Create USB Installation Media for Oracle Linux with Fedora Media Writer

This tutorial describes how to use Fedora Media Writer to create Oracle Linux installation media on a USB device.

Introduction

Oracle Linux is distributed as an ISO image, which is a binary representation of the files and contents for installing the operating system. An Oracle Linux installation requires that you need to create an installation media from the ISO image.

As the official documentation shows, Oracle’s supported method for creating the installation media is by using the dd command. However, you can choose any preferred third party utility, such as Balena Etcher or Rufus.

This tutorial focuses on using Fedora Media Writer to create installation media on a USB flash drive. If you want to create installation media from more than one ISO image on the same USB flash drive, follow the instructions in our tutorial for using Ventoy instead.

The Fedora Media Writer is a utility from the Fedora project for creating installation media primarily for Fedora Linux installations. However, it can be used for other Linux distributions as well, such as Oracle Linux. Fedora Media Writer is supported on Windows and macOS. Therefore, users of those systems can also avail of the utility to create Oracle Linux installation media.

Objectives

At the end of this tutorial, you should be able to do the following:

Prerequisites

Downloading the Oracle Linux ISO

  1. Log in to Oracle Software Delivery Cloud.

    Your Oracle Single Sign On (SSO) credentials are required to access the download site.

  2. Search for Oracle Linux and select the latest version of the operating system.

    The selected item is automatically added to the cart.

  3. Click Continue to proceed to the next step.

  4. Select the platform of the operating system to be installed, then click Continue.

  5. Accept the Oracle License Agreement.

  6. Deselect the check boxes for the source DVD and Boot ISOs so that you would download only a single installation ISO image, for example, V984216-01.iso.

  7. Click Download to install the Oracle Download Manager to your computer.

  8. Use the Oracle Download Manager to download the selected ISO file.

Alternatively, you can download the ISO file directly from http://yum.oracle.com/oracle-linux-isos.html. Select the Full ISO to download.

Formatting the USB flash drive

The procedure for formatting the USB flash drive differs depending on your workstation’s operating system.

Formatting the USB flash drive on Windows

  1. Insert your USB flash drive, open File Explorer, and then locate the device in This PC.

  2. Right-click the correct drive letter, then select Format….

  3. Select exFAT as the file system, set a volume label, and then select Quick Format.

  4. Click Start to begin the format process, then confirm that you want to proceed.

Formatting the USB flash drive on macOS

  1. Insert your USB flash drive, then wait for the storage device icon to appear on your desktop.

  2. Open Disk Utility, then select your storage device on the left panel of the window.

  3. Click Erase, select FAT32 as the file system, then set a volume label.

  4. Click Erase and wait for the format process to complete.

Formatting the USB flash drive on Linux

  1. Install gparted through your Linux distribution package manager.

  2. Start gparted and select the storage device from the drop-down list, which is located at the top right side of the window.

  3. Delete any existing partitions and then create one single FAT32 partition.

  4. Click the green tick mark, then click Apply to start the format process.

  5. After the format process has completed, disconnect and then reconnect your USB flash drive.

Installing Fedora Media Writer

The procedure for installing Fedora Media Writer differs depending on your workstation’s operating system.

Installing Fedora Media Writer on Windows

  1. Download the Windows exe installer at https://getfedora.org/fmw/FedoraMediaWriter-win32-latest.exe.

  2. Run the installer, agree to the license terms, and then follow the prompts.

Installing Fedora Media Writer on macOS

  1. Download the utility’s dmg for macOS installations at https://getfedora.org/fmw/FedoraMediaWriter-osx-latest.dmg.

  2. Open the dmg file, then click and drag the universal binary to your Applications folder.

Installing Fedora Media Writer on Linux

  1. Install the flatpak application and the external Flathub repository for the application by following the instructions that are provided for your Linux distribution at https://flatpak.org/setup/.

  2. Install Fedora Media Writer as a flatpak from Flathub as follows:

    sudo flatpak install flathub org.fedoraproject.MediaWriter

Creating a bootable USB memory stick

  1. Insert your USB flash drive if you have not done so already, then start Fedora Media Writer.

  2. Click Custom image and then select the downloaded Oracle Linux ISO image.

  3. In the drop-down list, select your USB flash drive as the boot media, then click Write to Disk.

  4. When the write process has completed, remove your USB flash drive and then reinsert it to verify that the device is no longer empty.

  5. Safely remove or unmount the USB flash drive before removing it from the USB slot.

Installing Oracle Linux on compatible machines

The key combination for editing the BIOS/UEFI configuration or for selecting the current boot device varies depending on the manufacturer. Refer to the manufacturer of your particular hardware for related technical support documentation.

  1. Insert the newly created USB installation media and then restart the system.

  2. Press the appropriate key combination when the machine boots, then select your USB flash drive as the boot device.

  3. Follow the instructions provided in the installation guide for the Oracle Linux version that you are installing at the Oracle Linux library.

For more information:

More Learning Resources

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