Rationale

All my previous installs of Debian have been really easy, but then again they've all been on PC desktops. The deal has been:

1. Download the first ISO image onto CD
2. Stick the CD in your drive
3. (Make sure you have the BIOS set to boot off the CD before the hard drive)
4. Follow instructions, generally hitting 'okay' for the next half hour
5. Ignore tasksel by and large
6. Ignore most of the dselect list, and only put on what you need later
7. ...and voilà, a Debian install!

It was not this easy this time 'round. For whatever reason, this little i8k did not seem to want Debian on it! From start to finish (or rather, as finished as it's going to get, because I need to be doing work), it took a week and a half, and I ended up scrapping the entire install and beginning from scratch twice.

This document is half for myself, in case I need to do this install over again, and half for anyone else out there, who has had as much trouble as I have with the whole process.

Good luck.