Create bootable usb drive from linux

Make a bootable USB drive on any Linux distro

In this post, you will learn how to make a bootable USB drive in Linux system using the native Linux tools.

I know that many of you are scared of the Linux command line. Of course, you can use graphical programs to make a bootable USB in Linux. But believe me, you will benefit so much if learn the Linux command line tools. For example, if you need to make a bootable USB drive in Linux, different distributions provide different graphical programs to do that, but every Linux distribution has the same built-in tool to do the same job. So, you will benefit for it long-term.

Make a bootable USB drive in Linux

To make a bootable USB drive in Linux, you just need to learn one simple command. The command is dd .

Options explained:

sudo means to give admin privileges to this command.

dd is the program name.

bs=4M means to use a block size of 4M, so the system will read and write the data in chunks of 4M. This option is simply meant to speed up the process.

if specifies the source to read. Simply put, this is an ISO file of the Linux image you download from the Linux distribution website.

path-to-the-ISO — path to the ISO file. For example,

of specified the destination or where to write this ISO file. In other words, it is your USB drive. This is the most important part of the command, If you do mistake here, you can screw up your whole system. So, be very-very careful.

/dev/sdX means the name assigned to a device by your Linux system. It is some kind of analogy of disks C, D, E in Windows systems.

To find out the name Linux assigned to your flash drive, run this command:

Then you need to analyze the output like the one above. Usually, the USB devices are listed at the end. You find your flash drive by its size. It usually has only one partition. I know that my flash drive is 15Gb. So, its name is sdd. This name is not permanent and it depends on the order the drives are mounted to the system. So, you need to check your USB drive name every time you insert it into the computer

status=progress is not necessary. However, it is helpful because it will show you the progress during the writing process. Without this option, nothing will be printed on the terminal screen.

sync is actually another command, not an option. Sync clears the cache. Thanks to the && signs it will be executed as a chain with dd. This will make sure that all the data is written to the flash drive and nothing is left in the cache.

NOTE: I also need to WARN you that this procedure will wipe all the data from your USB flash drive. So, if you have any important data on it, copy it somewhere else before you run this command. I also recommend to back up the data from other hard drives, so you do not destroy them accidentally.

So, when you are sure that there is no valuable data on the flash drive and you specified all the names correctly, especially the of option, press Enter.

It usually takes several minutes to complete. When the process is finished, you can reboot your system and boot from a newly created bootable USB.

That is the way you can make a bootable USB drive in Linux.

Restore the USB drive

After you have used the bootable USB flash drive, you need to restore it back to its normal not-bootable state. So, to do that, you need to remove the bootable system from it. Run this command:

Then, where again sdX is your flash drive name without any number (in my case it is sdd). You can check it with:

After that create a new partition on it:

Select dos option.

And press enter to create a new partition.

Keep it at its maximum size. So, press enter.

Next, press enter again to make it primary. Navigate with the arrow keys to write and press Enter to write the changes.

Finally, type yes to confirm and quit the program.

Then, run this command, to check if a new partition has been created:

As you can see, the new partition has been created. It is named sdd1 in my example.

Then, format this partition as FAT file system:

Where ‘ALU’ is the label I give to this drive, you can use your name instead. And sdd1 is the partition name. Unlike in all the previous steps, where you used the device names, in this command you need to specify the partition name which ends with the number.

After these uncomplicated steps, your flash drive is like new and you can use it to store files.

Conclusion

Now you know how to make a bootable USB drive in Linux. You can now proceed to the installation process or test Linux live distributions.

So, leave your comment and give your opinion about this tutorial. Did you like it? Did you know about this tool?

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Tools To Create A Bootable Linux USB Drive

Last Updated on August 16, 2021

Insight: Tools To Create A Bootable Linux USB Drive

One of the easiest and the efficient way to install a Linux is via Bootable USB drive. In this post, we have mentioned some of the free tools to create a bootable Linux USB drive.

