How to Create a Bootable Linux USB in Ubuntu?

Hello Friends,

In this tutorial, I will show you how to create a bootable linux usb in Ubuntu. step by step explain how to make a linux bootable USB drive. In this article, we will implement a create-the-bootable media linux mint installation guide. if you have a question about how to install linux mint via usb then I will give a simple example with a solution.

In this tutorial, we will explore two methods for creating bootable Linux USB drives using Ubuntu or Linux Mint: the command line and graphical user interface (GUI) approaches. By following these steps, you will be able to create bootable Linux USBs with ease.

Startup Disk Creator

Startup Disk Creator is a utility that is readily available with Ubuntu to help you create bootable disks easily. Whenever we install Ubuntu and Linux Mint then this is installed automatically as part of the default tools. Refer to the beneath steps to Create a Bootable USB stick or DVD using startup Disk Creator

Step: 1

Insert the USB disk / DVD into your computer system

Step: 2

Open the Start Disk Creator application in Ubuntu; shown in below image:

Access startup Disk Creator Ubuntu

Step: 3

Once the application is launched, it automatically looks for any ISO file in your Downloads folder and lists that ISO file in the Source image area of the utility,

If we want to choose another ISO file, click “Other” button to open the file and select the ISO we need; is as follows:

Debian9 Bootable Disk Startup Disk Creatoe

The USB flash drive or DVD whichever is connected to your computer is also automatically detected and placed in the “Disk to Use” section.

If not, Click “Other” button to choose the desired disk in which a bootable disk need to be created

Once everything is set, select the “Make Startup disk” button to create the bootable disk.

UNetbootin

UNetbootin is another tool that allows you to create bootable USB drives as it either downloads the ISO file or you can provide the downloaded ISO file to create a bootable disk easily. With UNetbootin you can create bootable disks for Ubuntu, Fedora, and other Linux distributions easily. UNetbootin also helps you to load a lot of system utilities into the USB disk to repair any configuration issues.

UNetbootin is not installed by default during Ubuntu and Linux Mint installation. Follow the below steps to Install UNetbootin on Ubuntu Linux & Linux Mint

nicesnippets@tworld:~$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gezakovacs/ppa
nicesnippets@tworld:~$ sudo apt-get update
nicesnippets@tworld:~$ sudo apt-get install unetbootin -y

To create a bootable USB disk / DVD using UNetbootin use the beneath steps:

Step: 1

Open the tool and select the distribution and the version as shown below-given images:

Access UNetbootin Ubuntu

Distribution Version UNetbootin Ubuntu LinuxMint

Step: 2

Select the location of the ISO file

Step: 3

Choose the type of disk USB / DVD in which the bootable disk needs to be created and also specify the drive letter of the USB / DVD disk; as shown below given image:

UNetbootin Create Bootable Disk Ubuntu LinuxMint

Step: 4

Click “OK” to start the process; like below given image:

UNetboot Progress Bootable Disk Ubunti LinuxMint

dd (Command line Utility)

People looking to burn an ISO from the command line can go for “dd“, an easy and simple command-line utility to create your bootable USB flash drive / DVD for Ubuntu/ Linux Mint.

To create a bootable USB disk / DVD using “dd”:

Step: 1

First step is to insert the USB disk into your computer and open the terminal (Press CTRL + ALT + T)

Step: 2

To find the USB device, you can use the following command:

nicesnippets@tworld:~$ sudo fdisk -l

Take for example our USB disk is in /dev/sdb

Now it is time to unmount the USB disk using the following command.

nicesnippets@tworld:~$ sudo umount /dev/sdb

Step: 3

For now let’s assume that the ISO file is in the current folder and then type the following command to burn the ISO into the USB device

nicesnippets@tworld:~$ sudo dd if=ubuntu-17.10-desktop-amd64.iso  of=/dev/sdb bs=4M
357+1 records in
357+1 records out
1501102080 bytes (1.5 GB, 1.4 GiB) copied, 164.77 s, 9.1 MB/s
nicesnippets@tworld:~$

where,

‘ubuntu-17.10-desktop-amd64.iso‘ is the ISO file and

‘bs=4M‘ is an optional command to speed up the creation process of the bootable disk.

Test Your Bootable Disk

It is better to check if the bootable disk has been created successfully. To check that you need to download a utility called QEMU, a machine emulator, and a virtualizer.

Open the command prompt and execute the following command on the command prompt to install qemu package:

nicesnippets@tworld:~$ sudo apt-get install qemu

Once the qemu package has been installed successfully then run the following command:

nicesnippets@tworld:~$ sudo qemu-system-x86_64 -hda /dev/sdb

Your booting process is successful if you see a virtual machine booting from your USB disk / DVD.

I hope it can help you...