested on another board of the same revision: everything works, network, IP, etc

 

I made my tests with several Armbian builds on different SD/eMMC

 

Sorry for the inconvenience

The problem did not come from software nor installation: it is a hardware related problem

 

Oh no, not RTL8211E PHY problems again. Did you had a look into this https://github.com/longsleep/linux-pine64/commit/ffe3ca5be7682bbeb0fdadede29acd4a3c888015('fixing' RTL8211E issues on Pine64+ -- would also be interesting if Ethernet works on this board if you force it into Fast Ethernet mode using ethtool)

Hi,

 

Thanks for this answer. Do I need to apply the patch before trying ethtool ?

 

And what are the parameters for "Fast" ethernet   mode ?