Hi, it would be great if all Distros had live USB maker capabilities. MX live USB maker checks the intergrity of the downloaded iso and then makes a bootable USB. No fuss and a completely hassle free experience. Just wondering if Distros are able to copy live USB maker code from other distros. Thanks for a very informative forum, n
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Linux mint has part of the system a make boot usb.
But there is also tools in the repository to do the same thing
Hi, good to hear Linux Mint also features this. Just makes that part of the Linux experience so far easier and user friendly. n
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In theory yes, but you may have to go back to the source code and do a port..
For example… the tool in MX probably comes as a .deb package. You may be able to move a .deb package to another Debian based distro, but not to some distro with a different package system like Fedora or Arch.
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Is a tool available on windows, mac and most versions of linux
Available direct from the site above, depending on your version of linux you may also find it in the software repositories on your version.
Other tools exist but this is popular.
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I think @normigeem wants a tool that makes a live usb out of the current running distro, not one that copies an iso file to usb
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The Raspberry Pi imager can do this… it’s available for Linux x86_64, Windows and MacOS…
It’s ostensibly for writing Raspbian armhf / arm64 to an SD-Card - but - you can use it to write to an SSD or a USB thumb drive - and - you can use it to make a bootable device for x86_64 Linux distributions too…
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Create USB installation media from bootable ISOs
Is what etcher Does ?
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Hi Neville, you are 100% right.
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I’m not sure if this is the correct way but on Gentoo there’s catalyst which one can use to make a stage4 tarball. It might be possible to convert it to an .iso file. Check the link:
Edit: it seems catalyst is Gentoo only tool
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OK you want to make an iso from your current running linux
I think the list is Mint, Ubuntu, MX, Fedora
There may be others, it is getting popular
I once made one by hand in Void. Started with the Void iso, extracted the squashfs from it, unpacked the squashfs, overwrote it with my current Void filesystem, repacked the squashfs, put the new squashfs into the Void iso , copied it to a usb.
It worked… took me quite some time. … then I discovered Void has a script called mklive
It may be possible to use that script on other distros… I dont know.
Most distro’s iso files use a squashfs, but the way they make it bootable is different for every distro. It is a minefield.
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Possible but difficult. You need a kernel as well as a stage 3 tarball, and a bootloader.
See my reply No 11
An iso consists of 3 things
- a squashfs containing the full linux root filesystem
- I am not sure if the initramfs is in the squashfs or separate… cant remember.
- a collection of bits and pieces that boot it
The latter tends to be different for every distro.
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Hi Neville, thanks for the list. In my opinion those are leading edge distros. Maybe one day all distros will have live USB creator capabilities. I know there are Etcher and Rufus, If your current Distro has this capability it will make life so much more user friendly for new Linux converts. Thank you to all, much appreciated for your thoughts. Best wishes, n
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Void maybe, not the others, but I get your point… you want usb apps in originals like Debian
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Hi Neville, yo can add POP OS to your list of distros with live USB creators. n
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Revised list
Mint
Ubuntu
Pop OS
MX
Fedora
Void
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Hi again Neville, Q4OS now has MX Tools available.This is the location of live USB creator. So Q4OS can be added to your list, n
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Another redraft
Mint
Ubuntu
Pop OS
MX
Fedora
Void
Q4OS
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