I am new to Debian and want to install it with the
latest proven sw.

Seems like a live cd would be the easy way.

When I boot Gentoo, I get a lot of errors and cd1
is stuck in the drive and won't eject.
Commands like
startx
and eject don't work.

BTW Knoppix includes eject but Gentoo doesn't.

But I don't know how to use Knoppix 3.3 to install
Debian.

Knoppix doesn't recognize my usb.

Knoppix doesn't recognize my external firewire hd
even when i boot with knoppix dofirewire under
3.2 or 3.3.

You probably shouldn't eject the cd where your system (root partition) is running.

How you were planning to do the installation and why do you need cd drive to it, anyways?

Also, is an access to your firewire hd required in installation (eg. is it the boot media or the hd you are planning to install linux)?

You probably shouldn't eject the cd where (root partition) is running.
True only about Knoppix. Why do I have 2 Gentoo cd's if I can't eject?
Gentoo doc says I can. I centainly don't want Gentoo cd1 in my drive
when I halt so that I can't boot anything else unless I change hd to get
an old operating system

I was planning to follow the Gentoo or Knoppix instructions to install
on the hd then use Debian packages from Woody or Sarge to get a
full system. But I can't get an install to the hd.
I can write /mnt/hda1/knoppix.img but then I can't figure how to put
my files inside it. ls or ll lets me see the size of it.

Access to my firewire hd isn't required during installation but if I can't
use it after installation then the os is not fully functional.

I'd like something that just works after spending hours studying
instructions that just say "you can do ..."
instead of "here is how to do ..."

There are few ways to install debian using a live cd.

• In Knoppix, you can run 'knxhdinstall' (or was it 'knx-hdinstall'?). After answering few questions, you should have a working copy of the knoppix system in your hd. It is not pure debian, but a knoppix flavor containg some different packages and some preconfigurations that whre originally needed to have system up from the cd without too much hasle. After that you can move to using debian mirrors.
• Alternatively (if you are ready to spent some moments more with the installation) you can do it by hand from live-cd. See section 3.7 from the installation manual to figure out how to do it. In this case the boot cd can be arbitrary.

Setting up the firewire support after the system is running shouldn't be a problem, because one linux system succeeded in it (gentoo), others will (after a fight or two).

knx-hdinstall is the command. Worry about the Firewire drive after the fact. One thing that can help us is telling us your hardware (x86, ppc, etc), the versions of Gentoo and Knoppix you are trying to install.

Knoppix has always picked up my USB devices w/no problem on both x86 and PPC machines.

While I love the ease of Knoppix as a rescue system and demonstration, I ALWAYS install Debian with the current Stable release, DO NOT use tasksel or dselect, edit /etc/apt/sources.list to point to Unstable, apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade. 1/2 an hour on a broadband connection and you are up and running.

Will my way require you to know your hardware to get X going? Yes.

All the same, I have used "knx-hdinstall" and it was painless. Firewire devices will be seen as SCSI devices, btw.