USB extension
 

Dear Friends, I appologize if this is not the right place to post my question, well, I've downloaded a linux distribtion with usb extension (to be direct this is exactly the name of the file :sol-11_3-live-x86.usb).
My problem is I don't know how to open or mount this kind of format
(Normally I use .iso)
Could anybody drop some clues here please
thanks in advance

According to the documentation here (https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E36784_01...TCKusbdownload), it's a straight dd copy (rename the target device diskN in the command below accordingly and make doubly sure that you're referring to the right device - it may be something like sdb - use sudo fdisk -l to find the device name):

wherever you downloaded that mysterious file from, whatever distro that is, they probably have instructions on their pages.
the extension is a helpful pointer, but without any real meaning. in other words, it could be anything.

To be fair to the OP, the Oracle "how to install the .usb file to a usb stick" information that was linked to by the downloads page for the ISO in question didn't actually provide the information it promised (nice one, Oracle). I had to do some rooting around to find the relevant information that I posted above.

Dear friends, thank you for your replies, However,I did this command : sudo dd if=/home/sol-11_3-live-x86.usb of=/home/solaris11.iso, the process went smooth without errors, but when tried this file image (the output iso file) on virtualbox, ite wasn't bootable,
I will try to add "bs=16k" and I hope it will work.
Again, many thanks for your replies

If you wanted to use it in VirtualBox, rather than set up an USB installer, why did you download the .usb version rather than the .iso version which was right next to it on the Oracle downloads page?

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/se...-2245079.html?

It's a long story dear hydrurga :) .Bref, I don't have access to inernet, it was only a friend who download it for me.

Ah, Ok. You should ask your friend to download the iso version.

Alternatively, you could dd that .usb to an actual usb stick and then try booting from it in VirtualBox - that *may* work, but you would probably have to access the internet to find out how to do it.

one that is not Linux it is Solaris and you might find you cannot do everything you'd what to with it. even though the OS is free everything else isn't (98.99% of it anyways)

and it will take over your entire system/drive/dual booting well better break out the how tos... chainload

Try using the image as an installation 'disk' for your virtual environment.
You will need to create a virtual machine 'file' to install it into.
It can be tricky, but does work. :)

If you are going to use it in a Virtual Box then just download the other one that is an iso problem solved. That is the one I've used and I had less to no problems with it. the usb one if trickier then the iso one in both cases.

remember it is NOT linux it is Solaris

so you happened to recognize what this is about just from the file name, but all op wrote was "a linux distribution"...
:rolleyes:
no harm done on either side, but it would have been up to you, some3020, to drop us some clues in the first place, please.

Throw sol-11_3-live-x86.usb into Google and it takes you straight there. ;-)

The .usb probably contains some partition and bootloader stuff. You might be able to use split to segment off the part you want. Or dd it to an actual drive and grab just the partition part. Or download the preferred thing from the source and ignore that file. Unless you're on dialup or something the later is probably best, or at least most probable to work.

Try the dd command again, and this time, send it to the USB drive, not to /home/solxxxx.
I'm surprised hydrurga didn't catch this one. The "of=" part needs to be the path to the USB drive.

EDIT: The dd command you tried is like right clicking on the .usb file and renaming it with a .iso extension, no need to use dd when all you need to do in your example was to rename it.

Hydrurga didn't catch this one because OP originally gave no indication that he/she wanted to boot off the downloaded .usb in a VirtualBox VM rather than write it to a USB stick (which is where the .usb file is intended to be dd'd). Hence the note in post #2 "it may be something like sdb" and the comment in post #4 "how to install the .usb file to a usb stick". I was as surprised as others when it transpired that the OP wanted to actually boot off the .usb file as an .iso rather than write the file to a USB stick.

Hydrurga is therefore most sorry that he didn't anticipate this as a possibility and change the original Oracle-quoted dd command to "of=/dev/sdb" (although sdb isn't necessarily the USB drive which is why I recommended sudo fdisk -l to determine its actual device name). Although, in the end, it didn't matter, as it transpired that this wasn't what OP actually wanted to do, hence my post #6.

And, breathe out... ;-)

So...
What you are saying....
The OP could just burn it to a small partition or virtual drive "file" with dd, then mount that in VB and that would probably solve the issue?

Given the circumstances, I think the OP should take the path of least resistance and ask their friend to download the .iso version for them and use that in VirtualBox.

However, if I were in the same situation, I personally would at least try dd'ing the .usb file to a physical usb stick and launch a VirtualBox VM from it. I've never tried this before but there are instructions on the web on how to do it.

Interestingly, the x86 Live Media .iso on the downloads page http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/se...l-2245079.html is 1.1GB, while the .usb file is 1.4GB. Goodness knows why there is such a difference.

Damn straight!

Thank you soooo much dear friends. the command dd perfectly worked when i have changed the destination to physical USB stick. (And I had to run some extra commands to make vm run directly from physical USB stick (for the information, this is the command "sudo VBoxManage convertfromraw /dev/sdb ./usb.vmdk --format vmdk")
Finally I got it work because of you guys
Many thanks for all of you.

Nice one. Glad it worked!