But I don't know if you'll be able to install it from a a USB CD-ROM. The first thing I'd do is get a working IDE CD-ROM. Even over yonder they shouldn't be too expensive. ;-)

Maybe it won't be an issue. You could [link|http://www.mepis.org/book/view/1462|download] the SimplyMEPIS CD and see if it'll boot. Like Knoppix, it'll run from the CD. The latest public version is [link|http://www.mepis.org/node/view/3927|2004.4].

HTH.

Cheers,
Scott.