I am now using an IBM ThinkPad A31p, with a partitioned hdd, with XP
professional 'up front' on 20 GB, and  40GB saved for Linux.

Mandrake 9.0  cannot handle the display which is 1600x1200 32bit ATI
Mobility FireGL 7800, nor the Agere Systems AC'97 Modem. 

What about Mandrake 9.1 or a different distro  (SuSE? Debian?] ?    I
don't really want to spend money on those that don't work.

I also tried RedHat 8.00., but the dual boot didn't work, then XP
changed the boot record so that instead a dual boot menu, the system
goes directly into XP again!.

Thanks in advance

Sheetal