SGMII with the i210IS Ethernet controller without an external PHY.

[Hideki1]

I'd like to use SGMII with the i210IS Ethernet controller without an external PHY.
Are there any patches or similar solutions available for this purpose?
My goal is to connect I210IS to SGMII switch using SGMII without external PHY.

Situation:
When I attempted to boot the I210IS in SGMII mode and initilized it with the Intel driver, the following error log was generated:

----------
igb: loading out-of-tree module taints kernel.
igb: Intel(R) Gigabit Ethernet Linux Driver - version 5.15.7
igb: Copyright(c) 2007 - 2023 Intel Corporation.
igb 0000:03:00.0: Hardware Initialization Failure
igb: probe of 0000:03:00.0 failed with error -5
----------

Upon investigation, it appears that in SGMII mode, the driver attempts to detect an external PHY using the MDIO interface, resulting in an error due to the absence of an external PHY.

[Diego_INTEL · Accepted solution]

Hello @Hideki1,

Thank you for contacting Intel Embedded Community.

I looked internally and unfortunately SGMII needs external PHY to properly work.

"SGMII interface can't be used to connect a Switch. The SGMII is defined for MAC-PHY connection."

Best regards,

@Diego_INTEL 

[Hideki1]

Hi, Diego_INTEL

Thank you for your answer. I understand.
We apologize for the inconvenience.

Best regards,

[Diego_INTEL]

Hello @Hideki1,

You are welcome anytime.

Best regards,

@Diego_INTEL