who's are?

I have been running linux on laptops for almost five years now, I have used many linux distro's on many different laptops. A good linux distro should support all your laptop hardware (minus onboard wireless and modem) and install without any real trouble. I have never used any drivers or programs from any of the hardware vendors.

What distro's and live cd's have you tried? Please include version number.

Since I had a copy of Red_Hat 6 I tried that with no luck...

Websites for all of my desktop hardware had a variety of Linux support...
Dell website had NONE... just M$

I found a guy that has a Dell C610 and installed Red_Hat 7.2 and he gave me the info I need to get it to run...

I found a local guy with 7.2 and sent him an Email to get it from him...

I also ordered a copy of 9.0 out of Utah w/ Open Office Included

It is not surprising that I cant get a GUI running without a proper Video Driver...

Since I have your attention, which I appreciate...
How many partitions should I setup for use with Linux...
I already have XP installed using 8 Gigs of a 20 Gig drive...

I don't intend to do much with XP...
It is only on there to help me learn a little about it...
(It came on the notebook)

I dont intend to do any serious work with Linux...
Just trying to learn a little more about both.

I dont mind using a boot floppy to get into Linux but editing the boot manager to allow both without a boot floppy would be nice...

Thanks for your time...

It sounded like you were trying to run a older version of linux on newer hardware. Installing RH6 would be like trying to install windows 95 on that laptop, there would be plenty of driver issues either way.

I would suggest you cruise out to http://www.linux-laptop.net/ and read what other people are running on your hardware and what problems they experienced.

I would split the drive 10gigs each and keep all my data on the xp side and not do anything crazy with it (except try to avoid viruses!) On the linux side most distro's will make suggestions on how to partition it. RedHat 9.0 is probably a great place to start, just try to do what it wants!

I suggest you try some "live" cds like Knoppix, Damn Small Linux, or Auditor. There are many more out there, don't be afraid to give them a shot. Live cd's have X Windows, network support, web browsers, and office suites along with who knows what else. The best part is they boot from CD and you don't have to install anything to use them! It is a really good chance to see how different distro's can be.

Now for my heavilly slanted views on linux!

I am a Slackware freak, I suggest anyone wanting to try linux go get a copy of 9.1 or 10.0 and fire it up!

My current favorite distro is Damn Small Linux it can be cd booted and enjoyed anytime, anywhere.

My next business use distro is going to be Novell Linux Desktop, I will wait for Christmas break for that downtime (alot of accounts and data to move)

Always keep a copy of windows running somewhere on your box because there will be an app someday that won't run under linux and you will need it. I run about 90% linux at work and almost 100% at home.

Give a shout when you need help, there are lots of people who will give advice and suggestions.

Thanks for the info.
In my previous searching I found one of the same reports your laptop link took me to.

I found 4 people with my hardware. 2 running Debian (sp) 1 Redhat 7.2 and one Suse. The one that had the fewest problems, did not need to recompile a new kernal etc.. was 7.2

I did find a link for a modem driver which should be helpful.

Like I said I ordered a copy of 9.0 w/open office and a local guy has a copy of 7.2 that I am trying to acquire...

I will re-partition my drive as 10g and 10g.

Thanks for the help I will let you know how it goes and have plenty of questions as well.

Personally I would recommend that you try fedora, I've recently installed that on a dell laptop and the only thing I had to find externally was the video card driver which was very easy. The only reason I even had to find that was not because the one included didn't work, but I wanted better preformance. You might want to check it out:
http://fedora.redhat.com/

I got the Knoppix ISO burned it and it works great.

My first question would be how do I check and setup a modem to access the internet...

I suppose I need to install a PCMCIA modem other than try and get the Dell Pctel Winmodem to work...

Any suggestions on which type of PCMCIA modem to buy?

I did find an old 28.8 modem that was identified and installed and worked...

Next question is how can I run the live CD version from the hard drive, how can I save my modem info dial up accounts etc...

Knoppix was not meant to be an OS ran from the hard drive, although you can save the configuration to a floppy disk if you want. Personally If knoppix works, then there is no reason that another OS like gentoo or redhat will not work, each distro has it's own utilities for setting up PPP connections. I personally have not seen one for knoppix though, you might want to check freshmeat.net

I know many people running Knoppix off hard drives. Their doc page is down right now but when it is up you can read up on it. Their forum has a dedicated thread to HD installs.

I know it is meant to be a live CD, but why not run it off the HD?