Setting up a bootable USB drive to install Oracle Linux 7

Want to create a USB boot drive for Oracle Linux 7? First, make sure you have one with at least 16 GB.

1. On Microsoft Windows, download pwfree91-x86.iso. This will be used by the USB Installer program.

2. Download USB Installer 1.9.6.7.

3. Select the options below to format the USB drive and make it bootable.

4. Log in to an existing Oracle Linux installation (could be any VirtualBox image).

5. Make sure your USB drive is connected.

6. In my example below, I can see my USB drive mounted as /media/NEWVOLUME.

[root@soahost ~]# df -m

Filesystem           1M-blocks  Used Available Use% Mounted on

/dev/mapper/vg_soatraining-lv_root

                         18527  5743     11820  33% /

tmpfs                     3301     1      3300   1% /dev/shm

/dev/sda1                  477   169       279  38% /boot

/dev/sdb1                25070  5096     18678  22% /u01

/dev/sdc                 32126   347     30126   2% /oracle

/dev/sdd1                29570 25277      4293  86% /media/NEWVOLUME

7. Unmount the USB drive.

[root@soahost u01]# umount /dev/sdd1

8. Designate the first partition as bootable.

[root@soahost u01]# parted /dev/sdd

GNU Parted 2.1

Using /dev/sdd

Welcome to GNU Parted! Type 'help' to view a list of commands.

(parted) toggle 1 boot                                                    

(parted) quit                                                             

Information: You may need to update /etc/fstab.

9. Download the Install_OL_fromUSBStick_Script script.

10. Download Oracle Linux 7 from the Oracle Software Delivery Cloud.

11. Specifically download these two files:

• V100082-01.iso (Oracle Linux Release 7 Update 2 for x86_64 64 Bit)
• V100086-01.iso (Oracle Linux Release 7 Update 2 Boot ISO image for x86_64 64 bit)

13. Make the script executable and run it.

[root@soahost u01]# chmod 500 Install_OL_fromUSBStick_Script 

[root@soahost u01]# sh Install_OL_fromUSBStick_Script --reset-mbr ./V100086-01.iso /dev/sdd1

Verifying image...

Install_OL_fromUSBStick_Script: line 527: checkisomd5: command not found

Are you SURE you want to continue?

Press Enter to continue or ctrl-c to abort

.

.

.

progress 276168704/277409792 (4.7 MB/s)

progress 276234240/277409792 (4.7 MB/s)

progress 276299776/277409792 (4.7 MB/s)

progress 276365312/277409792 (4.7 MB/s)

progress 276430848/277409792 (4.7 MB/s)

.

.

.

progress 277409792/277409792 (4.7 MB/s)

Updating boot config file

Installing boot loader

USB stick set up as live image!

14. Take the USB drive out of your machine, and put it back in so that it gets auto-mounted.

15. Copy the V100082-01.iso file to the USB drive which will be needed once installation begins.

[root@soahost u01]# cp ./V100082-01.iso /media/NEWVOLUME

References:

• https://blogs.oracle.com/OTNGarage/entry/how_to_install_oracle_linux
• https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E52668_01/E54695/html/ol7-install-media-usb.html
• https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E37670_01/E41137/html/ol_usb_boot.html

Applicable Versions:

• Oracle Linux 7+