I almost desisted in looking for solutions as my brand new Xiaomi AX3000T router with OpenWRT could not initialize a simple PPPoE connection as the old, cheap provider router was easily doing.
I am new to OpenWRT and checked configuration possibilities but I had no clue. I thought it was the PPPoE implementation in OpenWRT and almost flashed the router back to stock firmware to try if that works (no, I have not tried to use it with its original firmware before ).
The solution was that I had to downgrade the Port to Fastethernet! It took me so long to spot that. And I had to use ethtool that is not coming with OpenWRT.
So my plea here is that please include that tool in the future releases and it would be so great to have an option to downgrade the port to fastethernet.
I know, you will recommend me to switch the cable but I can tell you that I already went out and could not get a 8m cable and was already considering to buy the pincher just that the shop did not have the headers, so I am using two cables with a union between. And yes, the Gigabit port does not manage that, only the Fastethernet protocol.
So I just want to mention this as a possible solution, here is the error that will be visible in my situation:
That should never be necessary, unless there's something deeply wrong with one of the devices and the link training (there are some devices, particularly modems, that are this broken, but it's rare).
I understand your your sentiment, but this is a rather special needs tool and is not needed for 98% of all users. but image size is a real issue for many. The good news, the imagebuilder can provide the next best thing, generating a bespoke image for your device including additional packages you may want.
8m is not a common cable length, 10m is - I have seen 7.5m cables in the past. But you should really rule out cable issues nevertheless - and for quick testing the cable doesn't need to be neat and may be longer than ideal.
Swap your coupler.
And you can use the custom firmware image builder so ethtool is already included.
Beware there is also ethtool-full.
Both are not included because of their size.
I am with @slh on this, something seems marginal with your cables coupler and/or the router's wan port... typically a fully defect wire in a cable gets auto-detected and the link drops back to 100 Mbps...
AX3000T -> maybe MT7531 switch, maybe AN8855. MT753x has known issues with EEE. These have been worked around for MT7621/MT7530 by marking it "broken" in DT, but not for Filogic/MT7531. These issues mostly surface on 100M connections, you can find probably dozens of reports here in the forum.
So I'd not blame cabling, but - perhaps - EEE instead. And in order to disable EEE (or set 100M-fixed as workaround, like the OP did), ethtool is helpful. Now, if your WAN link is down, you can't install ethtool from packages, right?
IMO, including ethtool (not ethtool-full, though) in !SMALL_FLASH devices isn't a bad idea. It's quite useful to enable/disable specific offload features, too, instead of just turning off SW/HW offload altogether. I'm including it in my personal builds for a long time already. But then again, I'm likely not the typical standard user.
P.S. Where I fully agree is that using a RJ45 coupler isn't a good idea, especially for GBE. But the OP is using 100M, that's fine even with lower quality cabling and/or couplers.
you are right, it is
PHY [mt7530-0:00] driver [MediaTek MT7531 PHY]
What others said:
"A normal user would not need that..." I would not target the average user. When I am modifying my router and put work into this, I am reevaluating after some time: Was it worth it? And the fact that I can manually control the switch interfaces is not a WOW! for using OpenWRT, just an ensurance to make it work and not abandon it when it does not work.
What I am trying to achieve and what the "target user" would be for me is like this:
Since I am using my OpenWRT router and I have full control about it, I simply go to its page in LAN WITHOUT Login and see how much traffic and connections my router is processing. This allows me to spot unusual traffic. For example, I have two cheap TV boxes with MagisTV and one of it is a parasite. It is infected and has huge loads of upload. So an OpenWRT router is a good way to have a first clue to find parasite devices in your home.<<
I am working on this.
About the 8m cable issue to the people that just buy what they want at good prices:
I was already generous because I actually need 7.77 m and was accepting 8m. But 10m is a NoGo. No Way. This will kill my cat, child, hamster or anything roaming the ground and entagle its head. We cannot risk such a bad thing. hehehehehe. Hey, I am in a country where you have 5 vendors in a PC shop and none of them knows how to crimp a patch cable, and they never have what you look for but sell everything at a 50 % premium price. I do not have much luxury and I am simply happy when things work. I think most of the world is like this.
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