@ernie :
Hmm, I´m running out of ideas now. 
So sorry.
We need some fresh minds to help here.
Cheers from Rosika 
2 Likes
Look at @ernie 's command line closely
./safe-dd /home/ernie/Downloads/rescuezilla-2.4.2-64bit.jammy.iso /dev/sda1
I can not see if= or of=
dd is a very old Unix command… it has keyword parameters , not the usual positional parameters found in most unix commands.
safe-dd would seem to be the same as dd in that respect.
is that the problem?
Try like this
./safe-dd if=/home/ernie/Downloads/rescuezilla-2.4.2-64bit.jammy.iso of=/dev/sda1
2 Likes
That’s O.K. I didn’t expect to figure it out right now. Who knows, it could be something about Garuda configuration that I don’t know about.
Thank you for trying so hard,
Ernie
2 Likes
I already have. The command you see in my post to @Rosika was my effort to see if the safe-dd script wanted just the parameters. I suppose I should have mentioned that then, sorry.
I’m just a bit stuck on it for now. I’ll probably keep trying new things as I learn about them,
Ernie
2 Likes
Hi Ernie,
I think of=/dev/sda1 is wrong.
sda1 is a partition
you dont want to write it to a partition, you want to write it to a disk, namely your usb flash drive.
so you need to find out the name of your flash drive
take the flash drive out of its socket
do lsblk
that will list all your disks and partitions
then put the usb drive in its socket
do lsblk again
there will be one extra disk listed, compared to previous list
that is your usb drive
it will be a name like /dev/sdx where x is a letter like a, b, c, etc
Note there is no number at the end
then
the usb drive has to be unmounted to use with dd
go ahead and use
safe-dd if=..... of=/dev /sdx
substituting the appropriate letter for x
Sorry that is a bit complicated. You need a grasp of disk and partition names to use dd. When writing an .iso file dd needs to image it to the whole disk. If you dd’d it to a
partition, like you tried, it thinks you want a file-to-file copy to a file named sda1 in /dev and it fails because that file does not exist.
You can use dd to copy to a file, but of= has to be a valid filename in that case
dd can copy
- disk to disk
- file to disk
- partition to partition
- file to file
- device to file (eg reading a tape)
it is the second one you want in this case… because an .iso file IS a disk image
You see what I meant about dd being mistake-prone?
Cheers
Neville
3 Likes
You´re right, Neville. I seem to have overlooked it. How embarrassing. 
Yes, of course.
The example command the distrowatch author provided confirms this fact:
sudo safe-dd if=Fedora-38-Workstation.iso of=/dev/sdc
That´s certainly a good approach, Ernie.
Thanks for that summary of what dd is capable of, Neville.
I´ll give file to file a try on my Arch Linux vm.
I´m curious to see if the script works at all. 
Many greetings to all from Rosika
2 Likes
Just did the experiment:
arch@archlinux ~/versuche> ./safe-dd.sh if=/home/arch/nach_Installation/prov.txt of=/home/arch/versuche/kgw_experiment/2_prov.txt
Checking /home/arch/versuche/kgw_experiment/2_prov.txt
Executing nice dd if=/home/arch/nach_Installation/prov.txt of=/home/arch/versuche/kgw_experiment/2_prov.txt bs=4M status=progress
0+1 records in
0+1 records out
5509 bytes (5.5 kB, 5.4 KiB) copied, 0.0377493 s, 146 kB/s
Finished writing and sync.
arch@archlinux ~/versuche> diff -s /home/arch/nach_Installation/prov.txt /home/arch/versuche/kgw_experiment/2_prov.txt
Files /home/arch/nach_Installation/prov.txt and /home/arch/versuche/kgw_experiment/2_prov.txt are identical
Yes, it worked. 
So the script should be capable of mastering the task of providing a “safer dd”.
Many greetings from Rosika 
2 Likes
Hi Rosika,
Congratulations.
The script is fine, and @ernie should use it… it will protect him from the worst disasters.
As well as straight copies, dd will do various types of conversions… see the conv= option on the man page.
We used to use it for unblocking magnetic tapes and for converting from EBCDIC to ASCII.
It is old, but it survives because it is useful.
Regards
Neville
2 Likes
Hi Neville, 
thanks for the confirmation regarding the usefulness of the script.
