Create a bootable USB stick on Ubuntu

Tutorials
15

Startup Disk Creator isn’t very useful. If you want to create a live USB with something other than Ubuntu, it most likely wont work.

17

Am I missing something @janstes?

That link sends me to ubuntu.com/download which then provides sections to the individual versions of Ubuntu (server, desktop, core …), some with walkthroughs, and those link to pages that provide buttons to get the ISOs?

Where are you seeing “manual install” ? Thanks for you help with this.

18

The resultant of the process is a bootable device but will
it uefi or legacy and mbr or gpt? or there option only for windows?

19

wow I want to change the operating system and download the iso in windows 10 and I want to make a bootable usb … where does that appear in your manual? porque!! porqueee ere asi!!

1 Like
20

I’d suggest looking at the tutorials

with plenty more available at https://tutorials.ubuntu.com/

4 Likes
21

I’m glad I read the other replies here.
There is a distance between the understanding of the writer of the tutorial and a novice consumer.
There are pictures of pages to be used, but no clue as to where those pages are to be found on the website.
Still searching.

22

Does this process allow for the creation of USB persistence?

1 Like
23

When you want to create a persistent live USB drive you can use

  • mkusb in Ubuntu and the Ubuntu family flavours,

  • Rufus in Windows.

The Ubuntu Startup Disk Creator and Disks (alias gnome-disks) are cloning tools, and cloning does not create persistent live drives from the Ubuntu [and Ubuntu family flavours] iso files.

Cloning works with all hybrid iso files in order to create USB boot drives, and most Linux iso files are hybrid files. There is a test in the Startup Disk Creator to check that it is an Ubuntu [or Ubuntu family flavour] iso file. If that test would be removed, it would work for all hybrid iso files.

Both mkusb and Rufus can clone (dd-mode in Rufus), but they can also use methods that modify what is written to the USB pendrive.

You can find detailed information and several links at

2 Likes
24

You can trick the Startup Disk Creator to clone non-Ubuntu iso files, because it is willing to clone ‘any’ image file with the extension img. So make a symbolic link, for example

$ ln -s debian-live-11.0.0-amd64-standard.iso debian-live-11.0.0-amd64-standard.img
$ ls -ltr
total 924676                                                                                                                          
-rw-r--r-- 1 lubuntu lubuntu 946864128 Aug 18 13:02 debian-live-11.0.0-amd64-standard.iso
lrwxrwxrwx 1 lubuntu lubuntu        37 Oct 11 11:18 debian-live-11.0.0-amd64-standard.img -> debian-live-11.0.0-amd64-standard.iso

I tested this in 18.04.x LTS with usb-creator-gtk and in persistent live Lubuntu Impish Indri with usb-creator-kde, and it worked for me. The following screenshots are from Impish Indri,

usb-creator-trick-1
usb-creator-trick-11206×577 41.9 KB

usb-creator-trick-2
usb-creator-trick-21083×480 38.3 KB

usb-creator-trick-3

1 Like
25

The only problem with most of the Linux tools is that they create MBR jump drives. The installer on the jump drive then installs MBR Linux with BIOS only booting. My hard drive is larger than 2 TB so I must use GUID partition table. UEFI is 20 years old, the drive creation programs need to update to at least 2012 and allow the option of UEFI bootable jump drives.

27

@rpearsonii, I don’t think your complaint applies to the current Ubuntu iso files, when cloned, and many modern tools use the cloning method when creating a USB pendrive.

USB pendrives made by cloning from Ubuntu iso files boot both in UEFI mode and in BIOS mode. And the installation will be in the same boot mode as the computer was booted when installing.

It is easy to select a GUID partition table, GPT, in both cases. In fact the boot mode and partition table can be selected and used independently with Ubuntu.

3 Likes
28

this was my 3rd attempt to install ubuntu, and is my last. I am going elsewhere for the Linux software. Nothing worked as whomever the authors of the directions suggested it was going to. i tried the ether thingy and the rufus program. for a novice like myself sending me different place to do this and that before ever doing this to do that is, was the issue. let alone trying to get it transferred onto a usb stick. neither of those programs found my usb stick. They did find the program I wanted to install, and automatically assumed i wanted to install it on the comp that downloaded the program.

If i wanted it on a usb to install on another comp. why didn’t the brain childs of ubuntu put all that in one file downloadable as a bootable program onto a usb stick?

i hope whomever designs or reads this stuff or wrote those directions read this. I honestly gave it an effort over the last couple of days.

peace out,
scotty

1 Like
29

The gurus in our various support venues would be happy to help you through the process, and can perhaps explain so you understand better.

The way it works is that YOU contribute specific improvements to the tutorial. Not “somebody else” or “whomever”.

2 Likes
30

No program found… only startup applications (I upgraded to 22.04.1 but then decided I wanted to clean install from USB… no USB creator found)

Tried to using Disks to “Restore and Image” to usb but wasn’t detected by grub/EFI
Tried to use balenaEtcher and ran into this bug: Bug #1965636 “libfuse2 no longer included in jammy, required for...” : Bugs : xubuntu-meta package : Ubuntu
– Finally was able to launch and use balenaEtcher after troubleshooting (https://forums.balena.io/t/known-issue-etcher-does-not-work-on-ubuntu-22-04-and-linux-mint-21/360557/3)

31

How about:

https://askubuntu.com/a/1335942

1 Like
32

Can this be changed to "An Ubuntu Desktop ISO file. See Download Ubuntu Desktop "? I wanted to have a rescue USB for my server install and was confused b/c I couldn’t figure out how to launch into rescue/try mode until I found out that server doesn’t support that. (or rescue boot could be added to Ubuntu server…)

33

I wanted to have a rescue USB for my server install and was confused b/c I couldn’t figure out how to launch into rescue/try mode until I found out that server doesn’t support that. (or rescue boot could be added to Ubuntu server…)

IIRC the Ubuntu Server ISO gives you a root shell on the second virtual console (Alt+F2 or Alt+Right).

34

using “Disks” is WAY easier!

35

Will this disk size accommodate the new Ubuntu 22.10 and 22.04.2 LTS Desktop images? (8GB may be a safer long-term choice)

1 Like
36

There are issues with the tool and issues with the tutorial.

  • The tutorial does not state that the tool needs to be installed first. It does also not provide the name of the tool, if used from the command line (usb-creator-kde, similar for gnome)
  • The tool silently ignores the selection of an ISO file without joliet extensions (I can select the ISO, but it does not appear in the list). Is enforced via -i from the command line, it appears in the list but cannot be written. This error has been reported 11 years ago (!): Create a bootable USB stick on Ubuntu - #35 by raistkell
  • Workaround is to rename the file in such a case
1 Like