Thread: is it possible?

I want to "build" a linux laptop computer. Here’s what is as my disposal:
1 dell latitude cpi d233 laptop computer
258MB ram
1 exchangeable hdd drive from the original drive
1 USB port and 2 nic card slots that have a fax card and a wifi card attached to the computer but is removable.

Can I install Linux on the hdd and change the hdd from windows to linux by using a second hdd? The hdd that is in it now is formated in ntfs and runs windows 2000 pro.Second, there is a wifi card there, can I still use the wifi card? If so, how?

The reason is that I want to change the latptop to a versatile type since I managed to get my hands on Unbent server and stand alone. The network is already figured to windows capability, I just want to use the Ubuntu on the desktop computer, shared through the router and into the laptop.Is this possible?
Thank you for your help.

Easy answer is yes, and it seems like you have quite a few ways to do it. Although if you're really wanting to build a "Linux" Laptop then what I would do is do a standard linux install on the main HD and then run Windows in a VM session EasyVMX Will allow you to create VM images, but to answer your question yes the MBR are stored on the drive so Windows won't even know Linux exists if your switching drives. As far as the Wireless card goes it depends. Welcome to Linux. If you can find a stable driver for your selection of Linux then you should be good to go.

I tried running a teaching tool called "Backtrack"
To get this linux running, I had to power off the laptop, remove HDD (the current HDD is 80 GB instead of 40GB Mac because the BIOS does not detect the HDD information), power on and open BIOS to start up on cd drive alone, power down the computer, re-install hdd, power on and wait. The backtrack and unbuntu will come up and there is serveral tools and applications in each. The only thing is that the wireless card that I have (trendnet 802.11g, 5.4 Mbps) card will not initalize or start. I've tried to use the USB port and it will open the memory stick, which has about 5.5GB on information in it. When I insert it into the port, Konsole will open up and tell me there is no information or files there. Is there something that I am missing.

I will tell you this, I am a noob when it comes to Linux, but not a complete noob. Some of the commands that I use on my machine are similiar to the ones that I use at work (logout, reboot, and poweroff). We use an IMB AS 400, which uses command by command line only. It's all open source and staright forward which is different for me. I'm still trying to keep the two, Windows and Linux seperate. They are like oil and water to me

So here's your answer about the Wireless. As far as the thumb drive goes try reformatting it to FAT32. If your Thumb drive is NTFS it will be set as read only, and Linux may not see it correctly. Since its such a small drive FAT32 will work fine on Windows and Linux.