This laptop is operating under Kernel version 2.4.26-r9

1b. Detailed Hardware Specs:

lspci view:
0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX Host bridge (rev 03)
0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX AGP bridge (rev 03)
0000:00:03.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1420
0000:00:03.1 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1420
0000:00:07.0 Bridge: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ISA (rev 02)
0000:00:07.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE (rev 01)
0000:00:07.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 USB (rev 01)
0000:00:07.3 Bridge: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI (rev 03)
0000:00:08.0 Multimedia audio controller: ESS Technology ES1983S Maestro-3i PCI Audio Accelerator (rev 10)
0000:00:10.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation 3c556 Hurricane CardBus [Cyclone] (rev 10)
0000:00:10.1 Communication controller: 3Com Corporation Mini PCI 56k Winmodem (rev 10)
0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Rage Mobility M3 AGP 2x (rev 02)
0000:06:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)

lspci -n view:
0000:00:00.0 Class 0600: 8086:7190 (rev 03)
0000:00:01.0 Class 0604: 8086:7191 (rev 03)
0000:00:03.0 Class 0607: 104c:ac51
0000:00:03.1 Class 0607: 104c:ac51
0000:00:07.0 Class 0680: 8086:7110 (rev 02)
0000:00:07.1 Class 0101: 8086:7111 (rev 01)
0000:00:07.2 Class 0c03: 8086:7112 (rev 01)
0000:00:07.3 Class 0680: 8086:7113 (rev 03)
0000:00:08.0 Class 0401: 125d:1998 (rev 10)
0000:00:10.0 Class 0200: 10b7:6055 (rev 10)
0000:00:10.1 Class 0780: 10b7:1007 (rev 10)
0000:01:00.0 Class 0300: 1002:4c46 (rev 02)
0000:06:00.0 Class 0280: 14e4:4320 (rev 02)

2a. Basic Installation of Gentoo (pre-reboot)

Introduction - My foray into Linux

    Before we begin the guide, I'll start off with a little about myself. This might help you if this is your first install as it was mine, and if you're ready for this or not. I've been working with computers for the last decade. When I got into it, Widows 95 was just coming out, it looked amazing and my first PC had it. It was a Pentium 100 with 16mb of ram and a whopping 1.2gb harddrive. I have been working with operating systems, programming and pretty much anything that relates to computer since then. My specialty is hardware. If there is a hardware issue or a question about it, I'm all over it. My abilities with Windows-based systems are highly advanced. Up to about a week and a half ago, my abilities with Linux was installing a self-booting GUI. I could do Lyrcoris and Lindows. I found them both lacking, Lindows with it's crippled compiler and Lycoris with it's poor hardware support. Gentoo on the other hand seemed perfect.
    Why leave Windows? Good question. Up till about 2 weeks ago, I saw absolutely no reason. Everyone with Linux just seems to make it into Windows and then complain that they can't find software on it. Seems illogical, leave a completely working system for one that is much more difficult to use and isn't even as good as the one you left. That was not my case. Arguments about Windows costing too much are ruled out due to the simplicity of obtaining a pirated version. No, what caused me to get into this was something called SP2. An update that slipped it's way onto Windows XP, even if you didn't tell it to install and disabled auto updates. Anyone who still thinks they have SP1, take a look at 'My Computer' properties and go to automatic updates. Is it colorful like SP2 made it or is it gray? Either way the second you go to Windows update, it'll change. It won't tell you it's doing it or ask your permission.
    If Microsoft can make a major OS change without consulting you, then the door is wide open for whatever they want. This is not how I want to view my PC and this is the wrong path imho. I have foreseen a day when Linux will be the #1 OS. I think it's fast approaching and I had better learn it before I get left behind. Yeah it will look like Windows but it won't be. When I get an update, it won't do anything bad because the source code is free to everyone. Anyone who disagreed would make their changes. This is the right path. I'm thinking in the near future Microsoft may even be forced down this road. If the #1 OS was open source, they would either follow the trend or go out of business.
    That is why I got into Linux. I'm unhappy with what Windows is becoming - something I have no control over.

Installation - For advanced users:

    I chose Gentoo because it was recommended by some co-workers. It's very configurable which is ideal when working with limited and non-scaleable laptop resources. The installation itself was pretty smooth, download the latest image, boot into the LiveCD and followed the Gentoo Installation Handbook. It didn't hit every step but I read every single line in the guide and only did what I needed to.
    When you're ready to configure make.conf, take a look at this site. It has the correct flags to use for the Pentium 3 in this laptop. It should be better than the default settings.
    I have only a couple suggestions for the pre-reboot setup. First, PCMCIA probably won't work if you use genkernel. Make absolutely certain you follow the guide when they install pcmcia-cs. It's crucial for success. Other than that, follow the handbook.
    Second, since most people don't use the CD-ROM and floppy drive at the same time, use "--no-floppy" as mentioned above when installing Grub. If you don't, Grub's installer searches for a floppy drive. It has a 10-15 minute timeout so this will really help out. Something similar may apply to Lilo, but since I have never tried it, I can't comment.
    I did a stage one install and configured the kernel myself. This took somewhere from 8-10 hours before I could load into a console from the harddrive alone. I highly recommend you learn how to do a stage one install and only recommend you configure your own kernel. You can view my configuration here.

Advanced walkthrough - click here.

2b. Installation of Gentoo (post-reboot)

    Assuming you followed the guide to install correctly, you should have no problem booting up the first time. The easiest place to make a mistake (at leased for me) was fstab. If you get an error about not being able to mount a partition, you probably forgot something or made a typo here. If you did something else wrong, you would have already known about it. The solution for fstab problems is to boot off of the LiveCD and chroot onto your harddrive. Make the corrections and you should be able to boot.
    Once your are in a working console, see if you can ping out to any website. If you can, go ahead and start installing any programs you need. If you cannot, you either used genkernel or forgot to select the '3com vortex' driver in make menuconfig. No biggie, just re-compile. If you start seeing an error stating "unrecognized option: '-03'". This is due to your make.conf file saying "03" as opposed to "O3". That's O as in Oscar three. Not Zero three. That was a fun little screw-up to find today.

2c. KDE Install guide

configure make.conf, example.
emerge xfree
emerge kde (this takes a long time)
configure the X11 file, example.
set KDM to the default login manager
you should now have a gui

Useful Links

This was my first experience with Linux. If it's yours too, you'll find these links very helpful.