[X4U] Installation despite dead PB CD player

[n]

I have a pismo whose CD player might have gone belly up.
This machine really thrives on Panther, but my other Macs do not 
support Panther, and I'm trying to figure out how I can do things like 
run disk utilities on the pismo  from another disk, or eventually to 
re-install the OS or other CD based software.

any thoughts?  I know that I can reboot the pismo in Target mode, but 
then how to get  around my other macs' lack of Panther support?

thnk you!

n