What do you have available to you? USB, network, floppy? Is there an existing operating system on the laptop?
With Debian you can install from a combination of USB memory stick and network. Have a look at;
http://www.debian.org/releases/stabl...h04s04.html.en
Or a combination of floppy and network
http://www.debian.org/releases/stabl...en#floppy-boot
I believe it can be done entirely from floppy as well, with a little trickery, but I couldn't find any links on that.
I only mention Debian as it's what I know. Look around the forums and install pages of other distribution for their distribution specific instructions.