Installing Debian from a USB key

How I installed Debian (amd64, in this case) from a USB key.

Not wanting to use up another CD, I decided to try to install Debian with a USB key. I followed the instructions at the Debian testing docs and downloaded boot.img.gz and the iso from the links at debian-installer. Update 2005-15-09: The daily build hd-media builds are erroring out right now, so I had to download boot.img.gz and an iso from the lenny page.
Here are the commands:

root@stubberud:~# zcat /home/gsf/boot.img.gz > /dev/sda
root@stubberud:~# mkdir /media/usbkey
root@stubberud:~# mount -t vfat /dev/sda /media/usbkey/
root@stubberud:~# cp /home/gsf/debian-LennyBeta2-amd64-netinst.iso \
/media/usbkey/
root@stubberud:~# umount /media/usbkey/

Popped it in and it worked!

keywords: Debian, USB, amd64, tech created 2008-10-17 last modified 2009-05-18