Woeusb

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WoeUSB is a command-line utility for creating Microsoft Windows USB installation media, written in Bash.

Microsoft Windows Vista through Windows 11, including Windows PE, are fully supported.

Bootable media can be written using the FAT32 and NTFS filesystems, which can be booted using legacy BIOS and UEFI firmware provided the version of Windows being deployed supports it.

Installation

Emerge

Install sys-boot/woeusb:

root #emerge --ask sys-boot/woeusb

Note that there are no USE flags for WoeUSB.

Additional software

While the original version of woeusb is written in Bash, a Python-based rewrite is underway called woeusb-ng. This package is not yet available in the mainline Gentoo package repository, but a well maintained ebuild exists in GURU.

Usage

WoeUSB will not automatically acquire a Windows installation .iso file, it requires that such a file already be on-hand. From Windows 10 forward it's simple enough to obtain an installation .iso directly from Microsoft's website. That done, the actual boot USB can be created with the following command:

root #woeusb --device <windows_installation_disc_image>.iso /dev/<usb_device> --target-filesystem ntfs

A lot goes into creating a Windows boot disk. This command can take the better part of an hour to complete — potentially longer when executed on resource constrained systems.

Invocation

user $woeusb --help

WoeUSB 5.2.4 Help Information
=============================

WoeUSB can create a bootable Microsoft Windows(R) USB storage device from an existing Windows optical disk or an ISO disk image.

Supported installation drive preparation modes
----------------------------------------------

Currently two creation methods are supported:

### `--device`, `-d` ###

Completely WIPE the entire USB storage device, then build a bootable Windows USB device from scratch.

WARNING: All previous data on the device will be gone!

```synopsis
$ woeusb --device <source media path> <device>
```

```example
woeusb --device Windows7_x64.iso /dev/sdX
woeusb --device /dev/sr0 /dev/sdX
```

### `--partition`, `-p` ###

Copy Windows files to an existing partition of a USB storage device and make it bootable.  This allows files to coexist as long as no filename conflict exists.

WARNING: All files that has the same name will be overwritten!

```synopsis
woeusb --partition <source media path> <partition>
```

```example
woeusb --partition Windows7_x64.iso /dev/sdX1
woeusb --partition /dev/sr0 /dev/sdX1
```

Command-line Options
--------------------

### `--verbose`, `-v` ###

Verbose mode

### `--help`, `-h` ###

Show this help message and exit

### `--version`, `-V` ###

Print application version

### `--about`, `-ab` ###

Show info about this application

### `--no-color` ###

Disable message coloring

### `--debug` ###

Enable script debugging

### `--label`, `-l <filesystem_label>` ###

Specify label for the newly created file system in --device creation method

Note that the label is not verified for validity and may be illegal for the filesystem

### `--workaround-bios-boot-flag` ###

Workaround BIOS bug that won't include the device in boot menu if non of the partition's boot flag is toggled

### `--debugging-internal-function-call <function name> (function_argument)...` ###

Development option for developers to test certain function without running the entire build\n

### `--target-filesystem`, `--tgt-fs <filesystem name>` ###

Specify the filesystem to use as the target partition's filesystem.

Currently supported: FAT(default)/NTFS

### `--for-gui` ###

No longer supported, reserved for compatibility with the wrapper programs

Removal

Unmerge

Uninstall sys-boot/woeusb:

root #emerge --ask --depclean --verbose sys-boot/woeusb

External resources

woeusb-ng GURU ebuild the Python-based rewrite of the original woeusb.
Microsoft Windows 10 Installation Media
Microsoft Windows 11 Installation Media