I live in america and cannot seem to find a linux phone. I am willing to purchase one from over seas but i was warned about it not working. so my question is, with a data cable is it possible to flash a linux os onto a phone? I am willing to buy a new phone to experament on. after searching the web (and i went to tuxmobile) I havent found any attempts at this.
So is this possible? If you know of any info that would help please point me into the right direction.

Have a look at openezx.org - it's currently in a very early stage, but maybe you find some hints there.

They are working on a 100% free software stack for Motorala phones.

Lots of Motorola phones use Linux, but they do everything they can to discourage development of Linux apps on it, and encourage you to use the JVM instead.

yeah motorola also makes it hard to get the source and their phones with it arent available in america (to my knowledge).I heard they will only ship it via cd. then after red tape and all you have to get it from customs.After all that the person didnot make it available to the public. I am going to make a request for it and when i do get it I will make sure it gets posted so everyone can start looking at it. I did got to that site and also mobilinux. thank you very much for your help though.

I reinstalled windows(very painful) on my laptop so i could use p2kman and a few other tools to see what all i will be dealing with. It isnt a clear picture but gives me an idea on where to start. I plan on using qtopia. when and if i do get something that will mimic the basic functions i post it.

So not too much progress on this since february, huh? I would die to stick linux on a phone. Does anyone think there is a better avenue than trying to reverse engineer an unwilling motorola?