Tools To Create A Bootable Linux USB Drive

1. Unetbootin

Uneetbootin is a cross-platform, open-source and free to use tool to make your USB bootable.

For Ubuntu Users:

Run the following command to install.

2. Etcher – USB and SD Card Writer

Etcher is an open-source and cross-platform image writing tool. Etcher is developed using technologies like JS, HTML, node.js and GitHub’s Electron framework.

3. Gnome Multi-Writer

Gnome Multi-Write is a tool developed by the official Gnome project team. It can be used to write an ISO file to multiple USB devices at once.

4. Rufus

Rufus is lightweight, small and easy to use the software. It is a portable USB, bootable maker. It is available on Windows-based platform.

5. Ubuntu Startup Disk Creator

The Ubuntu Startup Disk Creator is a tool by Ubuntu which helps you to write the ISO image to your USB drive and make it bootable.

6. XBOOT

XBoot is an easy-to-use software to create Multiboot USB/ISO. One interesting feature is that you can compile multiple files like Linux, Antivirus rescue CDs, etc. into one Multiboot ISO file.

7. Universal USB Installer

Universal USB Installer is another easy to use Live Linux Bootable USB Creator. It is available for a Windows-based platform.

8. Linux Live USB Creator

LinuxLive USB Creator is an open-source free to use software which is only available for Windows. It can be used to create portable, bootable and virtualized USB disk running Linux.

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Create bootable usb drive from linux

With a bootable Ubuntu USB stick, you can:

• Install or upgrade Ubuntu
• Test out the Ubuntu desktop experience without touching your PC configuration
• Boot into Ubuntu on a borrowed machine or from an internet cafe
• Use tools installed by default on the USB stick to repair or fix a broken configuration

Creating a bootable Ubuntu USB stick is very simple, especially from Ubuntu itself, and we’re going to cover the process in the next few steps.

Alternatively, we also have tutorials to help you create a bootable USB stick from both Microsoft Windows and Apple macOS.

2. Requirements

• A 4GB or larger USB stick/flash drive
• Ubuntu Desktop 14.04 or later installed
• An Ubuntu ISO file. See Get Ubuntu for download links

3. Launch Startup Disk Creator

We’re going to use an application called ‘Startup Disk Creator’ to write the ISO image to your USB stick. This is installed by default on Ubuntu, and can be launched as follows:

1. Insert your USB stick (select ‘Do nothing’ if prompted by Ubuntu)
2. On Ubuntu 18.04 and later, use the bottom left icon to open ‘Show Applications’
3. In older versions of Ubuntu, use the top left icon to open the dash
4. Use the search field to look for Startup Disk Creator
5. Select Startup Disk Creator from the results to launch the application

4. ISO and USB selection

When launched, Startup Disk Creator will look for the ISO files in your Downloads folder, as well as any attached USB storage it can write to.

It’s likely that both your Ubuntu ISO and the correct USB device will have been detected and set as ‘Source disc image’ and ‘Disk to use’ in the application window. If not, use the ‘Other’ button to locate your ISO file and select the exact USB device you want to use from the list of devices.

Click Make Startup Disk to start the process.

5. Confirm USB device

Before making any permanent changes, you will be asked to confirm the USB device you’ve chosen is correct. This is important because any data currently stored on this device will be destroyed.

After confirming, the write process will start and a progress bar appears.

6. Installation complete

That’s it! You now have Ubuntu on a USB stick, bootable and ready to go.

If you want to install Ubuntu, take a look at our install Ubuntu desktop tutorial.

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How to Create a Linux Bootable USB Drive Using Linux

Easily create your own live Linux USBs

What to Know

• Download a Linux ISO file. Then, download Etcher, use the unzip command to extract it, and open and run Etcher.
• Insert a USB drive into the PC. Click Select Image, then navigate to the Linux ISO file. Etcher chooses a USB drive automatically.
• Select Flash and enter your password. The image is written to the USB drive. Boot from the USB drive to test the process.

