Booting ISO files in VirtualBox to create a Virtual Machine is pretty much easy, however, what about Virtual Machine USB boot? Yes, I mean suppose you have a bootable USB drive and no ISO file image or anything to boot with to install an OS on VirtualBox; at such condition what will you do? Simple, we can use our bootable USB drive. Although the procedure of doing this is slightly techie as compared to the normal one, easily achievable by anyone.
GoalReplace OS X with PureOS on my old Mac. I essentially want to give PureOS a go and buy a Librem PC if it works out.IssuePureOS doesn't appear in t. PureOS ISO (on USB) unavailable. Efi/boot/bootIA32.efi (copied from ISO-2-USB EFI-Booter for Mac) efi/boot/boot.iso (copied from the 32 bits lubuntu iso file, renamed) This should allow to boot the Ubuntu live USB (tested with lubuntu 16.04.2 32 bits) — remember to select the Macintosh keyboard variant during install.
By default, the VirtualBox doesn’t support USB Flash Drive boot but we can make it run a virtual machine from a flash drive. After following this tutorial, you will be able to boot Windows 10, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, or any OS using USB boot.
Iso-2-usb Efi-booter For Mac Pro
Virtual machine boot from USB on a Windows/macOS/Linux Host
Note: Before following any of the below-given methods to install Virtual Machine on VirtualBox using a bootable USB drive, please ensure the VirtualBox is already on your system.
In Windows 10/8/7
Step 1: Find the Bootable USB drive letter
To identify the plugged-in USB drive letter or identification number in the Windows system, press Win key +R, to open the Run box. Type diskmgmt.msc
Step 2: Locate your connected bootable USB Disk drive
On the Disk Management of Windows locate for attached removal drive using which you want to boot and create a VirtualBox Virtual Machine. You can easily identify it as it will be denoted with a Removable text. When you find that note the Disk X letter.
For example, in the below screenshot, our USB drive is labeled as Disk 3, so ‘3‘ is the number that we have to remember. It might be different in your case.
Step 3: Open Command Prompt
On Windows 7/8/10, in the start menu search box typed CMD to search command prompt and when it appears, right-click and select “Run as Administrator“.
Step 4: Switch to Oracle VirtualBox directory
At this step, we enter into Oracle’s VirtualBox installation directory. For that, just copy and paste the below-given command in the Command prompt and press the Enter button.
Step 5: Create USB vmdk -rawdisk
This is a crucial step of the tutorial, as we are going to map a virtual machine (.vmdk file) to the USB Drive. This means we create a VMDK raw file that holds the path of our bootable USB drive for VirtualBox which helps it to recognize the USB drive as a normal Virtual Disk drive.
What you have to do? Just copy-paste the following command in Command Prompt. After that replace the # letter with the drive number which you noted in the second step of this tutorial. For example, our disk number is ‘3’ so we will replace the # letter with 3.
Note: Red color USB2 in the below command is the name of the rawdisk we about to create and you can give it whatever name you want.
Step 6: Create a New Virtual Machine
Step 7: Assign some name to it.
Here we are creating Windows 7 Virtual Machine with the name USB Windows 7, however, you can select Linux or any other OS depending upon your bootable USB OS.
Allot the amount of RAM you want to give to Virtual Machine.
Step 8: Use USB boot VDMK Raw disk in VirtualBox
In the Hard disk section, select the “Use an existing virtual hard disk file” option and then click on the folder icon which opens Windows Explorer. Now go to C: drive and select your created.VDMK file. In our case it is usb2.vdmk.
Then click on the Create button.
Note: If you get an error:
Then simply close the VirtualBox and start it under administrative rights…
Step 9: Start created a virtual Machine
Select the created USB bootable virtual machine from the right-side panel and click on the Start button given in the VirtualBox menu and that’s it.
If you are using macOS or Linux like Ubuntu then from step 6 to step 9 will be the same, the only difference is the method to create a .VDMK Raw file. For that please see the below steps:
For macOS, USB boot VirtualBox Virtual Machine
Note: VirtualBox should be installed already on the system.
