Now that you have your newly burned and scorching hot install disc handy, put it in and boot your Mac holding down the "c" key. If you're installing Wheezy, the first screen has a few rudimentary instructions including how to choose your desktop environment (Gnome, KDE, LXDE, XFCE), but I skipped all that for now and pressed return at the boot prompt. The next few screens are pretty self-explanatary, asking for language and keyboard settings. Just pay attention to the navigation instructions on the bottom of the page showing how to use the tab, spacebar, and enter keys (on an aluminum Powerbook install, it also gave me complaints that I had a non standard CDROM device and prompted me for load modules, but I just kept pressing return at the prompts until the install moved on).
Next, you may be shown a screen that asks if you want to install nonfree firmware. I think this is due to first generation Airport cards needing nonfree firmware installed in order to work, and you need the Airport card to work if you're installing over a wireless connection. However, since I have an ethernet connection, I was able to answer no and move on. I'll set up wireless after I've installed the base system. For more information on this, check Debian's install manual and the section "Loading Missing Firmware".
Now the installer will ask you for your host name. This is what you want your computer to be called, in my case, "icebook". Then it asks for a domain name, which I have no need for so I left it blank. Then it asks for a root password, your full name, username, and user password. Remember your passwords! Then after you choose your time zone, you are taken to the real meat of the installer--the Debian partitioner.
If you're installing a Debian-only system and not dual booting, you can use Guided Partitioning here. But if you're dual booting OS 9 or OS X, you'll want to select Manual Partitioning. When you see the partition table, use the arrow keys to navigate down to your Debian partition (if it already says "Free Space" here, the next couple of steps are unnecessary). Press return and choose "Delete the partition". When you return to the partition table, it should say "Free Space" for the Debian partition. Now you will create the bootloader, swap, and root partitions.
Navigate down to Free Space, press return, then select "Create a new partition". Enter 820 KB for the size, to be created at the beginning of the partition. Then name it "Apple_Bootstrap". Under "Use as:" select "NewWorld boot partition", then set the bootable flag to "On". Then select "Done setting up the partition" and you will see the bootloader partition in your new partition table.
Next, create a swap partition following basically the same procedure. Go down to Free Space, create a new partition, enter the size (at least as much as your physical RAM, I entered 512 MB to be safe), at the beginning of the partition, but under "Use as:" select "swap area". Then select "Done setting up the partition" and see the new partition table.
Finally, begin the same procedure for making your root partition. Go down to Free Space, create new, and for size use the maximum remaining space (unless you're one of those weirdos who uses a separate partition for your home folder /wink). Name it something like "Debian." Under "Use as:" select "Ext4 journaling file system". For mount point, choose "/ - the root file system". For mount options, select "noatime" by ticking it with the spacebar. Change the bootable flag to "On", and then you can select "Done setting up the partition" and see your completed partition table. At this point, if you see a few kilobytes of free space at the end, just ignore it.
Now you can finally choose "Finish partitioning and write changes to disk." Use the tab key to select yes and press return.
This is when the actual installation begins. Here it will install the base system and, after a bit, ask you to enter your country and to select an archive mirror. When it asked for proxy info, I left it blank since I'm not using one. The next question to come up is "Participate in package usage survey?" Answer yes because it's always good to let the mothership know there are PowerPC users out there.
On a subsequent page you will be asked to choose additional software to install. Here you'll notice "Debian desktop environment" is checked by default. This will install whichever desktop environment you chose at the beginning (Gnome by default). Which you could totally do. I'm not judging you, really. But if you want to install Openbox without all the extra cruft, you'll want to uncheck this box by pressing the spacebar. You can always install Gnome later if you insist ;) Just make sure "Standard system utilities", "Print server", and "SSH Server" are checked and also "Laptop" if you're using a laptop, then use the tab key to navigate to "Continue" and press return.
When the installation finally completes, the CD will eject and you can press return to boot into your new system.
Next part, "Installing the GUI". Hope to see you soon!
Part I - Pre-Installation
Part III - Installing the GUI
Part IV - Configuring Stuff
Part V - Bugs & Quirks
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