RPro64s not connecting to home network

[Luke]

[edit] Sorted - long story short, half of the ports on the unmanaged port are dead - nothing to do with the RPro64

I've already spoken to some of the smartest people in the community and, despite their best efforts, they've been unable to crack the problem I'm facing. 
So now I'm throwing it out there to see if anyone has any ideas. The situation is stupidly puzzling:

I cannot connect any of my RPro64s (4 different boards- all of which are good) running ANY OS (tried: Debian Desktop with BSP kernel, Manjaro with mainline 5.6, Armbian with 5.4)  to my home network via Ethernet. 

This started after I accidentally disconnected a board that has been running OMV for many years (ancient installation). When I reapplied power to it it wouldn't connect. At first I thought It was simply a case of the installation breaking and, later, of a faulty board but not it seems to be an issue which affects all my RPro64s - none of them can connect to my router.

Here's what I've tried so far:

• tried different OS with different kernels
  
• tried different boards
  
• reset my router to factory defaults
  
• changing mac address
  
• setting a static IP (it 'connects' - but there are no packets coming in/out and the router doesn't see it)
  
• I checked cables and wiring - other devices (laptops, different SBCs, etc., can connect on the same wires)
  
• connecting over WiFi - works fine connects straight away to the router
  
• USB-Ethernet dongles DO NOT connect - same issue as inbuilt NIC. The USB-Ethernet dongle DOES work on other devices - e.g. laptops & stationary PC
  

I honestly feel at a loss, so if anyone has any suggestion as to what I could / should try ... I'd be really very grateful.

[Baldnerd]

Definitely an odd one. Just to be clear, it's not a DHCP issue?

And, because we all need a laugh right now, and because you don't mention it in the things you tried... Did you power them on? haha!

Is it possible you've had a power surge that got in through the ethernet and zapped each of your connected ethernet ports, and PERHAPS the RockPro64 for one reason or another was most susceptible? Does the corresponding eth LED light up on your router when you plug in and power on the RockPro64's?

This'll take some trial and error.

Robbie

[SpoofyKid]

Apologies for the noob answer, and ignorance towards anything, but does the linux OS need to enable the ethernet port? Maybe with (a less deprecated) command line like "sudo ifconfig eth0 up"?

[Luke]

Definitely an odd one. Just to be clear, it's not a DHCP issue?

And, because we all need a laugh right now, and because you don't mention it in the things you tried... Did you power them on?    haha!

Is it possible you've had a power surge that got in through the ethernet and zapped each of your connected ethernet ports, and PERHAPS the RockPro64 for one reason or another was most susceptible? Does the corresponding eth LED light up on your router when you plug in and power on the RockPro64's?

This'll take some trial and error.

Robbie

Hey mate, could very well be a DHCP issue - but I've restored the router to factory defaults, tried static IP, changed mac addr, etc.,
Only one board was connected at the time - so even if this one is damaged, it doesn't explain why the others wont connect.

[Luke]

Apologies for the noob answer, and ignorance towards anything, but  does the linux OS need to enable the ethernet port? Maybe with (a less deprecated) command line like "sudo ifconfig eth0 up"?

eth0 is enabled

[Der Geist der Maschine]

None of your pine devices work, while all your non-pine devices still work? Some people would probably call you a troll.

* None of your pine devices work? That looks like a router problem.
* All your non-pine devices work? That looks like a pine device problem.

As you have already reset your router, let's debug this problem from the pine side: Collect as much data as possible. Consider comparing it with the data from a non-pine device.

disable wifi (just to make sure you don't confuse routing)
# ifconfig wlan0 down

(-v verbose)
# dhclient -v eth0

(show routing table)
# netstat -r

# ifconfig eth0

# ping <ip of router>

assign static ip address and run previous three commands.


If you collected further data while debugging it earlier, then please post it.

[Luke]

Problem solved, when I tripped the power something happened to the unmanaged switch - ports 2, 3, 4 are dead. All testing I did of this switch happened to be on ports 5,6 and 7 that still function

[Alho]

The first thing that comes to my mind is a flaky PSU.
You don't mention anything about PSU's or if you have tried different ones.

[Baldnerd]

Glad you figured it out. And glad it's the switch and not those beautiful RockPro64's

[Faradn]

Glad you figured it out. And glad it's the switch and not those beautiful RockPro64's  

@Baldnerd, why not invite @Luke to the next Coffee Break?
I think it'd be great.

BTW my RockPro64 is flying with Manjaro 20.04.
Now if there was an Ubuntu 20.04 with mainline [5.7] kernel
with HW vid accel, that'd be great too.

/Faradn