[Asterisk-Users] Basic Linux Advice

[Thczv F. Thczv]

I have an old broken laptop that I am attempting to turn into a mostly
solid state Asterisk box, mainly because I am worried about the fans
or hard drive in my other Asterisk box failing (I already lost one
power supply).  The laptop has no screen or hard drive.  But it does
have USB and a bootable CD-ROM drive.  It is a Pentium 233, with 64 MB
of RAM.  I have a PCMCIA ethernet card in it.  I hooked it up to a
separate monitor.  I booted knoppix 3.7 into CLI mode, and everything
seemed to be
working fine, including the network.

A full Asterisk install won't work on this computer, so I need
something light.  I had my eye on Astlinux, but it doesn't include
PCMCIA support, which I need for my ethernet card.  So I think I want
to rebuild Astlinux to include PCMCIA support.

Here is the thing:  I have never done this before.  I don't know a lot
about linux.  So I am asking for your advice: What is the best way for
me to learn how to do this?

I know I could find other solutions (I have considered running linux
on a NSLU2).  But I like the idea of making something out of my
obsolete hardware.  And I like the challenge and opportunity to learn
something new.

Would you smart linux people mind giving me some tips?

Thanks,

Dave