New Lappy

I just picked up a new laptop: the Asus Z71V. Overall, this is the most Linux compatible laptop I have ever owned. It replaced the fully awful Acer Ferrari, which was so full of massive Bios problems, and got so hot, that I just gave up on it. I suspect that the XP drivers cheat by scaling back the speed even when you need it, but hey, maybe I just got a lemon.

Anyhow, there is very little advice that I have for Z71V owners, since everything just kind of worked. I suggest adding pci=assign-busses to your grub.conf kernel line, and that is about it. I am cheerfully using my Intel ProWireless 2915 card as well as a Prism54 on Gentoo, and loving it.

p.s. To Intel: I am a security consultant, when I am not hacking on embedded systems, and I would really love to have monitor mode on the IPW. I get people asking me to prove that their wireless is insecure all the time (yeah, no kidding. I love my job), and it would be great top not have to slide a Prism cardbus into my lappy. Props for already allowing Linux drivers, but complete specs would really hit the spot. Oh yeah, and Broadcom? You guys seriously need to change your attitude. Release some damn specs. I just ordered a dozen laptops for clients, and they ALL had intel cards. Broadcom was as cheap or cheaper, but I never considered you because of the lack of Linux drivers. Those systems will probably never run Linux, but you never got a chance because I knew that I would be able to reuse the Intel cards if I needed to.