Maybe you can also get the computer booted with some Linux LiveCD and ssh started on it. I hope this helps you a bit.
Offtopic: I still like my first linux distro that was slackware, started with it 2 years ago. Now im happy gentoo user for 1 year and i still look for intresting distros that i like to try out when i got the time.
Maybe it has something doing with this quote: 'One rotten (or bad) apple spoils the barrel.'
Can I somehow install Debian on that box via SSH?
google + remote install linux
Maybe you can also get the computer booted with some Linux LiveCD and ssh started on it. I hope this helps you a bit.
Offtopic: I still like my first linux distro that was slackware, started with it 2 years ago. Now im happy gentoo user for 1 year and i still look for intresting distros that i like to try out when i got the time.
That the real problem, it's not getting stuff to work, is getting rid of it when it's not needed anymore.
If you dont mind compiling from sources, but uninstalling is your headache you could take a look at checkinstall