question

Details
About 5 days ago, the ethernet connection of my VenusGX just stopped working.

It has been 100% fine for months at this point.

From the Remote Console, the state remains as "Unplugged", no matter what I try.

Ok, so what have I tried?

Well:

1. tested the cable with cable tester: looks good
2. plugged my laptop into the cable at the venus end: no issue, connection is good
3. changed ports on the switch side: no luck
4. used a different cable to attempt a direct connection (laptop to venus), so called "link local" - no good. I tried this same cable between laptop and switch: works like a charm
5. rooted the venus, and tried to setup a static ip config for eth0: no luck

I can also mention on the switch side, with venus plugged in, I do get a link LED, but that's about as far as things go it seems.

Some diagnostics while I have the venus rooted:

from "dmesg" output, I can see this troubling log output:

12.355898] cpsw 4a100000.ethernet: initializing cpsw version 1.12 (0)
[   12.416729] cpsw 4a100000.ethernet: phy "/ocp/interconnect@4a000000/segment@0/target-module@100000/ethernet@0/mdio@1000/ethernet-phy@0" not found on slave 0

ip -br link show 
lo               UNKNOWN        00:00:00:00:00:00 <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> 
eth0             DOWN           c8:df:84:ca:cf:08 <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,DYNAMIC,UP> 
can0             UP             <NOARP,UP,LOWER_UP,ECHO> 
can1             UP             <NOARP,UP,LOWER_UP,ECHO> 
wifi0            UP             0c:9a:42:18:84:4a <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,DYNAMIC,UP,LOWER_UP> 
ap0              UP             0e:9a:42:18:84:4a <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> 
ll-eth0@eth0     LOWERLAYERDOWN fa:86:e5:8a:c5:a3 <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> 

The "ip link" info was obtained while laptop was connected directly to venus.

However, it stays this way no matter what.

Just for completeness, from the laptop side:

 ip -br link show 
lo               UNKNOWN        00:00:00:00:00:00 <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> 
eno1             UP             6c:24:08:44:32:88 <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> 

(eno1 is the wired connection, which not very long ago would also have been called eth0. hoorah for progress. I guess. Anyway, it was manually configured with link-local ip4 address etc)

First question:

I assume the ethernet port on the venus has died. Does this assumption ring true?

Second question:

Depending on the answers to question 1, what are my options?

Currently the venus is pottering along on (built in) Wifi connection, but any Venus owner know how...disappointing.. the Venus Wifi capabilities are.

Thanks in advance.