http://www.dell.com/us/dfb/p/latitude-d430/pd#TechSpec

Hey, I'm thinking of setting up a small subsonic/file server with the laptop listed above. I'm fairly new to Linux but what I was curious about how difficult it is to install a PCMCIA card (to increase the number of USB ports on the machine), and have it recognized/functional under Linux.

Edit : also, would I be able to install Linux onto an sd card and boot off one of these ?

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/SD-SDHC-C...#ht_3090wt_965

I plan to have some distribution of Linux mint, I like having a GUI.

Bump ?

Is the question too specific ? Should I Move it to another forum ?

When you post a second and third post it appears to us as if someone is helping. Don't do that.

About the time PCMCIA cards are popular there was not a good solution to booting directly to a pc card in linux. Windows on some HP and IBM laptops did work but linux just dumped the deal when usb came along. You might be able to get a floppy or usb to boot to data on the pcmcia card but a round about way.

The CF or SD card is easier usually. The main issue in all of this is the goofy way laptops work. In a PC one can get a pci to cf adapter sold as bootable. The laptops do not follow normal ways to connect card readers. They may be on daugher boards or pci to pci bridges. Test it to see if you can get it to work.

Why don't you install the OS to the internal hard drive?

1 members found this post helpful.

Sorry, didnt realise that the thread would appear that way, though in retrospect it does make sense.


The hard drive that came with the laptop was full of bad sectors. It might actually be easier to get a new HDD and use that, like you said CF and SD cards (and their adapters) may cause issues.

So basically, most PCMCIA USB ports from ~2005 wont be functional under linux currently, without severe tinkering ?
If thats the case would it be easier to use laptop dock to increase the number of usable USB ports ?

How would one go about configuring Laptop docks under linux ? Is there any website where I can check compatibility or look up guides or anything ? Doing a general web search didnt really help. The dock that im interested for this model is as follows :

http://www.amazon.com/Dell-PR01X-Rep.../dp/B0011WHFPE

Again, thanks for your time and efforts in helping me out.

Docks might work but I wouldn't spend too much on them. They sometimes attach to the backplane of the laptop or connect via a pci to pci bridge. Many people have used them to fix some issue.

A pcmcia usb adapter can work to add in extra usb ports maybe. It won't work to load the OS to the system or boot the system from pcmcia memory or pcmcia cd drive usually. The whole pc card deal sucks in linux. Very old work was basically dropped in all the newer distro's.

Well, I did get the dock, and it is detected flawlessly on Linux mint 13, I can boot to it from a USB drive attached to the dock, other USB ports work well, as well as Ethernet. I haven't tested the other ports (VGA, phone jack) but seeing as how well the others work, I think they should work.