Debian

If you can't boot from CD, you can download floppy images to install Debian. You need the floppy/boot.img, the floppy/root.img and one or more of the driver disks.

The boot floppy is the one with boot.img on it. This floppy, when booted, will prompt you to insert a second floppy — use the one with root.img on it.

If you're planning to install over the network, you will usually need the floppy/net-drivers-1.img. For PCMCIA or USB networking, and some less common network cards, you will also need a second driver floppy, floppy/net-drivers-2.img.

If you have a CD, but cannot boot from it, then boot from floppies and use floppy/cd-drivers.img on a driver disk to complete the install using the CD.

Floppy disks are one of the least reliable media around, so be prepared for lots of bad disks (see Section 5.3.2, “Floppy Disk Reliability”). Each .img file you downloaded goes on a single floppy; you can use the dd command to write it to /dev/fd0 or some other means (see Section 4.3, “Creating Floppies from Disk Images” for details). Since you'll have more than one floppy, it's a good idea to label them.