My Experience With Ventoy.

[bob466]

I'm not a multi-boot Flash Drive person...years ago I had a CD wallet full of scan and rescue Disks but since switching to Linux I don't need them.

I was watching a youtube video on Ventoy...of which there are many...so I gave it a try. Once Ventoy was installed on my Sandisk 16GB Flash Drive...I selected my ISOs and dragged them across which did take some time being 5.9GB.

When writing the ISOs was complete I safely removed the Flash Drive...turned off the computer and re-booted to the Ventoy Flash Drive...

I selected Mint 21.1 but it wouldn't boot got errors...Mint 20.3 wouldn't either. The only one to boot was Foxclone but why ?
I changed to a 16GB Lexar Flash Drive...installed Ventoy and dragged in the same ISOs...when done I clicked safely remove drive...I noticed the red light flashing on the drive which means Data is still being written to the Flash Drive.

So I waited 3 to 4 minutes...the red light was out so I removed it then re-booted in to Ventoy and all the ISOs now boot. I then re-installed Ventoy to my Sandisk 16GB Flash Drive and dragged the same ISOs to it...after clicking safely remove drive...I opened Disks and saw this...

The Flash Drive is still being written to...that's why the ISOs wouldn't boot and seems to be a Ventoy thing because I dragged the same ISOs on to an empty Sandisk 16GB Flash Drive and when finished that was it...I could remove it.

Back in the Day Fat32 meant you couldn't copy files larger than 4GB but here's 5.9GB of ISOs being copied to a Sandisk 16GB Flash Drive Fat32 as shown here with no Ventoy on it...

Times have changed...I was going to but a few Lexar Flash Drives but their no longer made and haven't since 2018...didn't know that...anyway I hope this helps someone as it drove me mad for several days.

 

[wizardfromoz]

I wondered, Bob, if you had had a look through our Thread here

https://www.linux.org/threads/usb-linux-boot-ventoy.29944/

Wiz

 

[forester]

Not all variables may have significant impact on the use of Ventoy, yet I had no problem with Ventoy when
1) use almost any USB stick brand except Sandisk and Samsung -- Lexar is good and still in existence
2) use command line to mv the iso files rather than cp
3) follow @captain-sensible 's advice.

 

[lomszz]

Currently i got Ventoy on SanDisk usb, so far no problems at all.

 

[forester]

SanDisk comes with too much BS -- proprietary software -- format necessary to get rid of it.
But do as you wish! It's GNU/Linux, after all!

 

[Deleted member 137406]

I was going to but a few Lexar Flash Drives but their no longer made and haven't since 2018...didn't know that...anyway

Lexar USB Flash Drives - Office Depot

Lexar USB Flash Drives at Office Depot & OfficeMax. Shop today online, in stores or buy online and pick up in store.

www.officedepot.com

Amazon.com : lexar usb flash drive

 

[Lord Boltar]

I am running Ventoy v1.0.88 on a 8GB Eastfun thumb drive - I bought a 5 pack off of Amazon for like $12 US - usually I do not by this stuff like this because it is usually cheaply made but to my surprise they actually work well

 

[CrazedNerd]

I always just use balena etcher for booting flash drives, it's so simple and it always works...i think the concept of having a program (like ventoy?) to create a multi-boot flash drives with several bootable images is pretty nice but i tried ventoy and i didn't like it. Is that what multi-boot even means?

 

[bob466]

I wondered, Bob, if you had had a look through our Thread here

https://www.linux.org/threads/usb-linux-boot-ventoy.29944/

Wiz

Yes I did some time ago but when I saw a youtube video the other day...I decided to try it.

There are two Terminal commands to install ventoy...one installs it directly to the Flash Drive and with the other one a box pops up and you select the Flash Drive and press install...I tried both.

Flash Drives are not the problem as Ventoy doesn't tell you writing to the drive is finished...that's why my Flash Drive was corrupted.

As for Lexar Flash Drives...no major retail store where I am sells them because of this...
https://www.dpreview.com/news/31115...icron-announces-the-end-of-lexar-memory-cards
I have ordered some Lexar Flash Drives from Amazon.
I didn't know Lexar was a Chinese brand either...anyway Ventoy is fine if you like that sort of thing.

 

[forester]

My experience has been that, while Ventoy is useful in determining which distro a user may prefer, it CAN and HAS corrupted a 'Team (something)' USB stick or two of mine, rendering them unusable.

I use dd command to put ISO files onto a bootable USB stick. Tried that Etcher and it appears most usable by windows people, to me. I will say it works as advertised.

 

[KGIII]

it CAN and HAS corrupted a 'Team (something)' USB stick or two of mine

Team Group perhaps?

