Need Help Installing Debian on My Computer

[Court Thomas <court@seanet.com>]

I have a new computer and am having a hard time installing linux.  The 
computer is a Dell XPS pentium 4 system.  The BIOS identifies the system as a 
64 bit system.  I've tried installing SUSE 9.3 but with little luck.

My computer is capable of booting from the CD drive, but when I try booting 
the system with the Debian ia64 disk, the system states that it can't boot 
from the disk.  When I try booting with the Debian i386 disk,  the 
installation processing can't find the hard disks.  I know that the computer 
can boot from the CD drive because I can boot Knoppix 3.9.  I've tried using 
debootstrap from Knoppix (since it's based on Debian) but when I 
debootstraping  the i386 Debian 3.1, the system dies and when I try 
debootstrapping the ia64 Debian 3.1, the system fails trying to mount proc.

I'm not happy with the SUSE installation as I can only acheive a very low 
screen resolution and the mouse pointer is invisible.  I've tried fixing it 
but with no success.  I know that the Debian version would work better since 
Knoppix provides better screen resolution and the mouse pointer is visible.  
I would be happy to provide any details necessary to facilitate your 
assistance.

Thanks,
Court Thomas