I managed to boot into DietPi with the test image, dmesg as related to ethernet as follows:
dietpi@DietPi:/sys$ dmesg |grep mac
[ 3.770454] dwmac-sun8i 5020000.ethernet: IRQ eth_wake_irq not found
[ 3.776867] dwmac-sun8i 5020000.ethernet: IRQ eth_lpi not found
[ 3.782897] dwmac-sun8i 5020000.ethernet: No regulator found
[ 3.788704] dwmac-sun8i 5020000.ethernet: PTP uses main clock
[ 3.794583] dwmac-sun8i 5020000.ethernet: Current syscon value is not the default 58000 (expect 0)
[ 3.803983] dwmac-sun8i 5020000.ethernet: No HW DMA feature register supported
[ 3.811308] dwmac-sun8i 5020000.ethernet: RX Checksum Offload Engine supported
[ 3.818611] dwmac-sun8i 5020000.ethernet: COE Type 2
[ 3.823606] dwmac-sun8i 5020000.ethernet: TX Checksum insertion supported
[ 3.830405] dwmac-sun8i 5020000.ethernet: Normal descriptors
[ 3.836065] dwmac-sun8i 5020000.ethernet: Chain mode enabled
[ 9.200172] dwmac-sun8i 5020000.ethernet eth0: Register MEM_TYPE_PAGE_POOL RxQ-0
[ 9.202610] dwmac-sun8i 5020000.ethernet eth0: PHY [stmmac-0:01] driver [YT8531 Gigabit Ethernet] (irq=POLL)
[ 9.202976] dwmac-sun8i 5020000.ethernet eth0: No Safety Features support found
[ 9.202988] dwmac-sun8i 5020000.ethernet eth0: No MAC Management Counters available
[ 9.202998] dwmac-sun8i 5020000.ethernet eth0: PTP not supported by HW
[ 9.203346] dwmac-sun8i 5020000.ethernet eth0: configuring for phy/rgmii link mode
[ 20.453910] dwmac-sun8i 5020000.ethernet eth0: Link is Up - 100Mbps/Full - flow control rx/tx
the link is setup up successfully with no apparent issues at 100 Mbps this time (after the cable change)
it is up 2 hours without a link down event so far
Strangely, I’ve forgotten where I set up the link to 100 Mbps, but that it started up at 100 Mbps instead of 1 Gbps as is default.
it is up 8 hours in DietPi without ethernet freezing out and completely dropping ethernet, it kind of confirms that my case is simply a cable defect. But that I’d leave it for the night and check again tomorrow. It is still on 100 Mbps though, but for now I’d leave it than try to figure out about it not connecting as 1 Gbps, before I changed the cable i’ve successfully done 1 Gbps.
Just’d like to say that i’m quite happy with the performance even currently, I’ve managed a 5ghz 802.11ac AP on the uwe5622 wifi and 100 mbps across the ethernet. speed tests shows that the combined throughput is more than 80 mbps as a WiFI hotspot. And it is with the DietPi test images.
it looks pretty good literally.
update, after an ethernet cable change (new cable), the (Orange Pi Zero 3) board is up exeeding 20 hours on Diet Pi test image as a Wi-Fi hotspot. I managed 5ghz 802.11ac on the uwe5622 Wi-Fi and 100 Mbps on the YT8531 Ethernet phy.
dietpi@DietPi:~$ uptime
11:05:10 up 20:47, 1 user, load average: 1.00, 1.00, 1.00
The above confirms that my ethernet woes are simply due to ethernet cable defect and not onboard hardware nor software.
I’ve previously manually set the Ethernet to run at 100 Mbps via ethtool -s eth0 speed 100 ,
but that it is unknown why it sticks to 100 Mbps. But for now I don’t think this is a defect, e.g. it could be due to my up stream hub etc. Hope that others who managed to run it (Ethernet) at 1 Gbps feedback on the same.
Orange Pi Zero 3 is up for the 2nd day running as a Wifi hotspot (on YT8531 ethernent at 100 Mbps and UWE5622 Wifi 5ghz 802.11ac) with the DietPi test image without ethernet completely freezing out and down.
DietPi wifi hotspot up for 3rd or 4th day running without ethernet freezing out and dropped. This is on the test images, everything else same as previous. That said, I’d need to mention that I’ve not tested many other stuff e.g. video (hdmi) and usb (e.g. keyboard), others should test it and feedback if they use them.