Boot using Debian 3.0r1 CD-ROM with:

boot> bf24

Choose en, English (United States), qwerty/us, partition /dev/hda (/dev/hda1 / 36GB ext2, Swap 1GB), initialise swap, initialise partitions, modules (kernel/net 3c59x), network (fairmond, 105.229.8.169, 255.255.255.192, 105.229.8.190, act.cmis.csiro.au, 125.83.72.15 125.83.72.1), base system, bootable (lilo in mbr), create a boot floppy, remove floppy and CD, reboot.

After reboot set up GMT, Australia/ACT, no md5 passwords, enable shadow passwords, root password, normal user: kayon, remove pcmcia, no PPP, apt from cdrom (insert 3.0r1 CD), no tasksel, no dselect, continue with package installation with defaults, exim: 2, fairmond.togaware.com, none, none, none, mailhost.togaware.com, kayon.

Base installation is complete. Install discover in case some hardware can still be identified (like network cards).

Now set up the system. First, apt-setup to add other sources of packages, in particular, to add unstable, and then install wajig. Install grub (grub-install /dev/hda; update-grub), remove lilo, and reboot. Then upgrade the whole distribution to unstable. Use tasksel to install Desktop (fails with abiword/abiword-gnome conflict, so install gnome and x-window-system instead), Linux Standard Base, File Server, Unix Server, Java, C/C++, Python, LaTeX, Scientific. Might also need: cupsys acroread acroread-plugin rubber.