[CentOS] RealTek 8168B (Rev 02) Issue

The 8168B (02) NIC works well except that it does not go into promiscuous mode despite advertising itself in that mode after being so directed with ifconfig. Unfortunately, the little box is destined to be an IDS monitor, so that function is essential. The board is an Intel Atom 330 run as x86_64, the nic is internal.

We tried three drivers: the one in the 2.6.18-128.1.10.el5 kernel yields a high count of dropped packets (known problem), and the drivers from Realtek and El Repo. None solve the promiscuous problem (although they fix the funny dropped counter issue).

Apparently the chip has no MII capability either.

Anyone have any idea as how to make this chip do the promiscuous mode thing other than adding another nic card ?