Here is probably my main issue with Zenwalk - it's pretty much impossible to install it onto a machine without an optical drive.

Most distributions these days can be installed via the USB stick. Some of them (like Ubuntu) use Unetbootin (zenwalk can't work that way). Best way is to provide a hybrid iso.

That means, a single file that can be used for creating both installation CDs and installation USB sticks. If I want, I put in a CD, use Brasero&co, and I get my regular Zenwalk install CD. Otherwise, I put in a USB stick, use dd with exactly the same iso file. No extra space on mirrors needed, no extra bandwidth, it's just great.

Hybrid iso-s are used by many distros these days, including Mandriva, Fedora, OpenSuSE, Meego, Archlinux, etc.
I would really like to see this in the next Zenwalk release.

i installed like ~5 installs using usbkey/unetbooting, so that part works.

It works with Unetbootin? It didn't the last time I tried (but I guess it was an older release than 6.4). I used it with usual 6.4 iso? Or was it Zenwalk Live?

I tried zenwalk-gnome-6.4.iso installation using unetbootin to prepare bootable USB,
yes. it get booted up and looking good.
Upon going through the installer, when it is time to key in the directory location, I could not get pass this.
Need help here, supposing USB stick was mounted as /dev/sdb1, what should the install from directory be?
thanks

hello,
i installed my zenwalk 6.4 with unetbootin, following this tuto.

Thank you very much,
following the tutorial I got it installed to a computer without CD/DVD.