New user here trying to install Debian on a 486 with a 4GB and 40GB HDD.
I first reformatted both HDDs to remove the original WIN98 system in an attempt to get to a clean disk condition.
The first run of the Debian installer got thru the base system install and then gave a red screen error before the optional software loaded competely (I picked desktop and standard).
The second run got thru the optional software load (except for a vim and vim-tiny corrupt file notice) and then refused to load either grub or lilo.
The third run has the installer stopping at the partial optional software load again.
Any ideas what I can do to get this @#$%^ system to install? Reformat the drives again? Large hammer maybe?

dont know much about debian but this:
reminds me of a bios setting: "protect bootsector against virusses". This setting prevents anything from writing to the bootsector on the HD, and thus installing lilo/grub there will fail (though I dont know if debian actually installs it right there, there are other options). Check if the bios has this enabled.

Only time I know this one from is when I had a scratched slackware install CD

http://www.ssma.us/debian_media.html

this is a bit out of date and has options that will not run on your older hardware, but the base install will help.

just install the base distro, do not pick desktop or anything else. once you have the base installed you can use apt-get to install everything else. do grab a good working sources.list BEFORE you install so you can vi /etc/sources.list and manually adjust the list to look in places other then the install media.

Off topic perhaps, but I'm wondering what kind of 486 system had 4 gigs of ram? That must have been pretty ultra high end for that era.

actually it has 2 HDDs: a 4GB and a 40GB.

I would try either a net install- to preclude any possibility of a corrupt install disk, or using one of the parted live disks to format before installing.

I remember someone having the exact same problem many months ago, the vim-tiny error and vim-common or something tipped me off.
If I remember correctly, he had to do the installation by passing a kernel parameter at the boot prompt, "linux noacpi" or something like that, kinda forget which parameter he used.

Tried the install again last night with just the base system as suggested by lleb and no optional packages ... loaded like a charm and rebooted right to the prompt.
Next question, I have the 3 DVD media set so how do you know which DVD has the package you want to install? The DVDs are labeled disk 1, 2 and 3.

Just tell apt what to install and it will tell you which DVD to plug into the drive.