AFAICS, you can't - well, not this early model anyway. he trader who sold me the Acer tried to get one to boot from DVD via USB last week, and he couldn't, either.

I wonder - if I put Grub on the HDD, whether, having fired-up, it might then boot from USB?

Does one need an actual distro on the same drive as Grub? If so, would Tom's suffice?

Compared with the Acer, the Eee's such a handy size and weight, though the battery's a bit weedy for (say) a train journey to Manchester. Copes with oe to Farnborough (Hants) OK.