Rock64 ethernet problems

[ushills]

Hi

I have a Rock64 board 4GB version and just cannot get a reliable ethernet connection.

I have flashed the SPI and I am booting from a USB 3.0 HDD (1TB) connected to a powered USB 3 hub.  

The same problem occurs with ayufan linux, Armbian, Nextcloudpi and DietPi; with DietPi being the most stable to date.

While I can get to the login screen and login when connected directly to a keyboard and HDMI, when I connect an ethernet cable or SSH into the machine the whole system slows and becomes unresponsive.

The ethernet lights flash intermittently and often go blank for 20-30 seconds at a time.

I have tried limiting the ethernet connection to 100MB, cutting the blue and brown cables, two different routers and the problem is always the same.

As I intend to use this as a Nextcloud server obviously reliable ethernet is key.  Is this a common problem and how can I fix it before returning the board.

[Rocklobster]

Have you tried to boot from SD.

I'm using Armbian64 image and can call up config by typing sudo armbian-config at a terminal or ssh screen. You should be able to configure and test your Ethernet there just to rule out a faulty Ethernet port

[ushills]

Tried that as well, it boots from both SD and USB until I connect the ethernet cable (has tried several) then both the locally connected keyboard and via ssh results in stuttering terminal.

[Rocklobster]

Have you tried a wireless connection.

[pfeerick]

What power supply are you using? The official one or are you powering it some other way (e.g. own 5v PS on barrel jack or on RPi header, etc)?

Does the HDMI output respond? Does dmesg --follow show anything interesting when you plug in the ethernet? 

Are you able to access the serial terminal (i.e. do you have a serial console cable or 3.3v usb to serial adapter that you can plug in) to find out what the board is doing if the HDMI stops responding also? 

Also, have you tried the 0.6.44 images yet - perhaps it has been resolved there? Take note of the model - there are rock64 and rockpro64 images now. 
https://github.com/ayufan-rock64/linux-build/releases