 

[forester]

Yes.

 

[TheProf]

I'm not a multi-boot Flash Drive person...years ago I had a CD wallet full of scan and rescue Disks but since switching to Linux I don't need them.

I was watching a youtube video on Ventoy...of which there are many...so I gave it a try. Once Ventoy was installed on my Sandisk 16GB Flash Drive...I selected my ISOs and dragged them across which did take some time being 5.9GB.

When writing the ISOs was complete I safely removed the Flash Drive...turned off the computer and re-booted to the Ventoy Flash Drive...

I selected Mint 21.1 but it wouldn't boot got errors...Mint 20.3 wouldn't either. The only one to boot was Foxclone but why ?
I changed to a 16GB Lexar Flash Drive...installed Ventoy and dragged in the same ISOs...when done I clicked safely remove drive...I noticed the red light flashing on the drive which means Data is still being written to the Flash Drive.

So I waited 3 to 4 minutes...the red light was out so I removed it then re-booted in to Ventoy and all the ISOs now boot. I then re-installed Ventoy to my Sandisk 16GB Flash Drive and dragged the same ISOs to it...after clicking safely remove drive...I opened Disks and saw this...

The Flash Drive is still being written to...that's why the ISOs wouldn't boot and seems to be a Ventoy thing because I dragged the same ISOs on to an empty Sandisk 16GB Flash Drive and when finished that was it...I could remove it.

Back in the Day Fat32 meant you couldn't copy files larger than 4GB but here's 5.9GB of ISOs being copied to a Sandisk 16GB Flash Drive Fat32 as shown here with no Ventoy on it...

Times have changed...I was going to but a few Lexar Flash Drives but their no longer made and haven't since 2018...didn't know that...anyway I hope this helps someone as it drove me mad for several days.

I've experienced the exact same thing when copying ISOs from dolphin to ventoy... the file appears instantly in ventoy, but it is not actually fully copied and it takes a bit of time. Like you, I even tried to disconnect the USB and I was told a file is still being copied but there was no status indication of the progress of the copy.

However, after the copy completed (it took a few minutes as I waited), ventoy booted up the ISO just fine. I am not really sure if it is a ventoy issue or not, but I have not tried doing this through the CLI, maybe that is what I'll do next time.

 

[bob466]

I've experienced the exact same thing when copying ISOs from dolphin to ventoy... the file appears instantly in ventoy, but it is not actually fully copied and it takes a bit of time. Like you, I even tried to disconnect the USB and I was told a file is still being copied but there was no status indication of the progress of the copy.

However, after the copy completed (it took a few minutes as I waited), ventoy booted up the ISO just fine. I am not really sure if it is a ventoy issue or not, but I have not tried doing this through the CLI, maybe that is what I'll do next time.

It's Ventoy for sure...it gives no warning that ISOs are still being written to the Flash Drive.

 

[ML_113]

When you copy from disk1 to disk2 , thing goes like this

disk1 ==> ram ==> disk2

depending the amount of data and the speed of disk1 and/or disk2 there no such a thing as instantaneous.
Yanking the USB out without 'safely remove' it first is very very bad practice.

 

[TheProf]

When you copy from disk1 to disk2 , thing goes like this

disk1 ==> ram ==> disk2

depending the amount of data and the speed of disk1 and/or disk2 there no such a thing as instantaneous.
Yanking the USB out without 'safely remove' it first is very very bad practice.

I think the issue is that there's no indication of the copy progress which is what makes it confusing. In windows, you usually have a progress bar that tells you the status of the copy... I've seen in the past in Linux too, but not for some reason when copying to a USB key, at least from my experience.

 

[osprey]

TheProf wrote:

no indication of the copy progress

The pv command can show the progress of data being transferred. See the man page for examples.

 

[TheProf]

Agreed, with the CLI it is doable, but as this is desktop linux, you dont always feel like using the CLI and so having that progress bar visible within the DE would be nice for user experience.

New folks using desktop linux are not going to look for a command line to copy a file just to see the progress bar.

 

[bob466]

On the Ventoy Forum someone said Mint 21.1 wouldn't boot and of cause everyone's saying it's not Ventoy but it is.

If you copy or drag one ISO in to Ventoy and click eject on Mint 21.1 before it's finished writing...you get this...

But if you copy or drag say 4 ISOs to Ventoy and you see copping is complete...then eject...the result is a corrupt Flash Drive because Ventoy gives no warning that ISOs are still being written to the Flash Drive...you have to go to Disks to check as shown in post one.

Of cause once Ventoy is finished writing the ISOs...all boot just fine...I wonder why they didn't work that out over on that Forum.