The wifi device had issues with kernel versions 3.2 and 3.4, which are the only two other versions tested. It could connect, but the connection was lost frequently. This issue is fixed in version 3.9 (it may have been fixed in another version between 3.4 and 3.9, but I did not test those, so I don't know for sure).

For kernel versions from 3.7 to at least 3.9, make sure to build the modules for the webcam and wifi devices. When running make menuconfig, check the following:

Device Drivers --> Multimedia Support -->

• Cameras/video grabbers support

Device Drivers --> Multimedia Support --> Media USB Adapters --> USB Video Class (UVC) -->

• UVC input events device support

Device Drivers --> Network device support --> Wireless LAN --> Atheros Wireless Cards --> Atheros 802.11n wireless cards support -->

• Atheros ath9k PCI/PCIe bus support
• Atheros ath9k AHB bus support
• Atheros ath9k rate control

There was an issue of not being able to shut down. When shutting down, the system would restart itself. Here's a fix I found on a blog (http://www.pbehnke.com/main/node/11):

1. Create an init script in /etc/init.d (Example: create a file named /etc/init.d/haltusbpower)
2. Put the following in the script:

   #! /bin/bash
   #
   # haltusbpower init script
   #
   # chkconfig: 345 99 20
   # description: A script to act as a workaround for the bug in the 
   runtime power management module, which causes my acer aspire v5-571 
   laptop to restart after shutting down.
   #
   ### BEGIN INIT INFO
   # Provides: haltusbpower
   # Default-Stop: 0 1 3 5
   # Short-Description: Halt USB Powersave mode
   # Description: A script to halt usb power control.
   ### END INIT INFO
   
   # Source function library.
   . /etc/init.d/functions
   
   # Bus list for the runtime power management module.
   buslist="usb"
   
   # See how we were called.
   case "$1" in
     start)
       echo "USB bug fix active"
       #no-op on startup
       ;;
     stop)
       echo "Turning off USB Power Control"
       for bus in $buslist; do
           for i in /sys/bus/$bus/devices/*/power/control; do
               echo on > $i
               done
       done
       ;;
     *)
       echo "Usage: /etc/init.d/haltusbpower {start|stop}"
       exit 1
       ;;
   esac
   exit 0

3. Create a symbolic link in /etc/rc0.d to the script you created in the previous step.

   Example:

   ln -s /etc/init.d/haltusbpower 
   /etc/rc0.d/haltusbpower

To fix the issue of not having control over the backlight, add the following to the kernel parameters:

acpi_backlight=vendor

The kernel parameters can be edited in the file /etc/default/grub. Append acpi_backlight=vendor to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT. Then run sudo update-grub.