Using The dd Command For A Linux .iso

Alexzee

Alexzee

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Today's article is on how to use the dd command to make your Linux .iso bootable on a usb device.

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Using The dd Command to Make A USB Bootable With Linux

The dd command is a handy Linux utility for converting and copy files. Extreme caution should be used however, as this will remove everything from the device that you are using. Often times I'll use the USB Writer that comes with Linux Mint to make a Linux .iso bootable. There have been a...
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I've used just about all of them. microsoft media creator, rufus, fedora media creator, etcher, unetbootin, yumi
and maybe one or two others.

I have to say, while dd isn't the easiest to use. ( pretty much CLI only ) it IS the most reliable.
It always works. It's never failed me... ever.
 
Last edited:
Ditto to what Marvin said ^^ from me.

Wiz
 
I've never had any trouble with either Mint's USB Image Writer or Etcher.
m1213.gif
 
dos2unix said:
I've used just about all of them. microsoft media creator, rufus, fedora media creator, etcher, unetbootin, yumi
and maybe one or two others.

I have to say, while dd isn't the easiest to use. ( pretty much CLI only ) it IS the most reliable.
It always works. It's never failed me... ever.
Click to expand...
It's never failed me either so I'm sticking with that!
 
That dd scares me haha so I always try to use a GUI, currently use MX-live-USB-maker which is an AppImage, pretty easy to use and works like a charm. I also like ventoy. And in windows, Rufus is the way to go.
 
The dd command can definitely be scary. It's one of those commands that, even to this day, I do it with two terminals open so that I can accurately target the command to the appropriate drive. I slow down and double-check everything before smashing that enter button.
 
Tolkem said:
That dd scares me haha so I always try to use a GUI, currently use MX-live-USB-maker which is an AppImage, pretty easy to use and works like a charm. I also like ventoy. And in windows, Rufus is the way to go.
Click to expand...
I tried using the MX USB maker and it failed.
When I tried to boot into the USB that I thought the program put Devuan on my thumb drive all I had was an all black screen and a white flashing cursor.
So, I fired up my Debian 12 install, launched a terminal and used the dd command to write Devuan to the usb thumb drive.
Rebooted and Bingo!

I'm finding that a lot of the hybrid images work with the dd command.
 
Rufus has a dd mode. But it also has an iso mode. Some distro's ( like Fedora ) and Windows 11 also...
have a built-in checksum to see if the image was tampered with. Added to or taken away from.
When you burn the image in "iso" mode, the good thing is, you can add or delete files to your image.
The bad thing is, some distro's won't install because they fail the checksum verification. Even if you never add
or delete a file, you changed the image by making it a writeable disk. Just that one byte that enables
read/write is enough to make the image fail the checksum.

The problem with Ubuntu media creator/Fedora media creator/MX USB maker... etc... is they seem to
work pretty good for the distro that I'm making the USB for. But how do I use Ubuntu media creator if I
don't have Ubuntu? The same goes for MX or Fedora, or whatever else you have installed. Besides, usually
after I get it installed, I don't need the iso anymore. :)

dd is a disk duplicator. A byte for byte exact image of the iso image. Nothing is added, nothing is taken away.
All the ones and zero's match perfectly. Just about every distro comes with it installed by default.
 
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