ok i found a mirror that appears to have everything i need. i have also found a site in brazil that is hosting the debootstrap package we need. i edited the script that stonersmurf made, and i have attached it below. for some reason this doesnt seem to work for me, could someone check it over?
CODE
#!/bin/bash
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=1
sfdisk /dev/sda << EOF
,124,S
,,L
EOF
mkfs.ext3 /dev/sda2
mkswap /dev/sda1
sync; sync; sync
swapon /dev/sda1
mkdir /mnt/ubuntu
mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/ubuntu
cd /mnt/ubuntu
mkdir /mnt/ubuntu/work
cd /mnt/ubuntu/work
wget http://ubuntu.interlegis.gov.br/ubuntu/pool/main/d/debootstrap/debootstrap_1.0.3build1_all.deb
ar -xf debootstrap_1.0.3build1_all.deb
cd /mnt/ubuntu
zcat < /mnt/ubuntu/work/data.tar.gz | tar xv
export DEBOOTSTRAP_DIR=/mnt/ubuntu/usr/lib/debootstrap
export PATH=$PATH:/mnt/ubuntu/usr/sbin
debootstrap --arch powerpc gutsy /mnt/ubuntu http://pub.vse.cz/OS/Linux/Ubuntu/
echo Xenon > /mnt/ubuntu/etc/hostname
cat > /mnt/ubuntu/etc/fstab << EOF
/dev/sda2 / ext3 defaults 0 0
/dev/sda1 none swap sw 0 0
EOF
cat > /mnt/ubuntu/etc/network/interfaces << EOF
iface lo inet loopback
auto lo
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp
EOF
cat > /mnt/ubuntu/etc/apt/sources.list << EOF
deb http://pub.vse.cz/OS/Linux/Ubuntu/ gutsy main restricted universe multiverse
EOF
cp /mnt/ubuntu/root/.bashrc /mnt/ubuntu/root/.bashrc.orginal
cat >> /mnt/ubuntu/root/.bashrc << EOF
passwd
mkdir /lib/modules/2.6.21.1
touch /lib/modules/2.6.21.1/modules.dep
apt-get update
apt-get install ntp wget -y --force-yes
aptitude install ubuntu-desktop -y
echo "AVAHI_DAEMON_START=0" > /etc/default/avahi-daemon
/etc/init.d/networking restart
cd /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/
wget http://home.comcast.net/~ssmurf/xenosfb_drv.so
cd /etc/X11/
wget http://home.comcast.net/~ssmurf/ubuntu.conf
mv ubuntu.conf xorg.conf
cd /usr/lib/xorg/modules/linux/
mv libfbdevhw.so libfbdevhw.so.bk
wget http://home.comcast.net/~ssmurf/libfbdevhw.so
rm -r -f /work/
echo "" > /etc/gdm/gdm.conf-custom
sed -i 's/AllowRoot=false/AllowRoot=true/' /etc/gdm/gdm.conf
rm /root/.bashrc
mv /root/.bashrc.orginal /root/.bashrc
/etc/init.d/gdm start
EOF
echo "Base installation completed."
echo "To finish the installation. Reboot then load the sda2 bootloader CD."
QUOTE(dervboy @ May 19 2009, 12:54 AM)

ok, this appears to be working. its currently booted from the hard disk on sda2, and its now fetching the packages / files from the mirror i found.
i'll post back if it works or not.
Looks like that mirror has gone down too
Ive searched around but cannot find another. Does anyonehave any ideas how to install without the gutsy mirror?
TIA
Dan
QUOTE(thc013 @ Sep 8 2009, 04:09 PM)

<snip>
debootstrap --arch powerpc gutsy /mnt/ubuntu
http://pub.vse.cz/OS/Linux/Ubuntu/debootstrap --arch powerpc gutsy /mnt/ubuntu
ftp://old-releases.ubuntu.com/old-images/Ubuntu/last one
deb
http://pub.vse.cz/OS/Linux/Ubuntu/ gutsy main restricted universe multiverse
deb
ftp://old-releases.ubuntu.com/old-images/Ubuntu/ gutsy main restricted universe multiverse
thanks that nearly works but the directory structure is case sensitive and Ubuntu has a lower case "u" so links should be...
debootstrap --arch powerpc gutsy /mnt/ubuntu ftp://old-releases.ubuntu.com/old-images/ubuntu/
deb ftp://old-releases.ubuntu.com/old-images/ubuntu/ gutsy main restricted universe multiverse
..that seems to work