Sharing internet connection to linux

I don't think there's anyway Internet Sharing will work with a Router involved.

Does your iBook or Debian machine require a Crossover Ethernet cable perchance? Did you get connection to the iBook when you had the cable there?

The secret is to have the Debian machine use the iBooks's IP as Router/Gateway, then let the book hand out an IP to the Debian.

Sometimes turning on Personal Web Sharing helps, sometimes turning off the Firewall helps, and sometimes you might have to wait 50 minutes for stuff to show up! 😟

I am trying to share my iBook's internet from the
AirPort card to my debian computer through the
ethernet. When I plug a regular ethernet cable
between the two computers I get no internet.

You turned on the sharing internet from ethernet to airport in the sharing prefs pane, right? As far as the ethernet connection goes, you need to make sure both interfaces are active. On both machines, ifconfig en0 should return a status of active.

The iBook will have a good ip adress, and the debian should have something in that network and same subnet mask. If all that is good and it still isn't working some more diagnoses will be needed.

What I am trying now is to take our second Linksys
WRT54G router and plug it in downstairs and hook it
up to my Debian box. Then plug in my iBook to it as
if the iBook is a router.

You lost me here. You've got two routers and you want the iBook to act as a third???

Apple says you can't use a Static IP, but the Router does need to be the Mac, then "join" that network/Mac with DHCP on, but if you wanted to try a Static IP...

say Mac is 192.168.1.123, then Debian will most likely end up with 192.168.2.124 !!!