Libranet / Ubuntu --> Debian?

["Bob Freemer" <bob.freemer@medomics.com>]

I've discovered one of the remaining few areas where Debian can be a real
pain is in hardware detection.  I've tested on a number of machines and
even debian-installer can't match libranet/ubuntu/knoppix.  Any tips on
using one of these distros to install plain debian?  Or even better, an
apt-get metapackage which installs required packages for ACCURATE hardware
detection?  Knoppix and libranet last I tried leave little traces of
custom packages so full migration to debian is buggy.

Bob