readme.md

Creating a Windows 11 Bootable USB on Ubuntu

This guide looks at creating a Windows 11 Bootable USB with preinstallation drivers drivers using a Dell XPS 8960 as an example. The Bootable USB will be prepared on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.

Checking System Information

To view system details. Open up Settings from the Start Screen:

To the left, select the System tab and then select About:

The hardware model and processor will be listed. In this case:

• Dell XPS 8960
• 13th Generation Intel Core i7-13700
• 16 GB RAM
• 1 TB SSD

The minimum generation of processor supported by Microsoft is 8th generation, there is at least 8 GB of RAM and the internal drive is a SSD greater than 256 GB so this system is officially supported for Windows 11.

For more information, select system details:

Downloading Installation Media

Windows 11 Installation Media can be downloaded from Microsoft: Windows 11 Software Download Page. The first two options are Windows Applications which cannot be run on Linux. Select the third option:

Select Windows 11:

Select the Language:

Note that for English there are two options:

• English (UK)
• English (USA)

Microsoft refer to English (UK) as English International.

Select Confirm:

Select 64-Bit Download:

The ISO will be downloaded and saved in Downloads:

Checking the ISO sha256 Checksums

Open up the Terminal and input:

sha256sum path_to_windows.iso

Replacing path_to_windows.iso with the path of your installation image. For convenience the ISO can be dragged into the terminal to retrieve the path:

Copy the sha256 checksum. Note to copy from the terminal use Ctrl, ↹ + c instead of Ctrl + c as the latter keyboard shortcut is mapped to cancel an operation. Ctrl, ↹ + v is used for pasting:

On the Windows 11 software download page, select verify your download:

Press Ctrl + f to open the find prompt in FireFox and press Ctrl + v to paste the sha256 checksum:

If the ISO has been correctly downloaded these should match:

Downloading Dell Drivers

Windows 11 unfortunately lacks two important drivers for current Dell systems. These include:

• Storage Controller Driver - Required to access the internal drive to install windows
• Wireless Network Driver - Required to access the internet

Dell drivers can be downloaded from Dell Drivers and Downloads.

Input your model, in this case XPS 8960:

Select Windows 11 under Operating System and Storage under Category:

Select Intel Rapid Storage Technology and select Download:

Select Windows 11 under Operating System and Network under Category:

Select Wireless Driver and select Download:

The Drivers are in the form of a Dell Update Package. The Dell Update Package is a Windows Application that gives the option to install or extract a driver. Linux cannot run the Windows Application. Changing the file extension from .exe. to .zip allows it to be extracted. Right click the storage controller driver file and select Rename:

Change the .exe to .zip:

Right click the .zip file and select Extract:

Navigate through the extracted folder to find the driver:

In this case there is a production, windows, windows build and then drivers subfolder:

The drivers folder contains the VMD folder:

And the raw drivers look like the following:

Go back up two levels and rename Drivers to F6Drivers:

F6 Drivers

F6 is a historical term as legacy Windows Versions prompted to press F6 during the Windows Setup to install a storage controller driver from a Floppy Disk. We no longer need to press F6 and thankfully do not need to use a floppy disk.

Move F6Drivers to Downloads:

The .exe and rest of the extracted folder can be deleted:

Right click the wireless network driver file and select Rename:

Change the .exe to .zip:

Right click the .zip file and select Extract:

Navigate through the extracted folder to find the driver:

In this case there is a production, windows, windows build and then drivers subfolder:

This contains a folder wth the model of wireless card:

And the raw drivers look like the following:

Go back up two levels and rename Drivers to NetworkDrivers:

Move NetworkDrivers to Downloads

The .exe and rest of the extracted folder can be deleted:

Right click the ISO file and select Mount:

It's contents looks a follows:

Install GParted

GParted will be used to manually partition a Bootable USB. Open up Software and search for GParted:

Select Install:

Installation requires superuser privileges. Input your password and select authenticate:

GParted is now installed:

Partitioning the USB Flash Dive

Launch GParted from the Start Screen:

To repartition a USB requires superuser privileges. Input your password and select authenticate:

The Bootable USB requires a FAT32 Boot Partition as some systems require a FAT32 Partition in order to display a Bootable Device in the BIOS Boot Menu. Unfortunately the maximum file size for the FAT32 file system is 4.0 GB and the install.wim exceeds this, so we need to make a NTFS partition also.

In the dropdown to the left, select the USB Flash Drive:

Right click all partitions on the USB Flash Drive and select Unmount:

Select Device → Create Partition Table:

Select GPT and apply:

Right click the unallocated space and select New:

Change the options to:

• New Size: 1024
• Partition Name: BOOT
• File System: FAT32
• Label: Boot

Select Add:

Right click the unallocated space and select New:

Change the options to:

• Partition Name: INSTALL
• File System: NTFS
• Label: INSTALL

The new size should automatically populate the rest of the USB. Select Add:

Select apply all operations:

Select apply:

Select Close:

Copying Files to USB

From the ISO copy everything except sources to the BOOT partition:

Create a new folder on the BOOT partition called sources:

Open up sources on the ISO and in BOOT:

Copy the boot.wim to the BOOT partitions sources folder:

From the ISO copy everything to the INSTALL partition:

From downloads copy F6Drivers and NetworkDrivers to the INSTALL Partition:

The installation media is now ready. Return to Windows 11 Setup Guide.