Installing adodb on Debian is trivial.

apt-get install libphp-adodb

Edit /etc/php4/apache/php.ini :
include_path = ".:/usr/share/pear:/usr/share/php4:/usr/share/adodb"

Test:
<?php
include('adodb.inc.php');
?>

http://www.phpbuilder.com/columns/gilfillan20030617.php3
http://www.phpbuilder.com/columns/gilfillan20030722.php3

http://php.weblogs.com/adodb-sessions
http://php.weblogs.com/adodb_tutorial

http://www.melonfire.com/community/columns/trog/print.php?id=142
http://www.melonfire.com/community/columns/trog/print.php?id=144