USB booting :: USB Boot Failing

Well, I got the LiveCD working on my laptop (it's a Dell Inspiron 5100 with the hdd removed due to it running at 80+ degrees and overheating the nearby CPU) - but when I set up a USB boot, it refused to boot properly. Most notably, it refused to set up the eth0 interface whereas the LiveCD did flawlessly. If I tried to use "dsl toram" on the USB boot, it segfaulted all over the place - haven't yet tried on the LiveCD though it should work.

Any advice on making my USB-HD setup work?

original here.