GNU/Linux Desktop Survival Guide by Graham Williams
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Booting from Floppy with USB

First, download (or otherwise obtain) the floppy disk boot image and write it to a floppy disk:

  $ wget http://http.us.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/main/\ 
         installer-i386/current/images/floppy/boot.img
  $ dd if=boot.img of=/dev/fd0 bs=1024 conv=sync ; sync

Now obtain the USB image and the CD ISO image to be placed on the USB stick (see http://d-i.pascal.at/ for further information):

  $ wget http://http.us.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/main/\ 
        installer-i386/current/images/hd-media/boot.img.gz
  $ zcat boot.img.gz > /dev/sda1
  $ wget http://gluck.debian.org/cdimage/testing/sarge_d-i/i386/beta3/\ 
         sarge-i386-netinst.iso
  $ mount /dev/sda1 /flash
  $ cp sarge-i386-netinst.iso /flash
  $ umount /flash

Place the Floppy into the Floppy drive and turn the computer on. Ensure your computer has booting from Floppy enabled (this is a function of the BIOS so you made need to go into the BIOS setup program at boot time). You will be asked to press Enter to boot Debian-do so. This will stop with a request for a root floppy or a USB stick. Plug the USB stick into the new machine and press Enter to continue.