Lewis G Rosenthal wrote:

GenMac works with Rtl 8168.

Are you saying that if you configure GenMAC for an RTL8168 that it effectively drives the 8111C?

I did not "configure" anything.  GenMac did that on it's own.  I am not real surprised at the result.  The Win driver reports as 8168/8111.

AC97 works.

ALC888 is HDA, not AC97. Are you saying that somehow an AC97 driver works for the onboard ALC888 codec?

I was not really concerned with audio and not paying attention at that point during install.  I just selected the first item from force of habit.  I noticed it had AC97 as always.  However, a closer look shows it now also has HDA.  This was RC6.  HDA was the second selection in RC5.

Great news! The Centrino 2 is essentially a Core 2 Duo.

And this machine apparently has the upper end of the family.

Do you have both cores running under ACPI with /SMP /APIC?

I'll get back with you on that.  First, the subject is mostly above my pay grade.  Plus I made a mess and started over.  But I did have SMP and whatever ACPI it suggested.