I recently recieved a laptop for free that someone didnt want (yaaay) However the laptop hangs when loading win 2k. Goal : Get some form of linux on this thing, however the laptop has no cd / dvd drives, no floppy's, and one usb port.

However in bios my only boot options are :

Internal HDD (not loading properly)
Disketter drive (dont have)
CD/DVD ROM drive (dont have)
Modular Bay HDD
None
PCI Slot NIC
DockII / Port II NIC
CardBus NIC

I was hoping for a USB boot option because I know you can get DSL to boot from a usb drive, but the option wasnt there. I'm looking for the cheapest (hopefully free) option to getting linux on this laptop. Any idea's or help would be greatly appreciated.

400 MHZ Pent II
128 MB RAM

Do you have a router or a cross-over ethernet cable? I don't know much about the subject, but it is possible to boot your computer from a network if your bios supports it. How to configure the host computer to interface with your laptop, though, is the question.

I do have a router and the laptop has a network (pcimia) or whatever its called. Would anyone know any helpful links to configuring my normal computer as a host. Also even if that is successful am I going to be able to install a new OS from my host computer to the laptop?

First, does your BIOS support booting from a network card?