This was originally posted on 2009-08-04 to http://andrewho.co.uk/weblog/debian-powerbook-g4-network-install
I'm currently in the process of seatting up Debian GNU/Linux (Lenny, the latest stable) on my PowerBook G4 (12-inch; bought circa August 2004 in the UK). I'm going to post a few bits and bobs here both to serve as a reference to myself but also to help anyone else who follows in this endeavour.
The SuperDrive on my PowerBook no longer works, so I had to do a completely network-based install (it also feels a bit cleaner this way). I couldn't place the files on the hard drive for booting as the installer can't boot from HFS+