Thoughts on repairs for a Quartz64-B

[beepy]

Hello,
I purchased new a Quartz64-b, and eventually found out that the Ethernet is faulty. ...after the 30 days warranty.
(I'm not a complete newb with SBC, but I got it, then ordered a Uart dongle later on, and that took its time to arrive and 30 days later...)

The errors for reference:
[  163.788898] rk_gmac-dwmac fe010000.ethernet end0: PHY [stmmac-0:01] driver [RTL8211F Gigabit Ethernet] (irq=POLL)
[  164.790182] rk_gmac-dwmac fe010000.ethernet: Failed to reset the dma
[  164.790836] rk_gmac-dwmac fe010000.ethernet end0: stmmac_hw_setup: DMA engine initialization failed
[  164.791683] rk_gmac-dwmac fe010000.ethernet end0: __stmmac_open: Hw setup failed
[  165.410902] rk_gmac-dwmac fe010000.ethernet end0: Register MEM_TYPE_PAGE_POOL RxQ-0
[  165.504999] rk_gmac-dwmac fe010000.ethernet end0: PHY [stmmac-0:01] driver [RTL8211F Gigabit Ethernet] (irq=POLL)
[  166.513886] rk_gmac-dwmac fe010000.ethernet: Failed to reset the dma


So, a cautionary tale maybe? What to do?

Either: 1) wait - it may be a firmware issue. It hasn't been confirmed.
            2) repair it somehow? That seems very difficult.
            3) work around it. Wifi is working and a USB Eth --provided its NOT in the USB3 socket.

So, be careful. The quality control may not be there entirely. I don't know.
When you get it in the mail - test it ASAP, but then again you may not know all the faults with the device before the 30days is up .
Would I buy one again? ....probably not.

[beepy]

Hello,
I purchased new a Quartz64-b, and eventually found out that the Ethernet is faulty. ...after the 30 days warranty.
(I'm not a complete newb with SBC, but I got it, then ordered a Uart dongle later on, and that took its time to arrive and 30 days later...)

The errors for reference:
[  163.788898] rk_gmac-dwmac fe010000.ethernet end0: PHY [stmmac-0:01] driver [RTL8211F Gigabit Ethernet] (irq=POLL)
[  164.790182] rk_gmac-dwmac fe010000.ethernet: Failed to reset the dma
[  164.790836] rk_gmac-dwmac fe010000.ethernet end0: stmmac_hw_setup: DMA engine initialization failed
[  164.791683] rk_gmac-dwmac fe010000.ethernet end0: __stmmac_open: Hw setup failed
[  165.410902] rk_gmac-dwmac fe010000.ethernet end0: Register MEM_TYPE_PAGE_POOL RxQ-0
[  165.504999] rk_gmac-dwmac fe010000.ethernet end0: PHY [stmmac-0:01] driver [RTL8211F Gigabit Ethernet] (irq=POLL)
[  166.513886] rk_gmac-dwmac fe010000.ethernet: Failed to reset the dma


So, a cautionary tale maybe? What to do?

Either: 1) wait - it may be a firmware issue. It hasn't been confirmed.
            2) repair it somehow? That seems very difficult.
            3) work around it. Wifi is working and a USB Eth --provided its NOT in the USB3 socket.

So, be careful. The quality control may not be there entirely. I don't know.
When you get it in the mail - test it ASAP, but then again you may not know all the faults with the device before the 30days is up .
Would I buy one again? ....probably not.


Looking through an unrelated forum: https://forum.pine64.org/archive/index.p...13701.html
The RockPro64 seemed to have the same issue as I am having.
Maybe its specifically the RTL8211F Phy not playing well with the latest kernels - I dont know.