Well I made some progress. Hooray.

Did two things, at least one of which meant I can now download to /mnt/sda3

  • * Gave write permission to /mnt/sda3 with a chmod 777 - why didn't Konqueror or Firefox issue a warning if this was the problem?
    * Setup up a generous swap file with the Knoppix app


But the ordeal is not over... I may start a new thread, to keep to the rules.

Thanks for the Toram cheat code hint. And for the latest Debian plug... But you didn't answer my question about whether there is access to a command line in the Debian installer. Because if there isn't then my netcard will not connect, and it will be a non-starter. Thanks again. I'm getting there.