Hi --
The instructions I used don't seem to have that requirement -- you just
need "dd", which Macs can do, I think.
According to my (slightly dated, and possibly fragmentary) notes,
I got "boot.img.gz" from:
<ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/installer-
i386/current/images/hd-media/boot.img.gz>
(NB 32-bit, and probably was Lenny when I did this, but others are
supposed to work...)
Then, plug in your USB device, do "zcat /path/to/boot.img.gz > /dev/sd<x>"
(substitute OS-specific nomenclature for /dev/sd<x>), mount /dev/sdx (it will
have a bootable FAT32 file-system), and copy the ISO of your choice to the
root of the device.
Then unmount, and boot your installation target system from it.
I have a dim recollection that the name of the ISO file mattered,
and had to match a config entry on the USB device somewhere, but my
notes, alas, don't cover that case.
Also, the ISO can't be too big -- you'll want the net-install ISO
for this.
dd if=/path/image.iso of=/path/device is all you need. What you should pat attention to is this
1) the image is bootable, all debian iso images are.
2) the size of the iso, make sure it will fit on your device
Andrew's directions would work but it seems an ass-backwards way to achieve the same result in 1 cmd vs 2. But hey, if it works, it works. cating an iso onto a device is pretty much a surefire way to fail at some point. Your better off doing it in a prescribed, known to work method.