Ahhh. Now I might get it. The missing element of what I was doing seems to be an RS232 level shifter. This cable has the FT232R chip like the adapter I tried, but also has the RS232 level shifter. https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/ftdi,-future-technology-devices-international-ltd/USB-RS232-WE-1800-BT_3.3/2441366
I hadn't imagined the console port already having a hole cutout in the case, so I hadn't looked! Sure enough, there's a perfect spot for it.
What RJ45 connector did you use?
I would not recommend that USB-RS232 cable. I'd really just get a pre-made USB Cisco rollover cable, if you already have a USB to RS232 DB9 cable, you can even get just a standard Cisco rollover (from DB9 to RJ45).
Messing around with crimping RJ45, or soldering or anything else is best if you can avoid it.
This is almost certainly the cable I've got.
And the exact RJ45 sockets that I got were
https://au.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Amphenol-Commercial-Products/RJHSEE380?qs=ToP8pWlZ0bPs2YPj%2Fd1ZGg%3D%3D
You might want to confirm on your board however, the front post holes are the ones that tend to change the most from PCB revision to revision..
+1 for that USB to serial cable. Easier and more reliable than chaining rollover cables and USB-to-serial adapters.
Anyone have an opinion on the Hasivo F5800W with 12x 10G SFP+ and a pre-installed console port? Seems better value than the 10Base-T models and probably runs cooler if using mainly DAC cables and only 1 or 2 10Gbase-T SFP+ adapters.
I got Hasivo to make me an updated firmware that improves DAC support. You can find it here in my forum post below.
Anyone know if there is an active project for the following device https://svanheule.net/switches/s1100wp-8gt_se
@svanheule is one of the people adding support for the RTL switches.
Was recently checking on rtl9303 support as I saw some even cheaper options on aliexpress and wanted an 8 port SFP+ 10gb switch for fibre distribution.
The PR looks like it stalled too. Plus at least for me this switch is more expensive than the Onti (which I hope is realtek =P, but there's some other sellers too) I'm looking at on aliexpress. But I guess the unmanaged version is in between.
Perhaps ask in what seems to be the defacto realtek support thread? Support for RTL838x based managed switches
Also check out as per U-Boot for XGS12xx switches (and others based on realtek rtl930x) regarding u boot options? Was mentioned by olliver ages ago? Hasivo switches - #33 by olliver
Which ONTi switch are you looking at? 
I can probably tell you if it's likely to be an RTL9303 based switch or not.
Generally, with that port configuration and price point it's fairly likely though.
I'm on other adventures at the moment. Found an mt7622 target to play with =P
One of the 8 port SFP+ ones with a console port? They all look identical to me =P.
This is awesome. Works on my S1100WP-8XGT-SE (PoE) and S1100W-8XGT-SE (non-PoE). Great find!
Does anyone have an OpenWRT device tree spec for these Hasivo switches that we can use to start testing images with?
I've started one, but ethernet is not yet working. The ports are identified and responsive to cables plugged/unplugged, but no traffic passes and all are stuck negotiating at 100m.
I found one related part in the vendor fw, maybe I overlooked something:
p[0]=c0197ae8,mac_id=0,phyIdx=0,sdsIdx=0,smi=0,phy_addr=0,attr=1,eth=16,
p[8]=c0197afc,mac_id=8,phyIdx=0,sdsIdx=1,smi=0,phy_addr=1,attr=1,eth=16,medi=1,
p[16]=c0197b10,mac_id=16,phyIdx=0,sdsIdx=2,smi=0,phy_addr=2,attr=1,eth=16,medi=1,
p[20]=c0197b24,mac_id=20,phyIdx=0,sdsIdx=3,smi=0,phy_addr=3,attr=1,eth=16,medi=1,
p[24]=c0197b38,mac_id=24,phyIdx=1,sdsIdx=4,smi=3,phy_addr=16,attr=3,eth=16,medi=1,
p[25]=c0197b4c,mac_id=25,phyIdx=1,sdsIdx=5,smi=3,phy_addr=17,attr=3,eth=16,medi=1,
p[26]=c0197b60,mac_id=26,phyIdx=1,sdsIdx=6,smi=3,phy_addr=18,attr=3,eth=16,medi=1,
p[27]=c0197b74,mac_id=27,phyIdx=1,sdsIdx=7,smi=3,phy_addr=19,attr=3,eth=16,medi=1,
p[28]=c0197b88,mac_id=28,phyIdx=255,sdsIdx=255,smi=255,phy_addr=255,attr=8,eth=255,medi=255,
Thanks, good to see it booting. Guess those 10g interfaces are different to what we've seen before on other switches. I'll see if I can order one or an SFP+ equivalent model.
The RTL8264 driver was added for Mediatek targets, wonder if this is what we are missing. https://github.com/openwrt/openwrt/commit/cfe8e6e75fed4d18f234334b96061fbbb7fd0c64
Saw you closed your PR, did it not work out?
I had to recreated it as I failed to make the changes on a new local branch, and I had to make https://github.com/openwrt/openwrt/pull/17140 as well to get the RTL8264 driver built as well. This does allow the RTL8264 PHYs to be detected, but they still aren't passing traffic yet, and lan1 seems to be incorrect. Not sure if its related to https://github.com/openwrt/openwrt/issues/17010
At this point, I think there is still too much missing driver-wise. I can get lan 2-8 up and working with auto-negotiation with a hacked up driver, but it doesn't pass traffic and lan1 is stuck at 5gbit even with nothing plugged in. I'll wait a bit for now and see if the RTL8264 driver state improves.
Looks like we are stuck waiting for one of these budget switch manufacturers to finally ship a decent GPL source code drop which can enable development to proceed?