Sure, it is perfectly possible, it just does not make much sense. You would be going back to 2018 Pi3 days. With CM4 you are better off with using pci-e which has enough bandwidth available for 2-4 gigabit ports at full speed. And if you need more pci-e devices (like wireless) you can add pci-e switch and still the solution will have better throughput than using usb 2.0.The RPi CM4 has USB 2.0, and it's perfectly possible to connect additional Ethernet.
Only with CM5 native 2x usb 3.0 ports is is really starting to make sense to go for this "usb-to-eth phys which feels like a duct-tape solution" as OP called it.
EDIT: or people used pcie-e to usb 3.0 and then usb 3.0 to ethernet with CM4, making it similar to Pi4
https://github.com/geerlingguy/raspberr ... issues/137
https://github.com/geerlingguy/raspberr ... issues/367
all better than LAN7500 over usb 2.0
Statistics: Posted by fanoush — Thu Dec 05, 2024 2:13 pm