Remote Debian install?

[Ken D'Ambrosio]

Between Randy's and Bill's replies, I think I've figured it out.  Please 
let me know if anyone sees any holes in it:

1) Log into my RH box.
2) Take the swap partition out of /etc/fstab.
3) Fdisk the swap partition to be type 83, and format it with a "real" FS.
4) Do a minimal install of Debian on a machine local to me.
5) Tar the files over (via SSH or somesuch) to the RH box's former swap 
partition.
6) Configure /etc/fstab to reflect its new reality.
7) MAKE SURE that networking (modules and config) are correct.
8) MAKE SURE that ssh is set to start automatically.
9) Make the bootloader on the RH side point to the Debian side.
10) Type "reboot", and hope...

Assuming it comes up, I've got a minimal Debian install.  As far as I 
see, here comes the hard part.  Because now I want to blow away the RH 
stuff.  Which means I really should install a new bootloader.  LILO is 
the one I'm more familiar with installing from scratch, but it also 
seems to be the one where you wind up looking at a lot of 
0101010101010101 or somesuch on the console.  I've tried to install GRUB 
from scratch before, and failed -- and RTFM'ing was kind of opaque. Can 
anyone supply me with the magick(tm) one-line command that would install 
GRUB with a /boot/vmlinuz kernel, from partition /dev/hda4?  I'm 
conversant enough with the menu.lst file that I don't think I'll need 
any help there.

Thanks!

-Ken