Step 1: Open a Terminal
In the Terminal of MacOS type a command: diskutil list to see all attached disk and USB drives. When the list appears, jot down the bootable USB drive letter (example /dev/disk2) as we have done for Windows above.
Step 2: Unmount USB Disk
To use the USB disk to create a raw image for VirtualBox, first, we have to unmount it. For that the command is:
Note: Replace the # with the USB drive disk number noted above.
Step 3: Create VDMK Raw file of connected bootable USB drive
Use the below command in your MacOS command terminal and again replace the # with the USB disk number.
After running the above command once again unmount the same disk. As done above, in the same way, replace # with disk number.
Step 4: Run VirtualBox under root access
To run the VirtualBox under root privilege type the below command in terminal
Note: Whenever you want to boot VirtualBox using USB, it should be run under root access.
Step 6: Create a Virtual Machine and assign the created USB VDMK file as a hard disk.
For Linux (Ubuntu 19.04) VirtualBox Virtual Machine USB boot
To install VirtualBox, if not already, the command is:
Step 1: List the attached disks
Step 2: Create USB raw VDMK file
Replace sdbx with the disk name that appeared on your screen. While usb1 is the name of the RAW file that could be anything you want.
Step 3: Open the VirtualBox
Type sudo virtualbox in the command terminal to run under root access. When it opens, create a new Virtual Machine.
And at the Hard disk section, select the “Use an existing virtual hard disk” option. Click on the folder icon and select the above-created USB drive raw image file which will be under the home directory. After that just click on the Create button. This will let you perform virtual machine USB boot on Ubuntu Linux.
Other Useful Resources:
A Linux bootable USB allows you to do a lot of things, such as installing Linux distro, running a Linux environment on a non-Linux platform, and so on. And because it contains a preinstallation environment, it can also be used for system-level tasks that would normally require the highest admin privileges. Whatever the use, though, you have to be able to create such a bootable USB first. For that, we've showcased the best option for each of the major desktop OS platforms: Windows, Linux, and macOS.
Best Linux Bootable USB Creator on Windows 10: UUByte Boot Pro
For Windows PCs, there are literally dozens of USB creation software choices. That can be confusing, especially if you have no idea about what a bootable drive is and how to create it. One product that cuts through all the confusion and creates a clear path to flawless bootable USB creation is UUByte Boot Pro.
This is a comprehensive solution for making bootable USB drive bootable from system based ISO image files. These include bootable USB cretaion, download Windows ISO, backup and restore system files. Using the software is super-simple and intuitive. No prior knowledge of ISO files, media burning, or any advanced PC tasks is required. All you do is follow the instructions, click your mouse a few times, and you're all done in a matter of minutes, not hours.
Burning a file to USB stick is one of the hardest things to achieve accurately. Computer professionals and media industry people very well know how delicate a process it is and how so many things can go wrong. Burn those worries away with UUByte because it has one of the highest burn success rates in its industry niche. Just follow the steps below and you'll be finished and smiling in no time.
Iso-2-usb Efi-booter For Mac
Step 1: The first step, obviously, is to acquire the Linux distro installation file from the official website. Here's a useful resource for that.
Step 2: Get yourself a USB drive with enough space to hold the bootable ISO file for the distro in question. Now, install and run the UUByte Boot Pro program (Windows version.)
Step 3: When you launch the program, you'll see various options. Insert your USB media storage device and watch it get recognized on the screen.
Step 4: Simply click the Burn button at the bottom of your screen and wait for the burning process to finish. After that, you can test the USB via the Qemu option displayed below the Burn button. If the Linux installation interface was loaded, it means burning is successful.
Step 5: Plug the bootable Linux USB into the computer you want to install Linux. Change boot order to USB and start to install Linux on it.
There are really only three steps to this. The others are preparatory steps, but they're equally important so we've included them. And that's how easy it is to use UUByte Boot Pro to make bootable Linux USB drive from ISO file.
Honorable Mention: Win32DiskImager
Not all Linux installation file are packed in an ISO archive. Some of them are distributed in .imge package, which is suitable for installation on mini computers built-with SD card like Raspberry PI. To flash .img file to SD card, Win32DiskImager is the best free program to do this. The user interface is ultra clean and it is easy to understand how it works.