This article explains how to create a Linux bootable USB drive using Etcher, a graphical tool that creates Linux bootable USB drives within Linux. Etcher works well on older machines with a standard BIOS and newer machines requiring an EFI bootloader.

Download and Extract Etcher

Etcher is a graphical tool that is easy to install and use on any Linux distribution. To start, visit the Etcher website and click the Download for Linux link.

Open a terminal window and navigate to the folder where Etcher was downloaded to. For example:

Run the ls command to make sure the file exists:

You should see a file with a name similar to the following:

To extract the files, use the unzip command:

Run the ls command again:

You will now see a file with a similar filename:

To run the program, enter the following command, replacing your actual filename:

A message appears and prompts you to create an icon on the desktop. Choose Yes or No, depending on your preferences.

Create the Linux Bootable USB Drive

When you create a Linux bootable USB drive, use a blank drive as all the data will be deleted.

Insert a USB drive into the computer.

Click Select Image, then navigate to the Linux ISO file you downloaded previously.

Etcher automatically chooses a USB drive to write to. If more than one drive is installed, click the change link below the drive and choose the correct one instead.

Select Flash.

Enter your password to give Etcher permission to write to the USB drive.

The image is written to the USB drive, and a progress bar shows how far through the process it is. After the initial flash part, it moves to a verification process. Do not remove the drive until the full process is complete, and it says it is safe to remove the drive.

Test the USB Drive

Reboot your computer with the USB drive plugged in. Your computer should now provide a menu for the new Linux system.

If your computer boots to the Linux distribution you currently use, then you may wish to choose the Enter setup option that most distributions provide in the GRUB menu. This takes you to the BIOS/UEFI boot settings. Look for the boot options and boot from the USB drive.

Choosing the perfect Linux distribution isn’t easy, but we have a guide that will help you choose a distribution. This guide also has download links for the ISO images required to create a bootable USB drive.

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How to Create Bootable USB from ISO using Linux Terminal

There are many third-party tools to create a bootable Linux USB Drive. Here I will show you how to create a bootable USB flash from ISO file using the Linux terminal.

Before we start make sure you have downloaded the .ISO file and have a USB flash drive with not less than 4GB capacity.

Check USB Drive

Connect the USB flash drive to your machine and check if it’s connected successfully. Use lsblk command to list all information about the attached block devices.

From the list find your USB drive’s mounted partition. In our case it’s /dev/sdc1. It is mounted by default.

Next, we must unmount the USB flash drive by the following command:

Make sure to change according to your USB drive and check if it has been unmounted again with lsblk command.

You must see the output without mount point in front of sdc1:

Download Linux ISO File

Here we will create a Ubuntu bootable flash drive, first go to ubuntu website and download the iso file to your Linux computer. Or you can download iso file from the command line using wget or curl command.

This will download iso file to the current directory.

Create Bootable Drive from Terminal

We are going to use dd command to create a bootable USB flash drive.

Where /path/to/input.iso is the path where .iso image downloaded. Make sure to change with your USB disk letter accordingly. The point here is to write the disk name itself (e.g. /dev/sdc) and not the partition (e.g. /dev/sdc1 ).

Where bs is read and write BYTES bytes at a time, if is the input file, of is the output file. The conv=fdatasync bit is important as dd can return before the write operation finishes.

By default the progress of the command will not be displayed, to view the progress you can use pv command:

Note: From 8.24 version of GNU Coreutils, dd command has the option to show the progress.

After the process is finished you can use USB as a bootable drive for ubuntu installation or repair.

Conclusion

Using the terminal to create a bootable USB drive is much easier and way faster than with GUI tools. Also, it is very useful to know how to do it in a terminal, because there isn’t always a GUI available. The main disadvantage, in this case, is that there is no double-check option for dd . GUI tools help you to identify and select the target drive, and provide a final checkpoint, where you can double-check, that you will be writing to the correct drive.

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