- cross-posted to:
- linux@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- linux@lemmy.world
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I like Ventoy because I’m an ISO hoarder but if the task needs a dedicated USB, then I’ll open Etcher.
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.
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.
Etcher is not recommend anymore because it’s adware and there are better free alternative like Impression
I’ll check Impression out, thanks!
Sadly the “reddit mentality” has already established in this community – theres no “why” in these downvotes other than as a self-relief/validation thing.
I really don’t get why I should use anything else than dd
Fear?
“What, you guys don’t spend money in several external ssds?”
– this guy
What? You can use dd to read/write any block storage device (or file)
Great suggestions. The Ventoy bros are weird. Just use what works for you.
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=1Mis there anything I’m missing?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.
Neat! I’ll have to try that out.
I think you might mean 4096.
Yes, I do! Thanks!
dd can be soooo much faster too. But like you, I always forget the tags. I should make an alias sometime…
The video description says it’s aimed at Windows users, dd and cat have no power there
oflag=direct
What does this do?
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.
Use
conv=fsyncThis 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
dd
Also a super useful tool for measuring real world bandwidth, both on physical media and over the network (
dd status=progress ... | nc ...).
Nice thing about GNOME DE is it comes with Gnome Disks. Select device, click the restore image button and point to the ISO
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
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
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.
Gparted is awesome. But probably overwhelming for newbies just looking to burn an iso to USB. Raspberry PI Image Writer works very simply also.
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.
Does impression support Windows ISOs? Or only ISOHybrid (what Linux ISOs use so you can add them)
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
I generally use the Raspberry Pi Imager, It works just as well with USB’s as TF cards.
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.
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.
It’s also an old and jumbled-up format paralleling .gif in a surprising amount of ways, including being never intended for its primary usage, still being popular, and newer formats proving much better.
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?
Oops, yeah, you’re right. I was thinking about the live ISO functionality.
Little known fact, Disk Manager comes with almost every distro, and works just fine.
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).
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.
MX has its own built in tool to make a bootable USB with persistence
Will have to check it out.
Thanks
Another program that works on Windows, which I prefer to Balena Etcher, but less so than Rufus: unetbootin
Mark Shuttleworth’s Startup Disk Creator
