My little server doesn't have a cdrom, but I didn't want to actually run ESX from a USB (i.e. esx-on-a-stick). Here are my notes of configuring a flash disk to boot the ESX installer (so you can install it onto a local disk). For this demo, my USB is /dev/sdb
1) Install the syslinux utils to your computer (apt-get install syslinux mboot)
2) Install the MBR
sudo install-mbr /dev/sdb
3) Copy all the files from the ISO to your fat32 formated partition
4) Install syslinux
sudo syslinux /dev/sdb1
5) Move isolinux.cfg to syslinux.cfg, and try booting. If it doesn't work, edit syslinux.cfg says something like:
default menu.c32 menu title ESXi Boot timeout 100 label ESXi menu label Boot VMware ESXi kernel mboot.c32 append vmkernel.gz --- binmod.tgz --- environ.tgz --- cim.tgz ipappend 2
6) Unplug your USB, put it in your server, reboot, boot to USB-HDD (or select the USB disk), and install ESX to the local disk. You will likely be greeted with a sign saying "MBR FA:", where you need to press "A" and then "1".