I've been compiling weekly and testing, and the last working build was from April 19th. The only changes/commits that could have impacted the 2.5G interface are from April 22nd with the last failed build compiled yesterday.
Edit: failed as in resulting in a non-working 2.5G interface.
In addition to the above, the specific change was to 722-net-phy-realtek-support-switching-between-SGMII-and-.patch (original patch that got multi-gig working on the WAX206):
Just flashed and tested, interface is only negotiating a 100/1000Mbps link on 2.5G switch port and is pingable but with no traffic flowing through. It's able to negotiate 1Gbit on 1Gbit switch ports normally with no traffic flow issues.
Maybe changing the initial PHY interface mode to 2500Base-X could help. In this way I can confirm it works well on TL-XDR6086 which also uses RTL8221B connected to MT7531 port 5.
A quick correction to the working link when connected to 1Gbit switch ports report I provided earlier - Although the interface negotiates a 1Gbit link, no traffic actually flows at all ... for both cases. Only way to access the router is through ports 1 to 4.
Ah, now the PHY isn't properly detected any more. Probably an older revision of RTL8226B or RTL8221B which doesn't yet fully support Clause-45 MDIO... Please try this patch:
No go! recompiling again with distclean as mdio-tools was complaining about some mismatch with the installed base.
I also realized I was pinging the router through the wireless network / interface and not through the port which explains why I was not able to access it via the wan port ... so no traffic was passing at all in any of the tests.
I'll update you once I have the outputs you requested.
ethtool wan
Settings for wan:
Supported ports: [ ]
Supported link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
1000baseT/Full
2500baseT/Full
Supported pause frame use: Symmetric Receive-only
Supports auto-negotiation: No
Supported FEC modes: Not reported
Advertised link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
1000baseT/Full
Advertised pause frame use: Symmetric Receive-only
Advertised auto-negotiation: No
Advertised FEC modes: Not reported
Link partner advertised link modes: 100baseT/Full
10000baseT/Full
2500baseT/Full
5000baseT/Full
Link partner advertised pause frame use: No
Link partner advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
Link partner advertised FEC modes: Not reported
Speed: 100Mb/s
Duplex: Full
Port: MII
PHYAD: 7
Transceiver: external
Auto-negotiation: on
Supports Wake-on: d
Wake-on: d
Link detected: yes
mdio mdio-bus
DEV PHY-ID LINK
0x00 0x001cc849 down
0x01 0x00000000 down
0x02 0x00000000 down
0x03 0x00000000 down
0x04 0x00000000 down
0x05 0x00000000 down
0x06 0x00000000 down
0x07 0x001cc849 up
0x08 0x00000000 down
0x09 0x00000000 down
0x0a 0x00000000 down
0x0b 0x00000000 down
0x0c 0x00000000 down
0x0d 0x00000000 down
0x0e 0x00000000 down
0x0f 0x00000000 down
0x10 0x00000000 down
0x11 0x00000000 down
0x12 0x00000000 down
0x13 0x00000000 down
0x14 0x00000000 down
0x15 0x00000000 down
0x16 0x00000000 down
0x17 0x00000000 down
0x18 0x00000000 down
0x19 0x00000000 down
0x1a 0x00000000 down
0x1b 0x00000000 down
0x1c 0x00000000 down
0x1d 0x00000000 down
0x1e 0x00000000 down
0x1f 0x8000ff00 down
sorry, had to update the outputs as the router was connected via lan 4. Corrected output is for WAN.