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.