USB-Serial adapter

[Bill_Hancoc]

Before you tell me to search first and there are tons of other threads about this lemme explain...I dont need to go from my USB port to a serial device i want to go the other way my serial port to usb(i dont know if this is even possible). I have and old IBM ThinkPad 760EL and would like to attach a USB hub to it to eventully get a new hard drive or dvd drive.

My ultimate goal is to install linux on the 760EL but the lack of USB doesnt let me add USB prepherials. Since the BIOS doesnt support booting from a CD drive, I have to use a floppy to boot. I bought the book Linux for dummies and it came with instructions on how to boot from to floppy but all the info is on a DVD and the CDs can be ordered for $11 shipping. i would like to update the BIOS to one that supports booting from a CD but cant find any, if anybody knows where to find them please help.

back to my orignal question is this type of adapter available and how much do they cost??

i plan to install fedora core 3 (included in the book and covered mostly) but might also try SuSE Mandrake Linspire or Xandros (also included)
does anybody have any opinions on the above?


So what are anybodies ideas for attaching a USB device to my old laptop and getting it to boot from a cd

Thanks a lot for your help