How do I install Linux onto a modem. To get the Linux fs installed on the chipset. Do I need to get a USB or Firewire drive to access it from or something? Thanks for the help.

You want to install Linux on the device itself? Unless you are Bad Ass programmer, you need to search the model number on google for someone else who's already done it, and user their instructions. I've heard of people putting a linux kernels on Linksys routers. Depending on the connecting type, there are ways to hack out a flash program to boot your code instead of the manufactures. The only people I hear about doing it, and I haven't paid a whole lot of attention, have hardware flash programmers. They write the code for the device, and then flash a compatible chip with their version and insert the flash chip in the device. If there is a firmware upgrade method I think that can sometimes be hacked like the Xbox360 firmware upgrade to play burned games. In that scenario you connect the xbox's sata dvd drive to a sata controller and use a modified bios update tool to put in the hacked code. 95% of all computer techs don't know crap, and 99.5% of computer techs think they know everything.