Linux boot media need not be tricky! In today's episode, I'll talk about four ways to flash an ISO from Windows (and other systems too). I know a lot of you are switching to Linux because of Micros...
  • JustMarkov@lemmy.mlEnglish
    607·
    3 months ago

    four programs to make Linux boot media

    Or you can use one Ventoy to make a boot media with four Linux ISOs.

    • Otter@lemmy.caEnglish
      7·
      3 months ago

      What are some recommendations for putting Ventoy on your main USB (with other contents instead of just ISOs)? I need to find the guide I saw, it mentioned some configurations to prevent it from searching every directory for ISOs

      Also while I’m having some federation issues, the linked website can be subscribed to from here :)

      !veronicaexplains@tinkerbetter.tube

        • mle@feddit.org
          4·
          3 months ago

          Alternatively when creating the ventoy installation you can chose to leave X amount of space behind the ventoy partition and then create your own data partition there afterwards. You lose the advantage of “dynamically” sharing the available space between ventoy and your data, but with the seperqte partition you can use whatever filesystem you like for your data, and there is a clear seperation between ventoy and your other data.

        • 7eter@feddit.org
          2·
          3 months ago

          I never really noticed performance decrease. But still this is great to know - thank you!

    • Drusenija@lemmy.world
      2·
      3 months ago

      I have Ventoy on a USB stick, tried to use it recently for DBAN and it didn’t work, is there any way to get around that these days? Haven’t looked into it recently.

      • f4f4f4f4f4f4f4f4@sopuli.xyzEnglish
        4·
        3 months ago

        It works for Ultimate Boot CD, which includes DBAN and a lot of other fun stuff.

        I play with retro hardware and Ventoy has also worked for me with some weird old isos that even Rufus didn’t work with (XP/Server 2003 multidisc from eXPerience that uses a Linux bootloader?)

  • funbreaker@kbin.run
    322·
    3 months ago

    I like Ventoy because I’m an ISO hoarder but if the task needs a dedicated USB, then I’ll open Etcher.

    • theshatterstone54@feddit.uk
      85·
      3 months ago

      I don’t… understand… the downvotes. I do the same thing though I never really get to the Balena Etcher part. Also, Ventoy is the only way to get a Windows ISO up and running from Linux, as far as I know.

      • Fonzie!@ttrpg.network
        81·
        3 months ago

        The down votes are from the Etcher part, it has a cult of lovers and a cult of haters.

        I’m l fine with people using Etcher, Rufus, or whatever works for them, but I’m aware that both software I just named has passionate haters.

      • GustavoM@lemmy.worldEnglish
        44·
        3 months ago

        Sadly the “reddit mentality” has already established in this community – theres no “why” in these downvotes other than as a self-relief/validation thing.

    • jaxiiruff@lemmy.zip
      10·
      3 months ago

      Not everyone likes to use commands for something as trivial as this, its nice to press a couple buttons and wait for it to be done vs learning how dd works and what arguments to use etc.

      • foudinfo@jlai.lu
        13·
        3 months ago

        My favorite way to create a boot media is simply to use cat. No arguments, no shenanigans just a cat into the device :

        cat debian.iso > /dev/sda

        • Ghoelian@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          4·
          3 months ago

          iirc there was a reason you should use dd instead of directly copying the data, I think something to do with device block alignment or something?

          • foudinfo@jlai.lu
            1·
            3 months ago

            That could be possible but for the moment I didn’t encouter any problem with cat. I think I’m going to stick with it for the time being.

        • qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website
          1·
          3 months ago

          One caveat is that you will need write access to the drive, which probably means you need to run as root — can’t run that with sudo as-is, unlike dd.

          • foudinfo@jlai.lu
            2·
            3 months ago

            Yep that’s right, but I use fdisk to check my drives before writing on them and it also requires sudo…

            • qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website
              1·
              3 months ago

              Right, I just meant that you can’t sudo cat file > /dev/sda but you can sudo dd ..., because IO redirection isn’t elevated to root with sudo. I’m not saying anything too profound :)

              • foudinfo@jlai.lu
                2·
                3 months ago

                Oh right, my bad x) I agree, it’s a little bit akward to use su then cat everytime.