First, open the Win32DiskImager.exe on Windows computer and click the folder icon at the upper section to load .img file into the program. Insert an USB drive into the same computer and you will see the drive name listed below Device tab. If the Linux img file downloaded from third-party website, it is recommended verifying the file before burning. After that, click Write button to burn img file to USB. And wait for the process to be finished.
Best Linux Bootable USB Creator on Mac: Etcher ISO Burner
There are much less options available on Mac when it comes to make bootable Linux USB drives. Apple has much more strict policy towards developers and it is more expensive to develop apps for Mac and that's why it is hard to find a suitable solution. On a Mac, you should definitely consider using Balena Etcher, one of the easiest-to-use bootable USB creators for macOS.
Etcher has a very slick and tasteful UI design and only requires three simple steps to finish the job. However, you should pay attention to the fact that Ether can only works on modern Macs because it consumes more computing restorces than other programs, largely due to the Electron Javascript framework it used to build this app.
Step 1: After downloading and installing Etcher, run the program and click the Select Image option in the interface. You can also drag an ISO file and drop it right there.
Step 2: Now, insert your media and click on the Select Drive option. Pick your USB drive from the options available and confirm the action.
Step 3: Finally, click the Flash! Icon to finish the process. If the app was stuck at this step, please close the program and repeat the steps mentioned above.
Honorable Mention: Terminal App
Ether is a branded new solution for ISO burning on Mac. It is not stable sometimes and we heard several cases that the program hands on burning process and never go forward on latest macOS Catalina 10.15. If that was the case, then Terminal apps is the best alternative to make a bootable Linux USB on macOS.
First, you need to format the USB to FAT32 or exFAT in Disk Utility. Then open Terminal and find out the USB drive name. After that, you need to umount the device and use dd command to write ISO image to target USB drive. This mentod is much more reliable and success rate is almost 100% if you followed the correct steps no matter on old or new Macs.
Best Linux Bootable USB Creator on Linux: UNetbootin
Obviously, since the system OS is Linux in this instance, there are a lot more options to create a Linux bootable USB drive. However, one of your best bets would be UNetbootin. This open-source software is specifically designed to create USB drive nstallerfrom bootable Linux ISO files, which is why it works so well.
The process itself is fairly straightforward, and the big advantage here is that UNetbootin will allow you to choose your distro and version right within the interface, saving you a ton of time searching for various older versions of popular distros like Ubuntu and Fedora. Here are the steps, in detail:
Step 1: You can get the installation file for UNetbootin on Github page. Once your set-up is done, launch the program.
Step 2: Click the Distribution radio button at the top and select your Linux distro and the version from the drop-down menus next to it. If you want to use a pre-downloaded ISO file, you can use the Diskimage radio button instead, then select your disk image file from its location.
Step 3: At the bottom of the software window, select your media storage device and drive letter, and hit the OK button.
This method is best used if you're proficient in Linux and know a little bit about troubleshooting, just in case something should go wrong. Your only other alternative for technical support is to trawl through forums for a solution. However, this is probably one of the best open-source utilities to use as a Linux bootable USB creator on a Linux computer.
Honorable Mention: Startup Disk Creator
Startup Disk Creator is a bult-in application within Ubuntu desktop (14.04 and later) for creating bootable USB stick. You don't need to install any additional package or app to make it work. It can be used as a perfect alternative if UNetbootin is not working. Before getting started, make sure you have an USB drive with 4G volume and Ubuntu ISO file.
On a Ubuntu machine, insert USB drive and copy Ubuntu ISO file to Downloads folder. Type 'Startup' in searhc bar and open Startup Disk Creator from result. A minute later, you will see USB drive and Ubuntu ISO file are automatically detected by the application. Click Make Startup Disk to start writing files to USB.
Wrapping Up
All of these are great Linux bootable USB creation tools to for the platforms we've paired them with . Your choice should be based on the type of interface you like, burn reliability (success rate), ease-of-use, the skill level required, and other such factors. And, obviously, what platform you're on. If the recommended software not working, then choose the alternative we suggest in each section.