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...
    • Otter@lemmy.caEnglish
      1·
      7 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
          1·
          7 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.

    • jaxiiruff@lemmy.zip
      1·
      7 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
        3·
        7 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

      • Fonzie!@ttrpg.network
        1·
        7 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

  • funbreaker@kbin.run
    2·
    7 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
      0·
      7 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
        1·
        7 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.

        • Blaiz0r@lemmy.ml
          1·
          7 months ago

          Etcher is not recommend anymore because it’s adware and there are better free alternative like Impression

    • Ghoelian@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      1·
      7 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?

  • jaxiiruff@lemmy.zip
    1·
    7 months ago

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

    • data1701d (He/Him)@startrek.websiteEnglish
      1·
      7 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.

  • EarthShipTechIntern@lemm.ee
    0·
    7 months ago

    I’ve used ventoy to set up a bootable USB with Mint & MX options. It allowed me to set the Mint with persistence. The MX has issues with persistence.

    How to set up reusable boot with dd I don’t know.

  • Thrickles@lemm.eeEnglish
    11·
    7 months ago

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

  • ColdWater@lemmy.ca
    0·
    7 months ago

    I curious because I don’t have the skill to test it myself but can you just manually copy everything to USB it’s just work?

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

      No, the drive needs a boot partition for the bios to know there is something to be booted on the drive.

      Most Linux ISO’s do properly include the partitions in the ISO, so you can clone the iso to a drive and that should work, using dd for example. But just copying the files won’t work.

      iirc windows iso’s did use to support just creating a fat32 partition and moving all the files over, not sure how they managed that. But now the international ISO for win 11 has a file that’s more than the max 4Gb allowed by fat32, so you can’t do that anymore either.

  • megabat@lemm.ee
    0·
    7 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?

      • megabat@lemm.ee
        0·
        7 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
          1·
          7 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