Hello all! My first post here. Boy am I having problems...

I have an old IBM Thinkpad 750C with these spec's:
256 color screen
33 MHZ 486SX proc
20 MB RAM (4 MB built in, 16 MB upgrade)
1 MB video RAM
215 MB HDD
Floppy Drive
2 PCMCIA slots
NO CR-ROM
NO ETHERNET

Now all I am trying to do is install a good Linux distro on it. I am looking to install something more than lightweight and less that bloated.

I spent all last night watching the polls close and trying to get VectorLinux (older version 1.8) to install with no luck.

My main questions here are two:

1 - what distro would you recommend for this situation? I am trying to find one that has a GCC package, an X server (older is fine) with a lightweight WM, and a nice set of packages. I have tried VectorLinux(1.8) which seemed perfect but I couldn't get to run. I am also trying to run on a true EXT2 FS and not on FAT.

2 - my way to get files to the laptop is via a 128 MB CompactFlash card in a PCMCIA adapter. I can get it running in DOS mode with drivers, but I need a Linux Distro that will allow me to use the CF card as my install medium.

Hope this isn't too much. Last night was quite frustrating. Any help would truly be appreciated. Thanks!

AB (Tom)

P.S. - I guess it should be noted that I am not trying to do a dual boot with Windoze or anything... just a Linux machine.

i am sure you will find what you are looking for, on a side note, as a person with two 486 laptops, installing gcc is a waste of time. Compiling a 350k program takes hours.

Oh I understand that! Up until now I was running Windoze with Bloodshead Dev-C++ and my small apps take quite a while to compile. Lucky for me I have a lot more time than money

bump.. still hoping to find an answer

I have been trying to get an old 750C to work with some type of linux...I recieved an answer but it doesn't help a newbie...when I really don't know what I am doing...but just wanted to know if you ever got linux on your 750C ..if so could you help me out?

Wow, it has been a long time since this thread!
I did finally get linux running on that laptop by using the compact flash card and the flash>PCMCIA adapter. I ended up using Damn Small Linux for the distro.
Hope this info helps.

How did you do it if you would not mind taking the time to tell me??

Well it has been a very long time so bear with me. But I believe I used a compact flash card to USB adapter to load the DSL files to the card. Then I used a PCMCIA to compact flash adapter to get them to the laptop. Then I booted DSL using floppies and installed from the compact flash card, which DSL saw as a physical disk.
If it helps at all, while it was a ton of work, it really wasn't worth it. Only the leanest of lean WM's would run and I spent most of the time at the console. So unless you plan on mainly editing code or surfing the web with lynx this may not be worth the effort.