Live Usb For Centos On Mac

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Click on ‘Create Live USB’. Select the appropriate ISO image from your Finder and sit back for a while. Step 3 – Boot Linux. All that’s left to do is restart your Mac and boot Linux from the USB stick. To do this, shut down your mac, turn it back on. When you hear the. The Startup Security Utility defaults enforce the highest security by default. This won’t let you install Linux on your mac, let alone boot from a USB stick. Dual Booting with Mac OS (yes, you can keep MacOS!) I am writing this assuming that you want to keep Mac OS X on your hard drive and that you wish to dual-boot it at any time.

When you have downloaded the CentOS ISO image that you’d like to run from USB, there are a few simple commands to run from the terminal so that you can create a bootable USB key. This has only been tested on the CentOS 7 download but it should work for any bootable ISO.

1. In terminal, navigate to the directory where your CentOS download is saved (“Downloads” in my case).

2. Convert the .iso to a .img using the following command. You will need to ajdust the filename if you downloaded something other than the DVD iso.

hdiutil convert -format UDRW -o centosdvd.img CentOS-7.0-1406-x86_64-DVD.iso

3. We now need to copy the .img to the USB device. The first job is to identify and unmount the USB device.

You need to find the section that looks like this:

Note the first part “/dev/disk1“, this is the USB device that we need to unmount as can be seen from the size. If you have multiple devices attached, it may be a different number so make sure you check this part.

4. Finally, copy the image to the USB device.

This part can take some time but when you are back on the command propmt, the USB device should be bootable.

How to boot from a USB Flash Drive in VirtualBox. This process will allow you to run your Portable Linux from the USB Flash Drive or external hard drive while still running from a Windows, Linux, or Mac OS X Host. By default VirtualBox does not support USB Boot. However, this is easily attainable by mapping a virtual machine (.vmdk file) to the USB Drive.

VirtualBox Website: https://www.virtualbox.org

Updated: 11/14/2020 – Simplified steps, corrected paths, added sudo.

Boot a USB Flash Drive from VirtualBox (Windows Host)

  1. Download and run VirtualBox (Installing to the default path).
  2. You'll need to use the command line to perform steps 3-6,
    To open a command prompt;
    1.) From the Windows '⌕ Type here to search' box, type cmd.exe
    2.) Then click Run as administrator
  3. At the command prompt, type diskmgmt.msc and press Enter to open the Windows Disk Management Tool.

    diskmgmt.msc

    Then, Identify your USB Disk #

  4. Now, back at the command line, type

    cd %programfiles%oraclevirtualbox

  5. Replacing # with your USB Disk number from step 3, type

    VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename '%USERPROFILE%'.VirtualBoxusb.vmdk -rawdisk .PhysicalDrive#

  6. To start VirtualBox as Admin, type

    start virtualbox

  7. Click New, and then proceed to Create a New Virtual Machine.
  8. When prompted for a Virtual Hard Disk, tick use existing hard disk. Then, browse to your %USERPROFILE%.VirtualBox folder, and select the usb.vmdk file.
  9. Once done creating your New Virtual Machine, click Start.

If all goes well, VirtualBox should now be emulating, booting, and running your USB device from within Windows.

Getting Persistence to work in VirtualBox (Windows)

At first the USB flash drive might not work exactly like it does when booted natively. Things like Ubuntu's casper persistent feature won't work. Some distributions might not even boot, or will boot with errors. This is because the volumes on the device are mounted by Windows, preventing VirtualBox from gaining full access. In order to fix these issues, you can use a tool called LockDismount. Then simply run the tool (using the following steps), prior to starting the Virtual Machine that is tied to your USB.

1. Download the LockDismount tool

2. Launch the tool right before starting your VirtualBox VM

Centos Usb Drive

3. Select your USB from the drop-list, then Press Lock it!

Centos On Usb

(optionally you can check Force Dismount)

Now your flash drive should be able to boot in VirtualBox exactly as it does when booted natively on a physical machine. 😉

Boot from a USB Flash Drive in VirtualBox (Linux Host)

The following was performed from a running Ubuntu Operating environment. The same should work for most Debian/Ubuntu Linux based environments.

  1. Open a Terminal and type sudo apt install virtualbox

    sudo apt install virtualbox

  2. Next, Type sudo fdisk -l

    sudo fdisk -l

    (note which device is your USB drive I.E. /dev/sdx)

  3. Replacing x with your actual device letter found from step 2, type

    sudo vboxmanage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename ~/usb.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/sdx

  4. Type sudo virtualbox to start the program, and proceed create a New Virtual Machine.
  5. When prompted for a Virtual Hard Disk, tick use existing hard disk, then browse to your Home directory and select usb.vmdk.
  6. Once you've finished creating your New Virtual Machine, click Start.
Live Usb For Centos On Mac

If all went smoothly, you should now be running your USB flash drive from VirtualBox on the Linux Host.

Boot from a USB Flash Drive in VirtualBox (Mac OS X)

  1. Download and install VirtualBox for OS X Hosts via the .dmg file.
  2. Open a Terminal and type diskutil list

    diskutil list

    (make note of which disk is your USB drive I.E. /dev/disk#)

  3. Replacing # with the disk number of your USB drive, type

    diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk#

  4. Again, replacing # with your actual disk number, type

    vboxmanage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename ~/usb.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/disk#

  5. Once more, replacing # with the disk number, type

    diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk#

  6. Finally, to start the program with root access, type

    sudo virtualbox

  7. Next, Proceed to create a New Virtual Machine.
    When prompted for a Virtual Hard Disk, tick use existing hard disk.
    Then, browse to your Home directory and select usb.vmdk.
  8. Once finished creating your New Virtual Machine, click Start.

You should now be booting from your USB flash drive on the Mac OS X host using VirtualBox, while retaining the ability to boot from the drive natively as well.

How to Boot From a USB Flash Drive in VirtualBox published under USB Virtual Machine Emulation