      • Fonzie!@ttrpg.network
        4·
        3 months ago

        Not everyone likes to install compicated graphical software which does a thousand and one things it shouldn’t do just to copy files to an external drive

  • Thrickles@lemm.eeEnglish
    182·
    3 months ago

    Great suggestions. The Ventoy bros are weird. Just use what works for you.

  • megabat@lemm.ee
    13·
    3 months ago

    dd, or cat with a shell redirect are all you need to write that iso.

    My trouble with dd is all the flags I need to remember to make it fast and more convenient. dd if=file of=/dev/device oflag=direct status=progress bs=1M is there anything I’m missing?

    • Molten_Moron@lemmings.world
      7·
      3 months ago

      bs=1M

      This part varies based on your hardware (my hardware is much faster with a value of 4096) , but other than that it’s everything.

      Here is a handy script that can help determine which bs size is best for your hardware.

    • mesamune@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      4·
      3 months ago

      dd can be soooo much faster too. But like you, I always forget the tags. I should make an alias sometime…

    • BaumGeist@lemmy.ml
      1·
      3 months ago

      The video description says it’s aimed at Windows users, dd and cat have no power there

      • megabat@lemm.ee
        2·
        3 months ago

        oflag=direct

        Prevents the writes from piling up in the cache. dd will report the transfer is done when the writes have been cached so this setting prevents dd from exiting until the data has been written completely to the block device.

        • BaumGeist@lemmy.ml
          2·
          3 months ago

          Use conv=fsync

          This ensures the cache is written before dd exits, but doesn’t necessarily write to disk directly. This means that, for small files, dd can finish release its hold on the input file quicker

  • BCsven@lemmy.ca
    8·
    3 months ago

    Nice thing about GNOME DE is it comes with Gnome Disks. Select device, click the restore image button and point to the ISO

    • Ziglin@lemmy.world
      2·
      3 months ago

      Or you could just install it on any other system with Wayland or x11.

      Gparted works fine for me, so that’s what I use.

      • BCsven@lemmy.ca
        1·
        3 months ago

        Gparted is awesome. But probably overwhelming for newbies just looking to burn an iso to USB. Raspberry PI Image Writer works very simply also.

    • Fonzie!@ttrpg.network
      2·
      3 months ago

      I like how simple Mint’s USB image writer makes it for newbies, both to look it up in the menu as well as the simple UI

      • BCsven@lemmy.ca
        2·
        3 months ago

        Yes, mint is good like that. GNOME has a separate Image Writer app/icon, but it has been turned off by default. So it is less discoverable for new people, but more simplified as is the GNOME way

  • jaxiiruff@lemmy.zip
    6·
    3 months ago

    Fedora Media Writer is the best, I hardly use BalenaEtcher but its good too incase the former doesnt work

  • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    3 months ago

    I don’t burn ISOs often enough to need a dedicated ventoy drive, or to remember how to use the DD command, so Impression is generally what I use. I generally prefer Libadwaita/GTK4 apps that look at home on my system.

      • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        3 months ago

        I have no idea, I’ve not had to install windows in a while. From a quick search I see conflicting info…

        A user reported it didn’t work, then the dev said he tested it and it works fine

    • Ghoelian@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      1·
      3 months ago

      Wait why was iso not intended to be used like this? As far as I can see, it was always meant as a digital image of a CD, which is how it was used, and pretty much still is right?

  • ѕєχυαℓ ρσℓутσρє@lemmy.sdf.org
    41·
    3 months ago

    I do use Ventoy, but a more “traditional” alternative that I like is Popsicle. Super lightweight, and works very well. Some cases do require a dedicated USB, where Ventoy won’t work, at least not without trickery (e.g. anything with persistent storage).

    • 🐍🩶🐢@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      3 months ago

      Me too! I have used it for a couple other non-rpi devices in the past as well. It is super simple and works on my Mac. I haven’t even looked at other utilities in years.

    • data1701d (He/Him)@startrek.websiteEnglish
      1·
      3 months ago

      Also a Raspi Imager fan when I have Pis around since I usually have it installed anyway.

      I would use dd, but I always worry I’ll bungle something and only use it when necessary. I’m trying to write a utility called Rubber Duck Disk Dump that takes all the same options but parses your command beforehand to try to guess what you’re doing and warn you if it is really, really stupid, and if you type yes, it then passes all args straight to dd.