It appears to me that it should be possible to run the Debian Installer just as a program and a set of package files rather than as a bootable image containing both. So, given a bootable image in .ISO or .img format, how can the image be transformed into an executable program and associated package files that reside on a typical (HDD) file system?
As a corollary question, are the debian installer isos bootable as is, or is it mandatory that they be burned to media (CD/DVD/USB) and the media booted? For example, several boot loaders allow a kind of chainload from their own boot sector to the boot sector of an ISO or img file. But the booted image has to be able to find itself in order to continue the process. Can debian install images find themselves?
Thanks for any hints about this topic or where I might look for more information.