Preparing Installation Media

Before you can use an ISO image to install Oracle Linux, you must first store it on bootable installation media, such as the following:

USB Flash Drive

You can install Oracle Linux by using a boot image on portable devices such as a USB flash drive or an SD card, if the system's firmware can boot from those devices.

To create a bootable drive, use the dd or xorriso-dd-target command. Or, use a separate third-party utility to write the ISO image to a drive. See, for example, Create USB Installation Media for Oracle Linux with Fedora Media Writer.

Caution:

This procedure destroys any existing data on the drive. Ensure that you specify the correct device name for the USB drive on the system.

Insert a USB flash drive into an Oracle Linux system.
Use the xorriso-dd-target command to list available block devices and to identify likely candidate devices for use.
```
xorriso-dd-target -with_sudo -list_all
```
The command presents a password prompt as it uses sudo to access all devices on the system. Output similar to the following is displayed:
```
sda : YES : usb+ has_vfat+ : SanDisk Cruzer Switch 
nvme0n1 : NO  : not_usb- has_vfat+ has_xfs- has_crypto_LUKS- has_swap- :  PM9A1 NVMe Samsung 512GB 
```
The command identifies removable block devices with disposable content. In the example output, the command identified a USB device at /dev/sda, that could be used to write an ISO image.
Ensure that any file systems on the device are unmounted.
For example, to unmount the first partition on /dev/sda:
```
sudo umount /dev/sda1
```

Write the contents of the ISO image file to the USB device.

Do one of the following to write the ISO image file to the USB device:

Use the dd command directly:

sudo dd if=./full_image.iso of=/dev/sda bs=512k

Use the xorriso-dd-target command to guide you through this process:

xorriso-dd-target -with_sudo -plug_test -DO_WRITE -image_file ./full_image.iso

The command guides you through testing for appropriate devices and finally prompts you to select and approve writing to the device. Example output follows:

sudo /bin/lsblk seems ok.

Caused by option -plug_test: Attempt to find the desired device
by watching it appear after being plugged in.

Step 1:
Please make sure that the desired target device is plugged _out_ now.
If it is currently plugged in, make sure to unmount all its fileystems
and then unplug it.
Press the Enter key when ready.

Found and noted as _not_ desired:  nvme0n1  

Step 2:
Please plug in the desired target device and then press the Enter key.

Waiting up to 10 seconds for a new device to be listed .... found: sda
Now waiting 5 seconds to let it settle .........
Found and noted as desired device:  sda

sda : YES : usb+ has_vfat+ : SanDisk Cruzer Switch 

Step 3:
Last chance to abort. Enter the word 'yes' to start REAL WRITING.
yes
Looking for mount points of sda:
Performing:
  sudo /bin/dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/'sda' bs=512 seek='30595071' count=1 status=none
  sudo /bin/dd if='OracleLinux.iso' of=/dev/'sda' bs=1M status=progress oflag=dsync ; sync

The USB flash drive is now ready to be used to boot a system and start the installation.

DVD or CD

Because of storage limits, optical media such as CDs or DVDs might not have capacity to accommodate most installation ISO images. However they can be used to store the boot ISO image.

Insert an empty recordable CD or DVD into the CD or DVD writer device.
Open a terminal and use cdrecord to write the ISO file to the device.
To write the downloaded ISO image file to a CD or DVD, use a command such as cdrecord, for example:
```
sudo cdrecord -v -eject speed=16 dev=/dev/sr0 file_name.iso
```
To display the device that corresponds to the CD or DVD writer, use the cdrecord --devices command.

The CD or DVD is now ready to be used to boot a system and start the installation.