ah, cool! please let me know if you get any success with that one.

You need the Debian "hd-media" installer files - these boot a Linux system then look for an *.iso install CD image to mount and run from:

http://ftp.nl.debian.org/debian/dist...ages/hd-media/

The ONLY files you need are:
initrd.gz
vmlinuz

Now that's not enough to boot a CD; you also need to read about how to create a CD which boots using 'isolinux'. I can't help you there - it's been about 3 years since I've done that.

It is also possible that the CD files at http://ftp.nl.debian.org/debian/dist...t/images/cdrom also do the same thing - it is not clear from the documentation and I don't feel like downloading the files to inspect them. However, even if you use that CD information, you still have to create the bootable iso and burn it yourself. You can have a look in the Debian Installer Manual (the online version: http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/) but there is no guarantee that the instructions on using a CDROM to boot are complete - I can tell you that the instructions on using the HD media is as good as non-existent.

NOW - let's pretend you have a bootable CD which will look for an *.iso image - what else can go wrong? Well, you may need to manually load the USB drivers and mount the USB disk/pendrive, then go back and tell the installer script where to search for the iso image. I can't recall, but you may be able to get a second virtual terminal ([alt][F2]) to get that job done.