Windows users know this well: Rufus is a valuable open source tool that allows you to create a bootable USB stick. The storage unit set up with Rufus gives you the opportunity to start any installation media of Windows (even a version of the operating system running from removable media with Windows To Go) and any Linux distribution, even in mode live. Rufus per Linux to date it does not exist and penguin users interested in creating a boot USB stick must necessarily look for other tools. Below we present a selection.
Ubuntu, Boot Disk Creator
If you are using Ubuntu know that the distribution supported by Canonical integrates software to create bootable drives. Is called Boot disk creator and can be performed by opening the applications menu and then carrying out a search with the appropriate bar.
Once started, the utility Bootable disk creator allows you to select aISO image and a target USB device.
Etcher
One of the best utilities for creating bootable USB media on Linux is Etcher, a versatile and reliable tool that is also compatible with Windows and macOS. We had dedicated an in-depth article to balenaEtcher and the differences with Rufus.
Etcher allows you to write ISO images or operating system images on storage devices such as USB sticks, external drives and SD cards, easily and securely. The simple one user interface makes the writing process suitable for everyone, even less experienced users.
The application is known for its speed and reliability in the process writing images on USB devices. When the operation is complete, Etcher automatically runs a verify to ensure that the image has been stored correctly on the USB drive, minimizing the possibility of errors.
Per install Etcher and run it in a Linux environment, you can go to this page and then download the file Appimage which allows you to load the program on Ubuntu. However, the developers provide instructions for using a Debian .deb or Red Hat .rpm package.
The operation of Etcher for Linux, once the program has been started, is identical to the Windows version: data can be written starting from a file ISO local or from a remote URL.
UNetbootin
Another popular one cross-platform utility to create bootable USB drives is UNetbootin. The download is carried out using the binary files linked on the reference page or using the Personal Package Archive (PPA) for free:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gezakovacs/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install unetbootin
UNetbootin is a versatile and powerful tool for creating USB bootable devices using ISO images. It is especially useful for Linux users who want to quickly create bootable devices to install operating systems or run live sessions.
L’interfacesimple and intuitive, allows you to select the ISO file to use: just click on the “…” button next to the “ISO image” and search your system for the ISO image you are interested in.
Ventoy
There is also one of the best known and most appreciated multiplatform utilities Ventoy. It is a tool that allows you to boot multiple operating systems from the same USB stick. Rather than sacrificing a large flash drive to accommodate a single ISO file, Ventoy allows you to insert and make multiple ISO files bootable allowing, for example, multiple Linux distributions to coexist with various versions of Windows.
Ventoy supports a wide range of ISO images and operating systems, allowing users to create bootable USB devices for different needs and purposes. The installation of Ventoy your Linux it is quick and direct, thanks to the appropriate installation and configuration scripts.
It also integrates the convenience of automatic updatesensuring that users can always benefit from the latest features and bug fixes.
How to install Ventoy on Linux
Per install Ventoy on Linux, you must download the most updated file with suffix linux.tar.gz. By typing the following command, in the terminal window Linux (you need to move to the folder where you extracted the contents of the compressed file), it is possible to extract the contents of the compressed archive:
tar -xzvf ventoy-*.tar.gz
At this point, writing cd ventoy-1.X.XXyou access the folder that hosts the files necessary for installing Ventoy.
From here, you can launch the script that allows you to create bootable external drives using your web browser, without needing to take any additional steps. The instruction to be given is the following:
sudo ./VentoyWeb.sh
Set up bootable USB media from your web browser
To use Ventoy, just copy the local URL (of the type http://127.0.0.1) displayed in the terminal window and paste it into the address bar of your web browser. You can now specify the characteristics of the storage medium external to make it bootable.
At the end of the procedure, you simply have to copy ISO files in the called partition Ventoy, inside the newly prepared USB stick. Leaving the support inserted at thesystem startupVentoy allows you to choose the ISO image to use.
In case a Linux image should not start correctly, you can try pressing the key combination CTRL+R to use the GRUB2 bootloader. For Windows, however, if you are unable to boot an ISO file of the Microsoft operating system, you can use it instead CTRL+W. The advice is to choose the voice Boot in normal mode and then turn up Boot in wimboot mode when the Windows ISO does not appear correctly bootable.
WoeUSB-ng
An open source tool that helps Linux users create bootable media containing Windows is WoeUSB-ng. This is a completely revised version of the original project (WoeUSB). Before the arrival of Ventoy, WoeUSB was one of the most “popular” choices in the penguin environment for those who needed to create storage media boot Windows.
The abandonment of the original project in 2014 by its developer led to the birth of WoeUSB-ngwhere the suffix “ng” stands for “new generation“.
Between characteristics noteworthy is support for the modern UEFI BIOS as well as for legacy configurations, for NTFS and FAT32 file systems as well as the ability to use images of any source media.
The users of Arch Linux they can install WoeUSB-ng from the official repository (AUR). In other distributions, WoeUSB can be installed via pip, being a Python application. The commands to use are available in this support document.
In the case of Ubuntu/Debian, just use the following syntax:
sudo apt install git p7zip-full python3-pip python3-wxgtk4.0 grub2-common grub-pc-bin parted dosfstools ntfs-3g
Opening image credit: iStock.com – GetUpStudio