Sounds great. I didn´t know that.
dd actually saved my day - or rather: my friend´s day (Margret´s) - when I last needed to put Linux Lite 6.4 on her newly acquired laptop (which came with WIN 10 of 11?) in S mode.
I first tried it with a ventoy stick, which refused to be recognized by the boot selection.
Copying the Linux Lite ISO to another stick directly with dd did the trick.
Many greetings from Rosika
2 Likes
That worked because dd obliterates all other rubbish on the stick. You get the iso file image and no residue of previous content.
New USB sticks are prone to having manufacturers rubbish files, which may help with windows but can interfere with linux booting.
2 Likes
Thanks, Neville, for the explanation. 
That´s interesting.
I certainly don´t like rubbish files.
Curiously enought the ventoy method worked with the laptop she had before.
I also installed a Linux distro there and this laptop had no problems with booting the Linux Lite ISO via ventoy.
Originally it came with WIN 10, I believe.
The main difference between the two laptops is that the latter one (the one with the “problems”) came with S mode. No idea whether that made an impact to it all.
Thanks and many greetings from Rosika
2 Likes
I bet that was also a different USB stick? Some have rubbish, some dont.
2 Likes
@nevj :
Actually it was the same usb-stick with ventoy (and the Linux Lite ISO) on it. 
It worked with one laptop but not with the other.
But: for the 2nd laptop (the problematic one) I indeed used another stick and - as I said before - put the ISO on it with the help of dd. It then worked flawlessly, i.e. it was recognized by the boot menu.
Well, I´m actually very glad that “older” tools like dd still exist.
Many greetings from Rosika
2 Likes
I’m beginning to think there may be something in how my Lenovo Legion 5 laptop PC powered by an Intel Core i7 CPU works under the hood/behind the scenes. I think my next step will be to give the script a try on my ASUS/AMD-powered desktop PC.
Another thing I plan to look into is writing the script by hand using nano on my laptop PC. I’ll probably try these things this afternoon. I’ll post back to ley you know what happens.
Ernie
2 Likes
Hi Ernie,
You are missing the point.
Look at reply No 25
Neville
2 Likes
I have already seen that post, and I’ve tried using safe-dd both ways, with, and without the partition number (/dev/sda1, /dev/sda). I get the same error report about a required file missing, either way. Additionally, after I saw your post, I ran lsblk, with, and without my USB stick connected, and /dev/sda is the correct designation for it, but thank you for trying to help me,
Ernie
1 Like
OK, you have that right
but still get
therefore your input filename must be the culprit
check that for spelling errors
can you do file /home/ernie/Downloads/rescuezilla-2.4.2-64bit.jammy.iso
does it find it?
1 Like
Yes, here’s the output:
╭─ernie@Traveler3 in ~ took 5ms
╰─λ file /home/ernie/Downloads/rescuezilla-2.4.2-64bit.jammy.iso
/home/ernie/Downloads/rescuezilla-2.4.2-64bit.jammy.iso: ISO 9660 CD-ROM filesystem data (DOS/MBR boot sector) ‘Rescuezilla’ (bootable)
Ernie
1 Like
That is weird. I am out of ideas.
Perhaps try with dd instead of safe-dd
Perhaps run safe-dd in a shell … it may give better diagnostics
sh -ex (safe-dd if= .... of=/dev/sda)
Check that you have dd installed which dd
Check that your OS does not require sudo for dd
The script uses nice dd .... do you have nice?
2 Likes
Note: I’ve had to re-write this post because I had a typo in the safe-dd command line - sorry.
bash didn’t like the parenthesis, so I removed them, and got this output:
╭─ernie@Traveler3 in ~ took 4ms
╰─λ sh -ex /home/ernie/Scripts/safe-dd if=/home/ernie/Downloads/rescuezilla-2.4.2-64bit.jammy.iso of=/dev/sdb
- $‘\r’
/home/ernie/Scripts/safe-dd: line 2: $‘\r’: command not found
I tried with ‘dd’ and got a ‘Permission denied’ error, so I ran the command again with sudo, and it works:
╭─ernie@Traveler3 in ~ took 4ms
╰─λ sudo dd if=/home/ernie/Downloads/rescuezilla-2.4.2-64bit.jammy.iso of=/dev/sdb
[sudo] password for ernie:
2348052+0 records in
2348052+0 records out
1202202624 bytes (1.2 GB, 1.1 GiB) copied, 60.6239 s, 19.8 MB/s
Ernie
1 Like