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Bootloader equivalent to Rufus

I’ve been trying to find a linux programming similar to Rufus to flash images of OSes on a thumb drive.

Nothing from the listicles on the internet or the programs in flatpak have worked for me as well as Rufus on Windows.

What have you used that’s worked well? Or, could I run Rufus on my linux machine with WINE?

ulkesh ,
@ulkesh@beehaw.org avatar

Ventoy is great as others have said, and probably would do what you want since it has its own installer and is its own bootloader, and can boot isos loaded on the USB drive.

If you want something that works, in my experience, as well as Rufus, maybe take a look at Balena Etcher, too.

Frederic ,

Well, on MX I’m using “MX Live USB Maker” which can flash any ISO on thumb drive, it’s a built-in tool.

Now I’m using Ventoy, you just put multiple ISO on the thumb drive and choose it when you boot the USB drive, it’s wonderful, no more “1 OS per drive”, you just take a 32GB USB drive and you can put 10 distro on it.

www.ventoy.net/en/screenshot.html

om1k ,

ventoy is what has worked best for me

eth0slash0 ,

One of these should do what you’re looking for. Each has a slightly different approach.

etcher.balena.io

unetbootin.github.io

www.ventoy.net/en/index.html

muhyb ,

From this list, only Unetbootin can create Windows installation disk. For this, there is also WoeUSB but it’s CLI only.

jws_shadotak ,

Ventoy can do windows installations as well

muhyb ,

Didn’t know about that. Thanks for the clarification!

BearOfaTime ,

Ventoy kicks ass for a multi-boot drive. Just drop the ISO on the drive and Ventoy sees it. Slick

Ghoelian ,

+1 for ventoy. With that you can just flash ventoy on it once, then copy iso’s over to the usb drive without reformatting or reflashing anything.

Telorand ,

I could never get Ventoy to work. From Windows ISO’s to several versions of Linux, it never got detected as a bootable drive. YMMV

I like the idea, but it would be great if it was more compatible with different setups.

BearOfaTime ,

I’ve found some thumb drives don’t like to boot.

Ventoy has worked for almost everything. Proxmox doesn’t like it.

Telorand ,

To be fair, I seem to have a not-so-super superpower to blind pick the USB devices that have the least support for Linux stuff (the aforementioned drives, a WiFi module, etc.).

BearOfaTime ,

Hahahaha, sorry to hear (but I empathize). I can be a cheap bastard, so I have some shitty thumb drives around. I figure they eventually die anyway, so this stuff isn’t permanent.

I keep a folder on my server with the tools and noted to rebuild each one. Sometimes I even make an image with the tools, and only leave the ISOs out.

f4f4f4f4f4f4f4f4 ,

I maintain older hardware at work. We have a platform based on a Biostar motherboard with no USB3 ports, and it will not boot from any USB3 drive I’ve tried. Any USB2 drives work fine. Picky, picky! 🤷

Certainity45 ,

Your machine is UEFI, which means your usb stick must be formatted in gpt. Ventoy defaults to mbr which means lagacy bios. It is just 3 mouse click setup.

Try again. Because it is the best method. I just updated 2,5 years old Ventoy stick without any issues without re-formatting.

Telorand ,

Hey, thanks! I’ll give that a try. I really like the idea of having a one stick to rule them all, so hopefully that works

bigmclargehuge ,
@bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

I’ve had issues with Ventoy on multiple computers with multiple isos. +1 for convenience, -1 for not working 3/4 of the time (for me, I’m sure there are numerous factors).

tombruzzo OP ,

Thanks, I’ll check these out

governorkeagan ,

Popsicle from Pop!_OS is also very good - really simple. I’m not sure if it can create a bootable Windows USB though.

github.com/pop-os/popsicle

Fedora Media Writer is also another good option.

docs.fedoraproject.org/…/preparing-boot-media/

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