installing linux from a USB pendrive instead of a cd
 

I have recently purchased a IBM X61 and I want to use linux. The X61 is an ultraportable and lacks a optical drive. Is it possible to change my bios so that I can boot from a USB pendrive instead of the Harddrive? Has anyone successfully done this?

You can download damn small linux to a pendrive and boot from it. I dont know if it works with your computer but I guess it should.
/Ragge

and go to the BIOS, make sure your computer can boot from USB as first piority.

If the BIOS allows you to specify a USB device as boot device, you probably can boot off a USB stick, provided that the stick contains a bootable system, like raggerund and uncle_philip pointed. Though I'm not sure how many actual Linux installers (for "regular desktop operating systems") you'll find..

But there's another possibility. Many Linux systems, such as Slackware (most recent version as of now is 12.1), allow you to install the system over network connection. Therefore you could, for example, boot the system off a diskette (set) and tell the installer to fetch the actual files from someplace over the network; I'm not sure if Slackware offers a USB stick installer, but it seems it's handy so you might want to check it out.

There are also usb-connected optical drives available, so if you can't figure anything else out, see if you can get one of those - loan, if you want.

If your BIOS supports USB booting you can boot any OS you want. It involves mounting the .iso, copying the files onto the usb stick, copying the bootloader (i think?) and making the stick bootable. Search for more specific instructions.

Thanks so much
 

You guys are really helpful I'm sure I'll be able to figure it out.