installing debian from scratch

NewsForge | Installing Debian From Scratch
hmmm a middle way inbetween LFS and Sarge?

A more practical answer is that you want the security of building a GNU/Linux installation from the ground up, so that you know exactly what it contains and how the contents are installed. This behavior is in marked contrast to most distributions, which make choices that are not only unknown to the user, but which sometimes sacrifice security for convenience. For security-minded system administrators (that is, any who know their jobs), DFS not only gives them the control they want, but also saves them time when hardening a system. Since the base system installs without any graphical interfaces, this lack of assumptions makes DFS especially convenient for servers.