Alternative to Unetbootin for Linux? [Solved]

MC · 2016-02-09 12:59

Unetbootin is not available for Jessie, so it there an alternative I can install on Q4OS?

Everything I've found on the web requires Windows to use. I did find a YUMI deb package. Does anyone here know if this will play nice with Jessie/Q4OS?

Last edited by MC (2016-02-10 00:05)

ichbin1199 · 2016-02-09 15:16

Hi,

there is a good solution that I always use since unetbootin does not always work. It is the command line tool called dd. This is how to use it to write a bootable iso on a usb key: go to the folder where you downloaded the iso, open a terminal and type: dd if=name_of_the_iso of=/dev/sdx [replace x with the letter of your drive. If you do not know it, type the command df -h and look for your drive] bs= 2MB && sync
So it goes like this:
dd if=path_to_the_iso of=path_of_the_drive bs=2MB && sync
When the terminal prompt comes back, that means that the key is ready to use.

There is another solution that's called multisystem. It allows to install various installation images (even window$)on a single usb key:
https://doc.ubuntu-fr.org/multisystem
It's written in french but the useful command lines are in section 2.2.

jimdunn · 2016-02-09 18:53

I use ddrescue instead of dd, for instance, to burn Raspberry Pi 2 img files, I have an sdcard.sh script with:

sudo ddrescue -d -D --force $1 /dev/mmcblk0

MC · 2016-02-09 19:48

@ichbin1199 ~ This is what I was looking for. I've seen it many times over the years, but never bothered...Unetbootin was always available.

So, in my case, this is how the command should look, right?

dd=q4os-1.4.7-x64.iso of=/dev/sdc1 bs=2MB && sync

What is the 2 megabyte for? (2MB)

@jimdunn ~ I found a couple of links for ddrescue and am going to give them a look as well. Just one question; In your experience, is there a noticable advantage of ddrescue over dd?

@crosscourt ~ Way ahead of you. That was my first stop a few days ago. No happiness there.

Thanks everybody.

ichbin1199 · 2016-02-09 20:20

MC wrote:

@ichbin1199
So, in my case, this is how the command should look, right?
dd=q4os-1.4.7-x64.iso of=/dev/sdc1 bs=2MB && sync
What is the 2 megabyte for? (2MB)

You're welcome!

Yes, your command looks ok but make sure you opened the terminal in the same folder that contains your iso image and if it's not the case, just type the full path of it (for example if=/home/MC/Downloads/q4os-1.4.7-x64.iso) or go to it with cd path_of_the_image. Also, don't put any number if you are writing in a USB drive. So here, /dev/sdc should be enough.

The 2 MB is the size of blocks that are written ob the drive (4MB should work too and should be faster but I usually use 2MB because it always works good for me.

At last, "if" means input file and "of" output file.

ichbin1199 · 2016-02-09 20:29

ps: here's a good video that explains it well in less than 12 minutes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74A6pVrv0CA

Dai_trying · 2016-02-09 21:20

As a lot of iso images nowadays are hybrid I first try

 sudo cp mylinuxdistroname.iso /dev/sdx; sync

where sdx is the device you wish to use (can be found by typing "sudo blkid" after inserting usb stick)
DO NOT USE sda!! It is nearly always your main hdd
Also do not use sdx1 as you must write directly to the disk, if you want to use the remaining space afterwards open up gparted and add a partition.
HTH

Dai

MC · 2016-02-10 00:04

SUCCESS!

I must have visited a least a dozen sites, all with similar info...nothing worked. Then Dia's post held a clue. (Not to be confused with Col. Mustard in the Conservatory with the knife.)

I had seen something about "isohybrid" on some of those sites, so I searched isohybrid + booting from USB. On one forum they mentioned installing syslinux to make this work. Installed syslinux, then found I needed syslinux-utils as well. Installed.

Then the keystrokes went like this;

lsblk

umount /dev/sdb

cd Downloads

sudo isohybrid /home/mc/Downloads/boot-repair-disk-32bit.iso

sudo dd if=/home/mc/Downloads/boot-repair-disk-32bit.iso of=/dev/sdb

sudo shutdown -r now

- F9 for boot menu

- Selected the flashdrive

BOOM! It ran as advertised. Then, I tested it again with a gparted iso...BOOM!

~ The missing pieces of the puzzle were isohybrid and syslinux.~

Thanks to everyone for all the input and information.

Rademes · 2016-02-15 09:28

As I realized, bs=1M is enough for writing on 8GB USB flash drive. There is no need to set bs=4M. Write speed will be almost the same.

Q4OS Forum

#1 2016-02-09 12:59

Alternative to Unetbootin for Linux? [Solved]

#2 2016-02-09 15:16

Re: Alternative to Unetbootin for Linux? [Solved]

#3 2016-02-09 18:53

Re: Alternative to Unetbootin for Linux? [Solved]

#4 2016-02-09 19:48

Re: Alternative to Unetbootin for Linux? [Solved]

#5 2016-02-09 20:20

Re: Alternative to Unetbootin for Linux? [Solved]

#6 2016-02-09 20:29

Re: Alternative to Unetbootin for Linux? [Solved]

#7 2016-02-09 21:20

Re: Alternative to Unetbootin for Linux? [Solved]

#8 2016-02-10 00:04

Re: Alternative to Unetbootin for Linux? [Solved]

#9 2016-02-15 09:28

Re: Alternative to Unetbootin for Linux? [Solved]

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