What is bootable media?
So you want to try Ubuntu MATE from a USB drive or SD card? Great! If you’renew to the process, you might be wondering why you just can’t copy the Ubuntu MATEimage on to your media and be good to go. To run an operating system, you needto write the image to the drive in a way that allows your computer to boot from it.
To install and try Ubuntu MATE from a USB drive or SD card, you’ll need mediawith at least 4 GB of memory and havedownloaded a compatible copy of Ubuntu MATE for your system.
Method 2: Format HDD from USB using Command Prompt. Other than using the third-party tool, you can also format your hard drive from USB with the help of Windows Installation disk, which, as you will know, is relatively more complicated than using a bootable format tool as shown in Method 1. If you’ve successfully created a bootable USB, you can move forward by loading Ubuntu from the Live USB stick. Restart your computer with a plugged-in USB and press F2 or F12 to enter the boot. To create a bootable USB disk from the Ubuntu terminal, we need to download the ISO file first. In my case, I’m downloading the Ubuntu ISO file for version 20.04. You can choose to download the ISO for another operating system that you want to write to USB. Method 1: Create Windows 10 Bootable USB on Ubuntu Linux (GUI Interface) Although Linux was originally developed for text environment, it is now a great desktop computing box with GUI interface. So the first part of this tutorial is to use a GUI program to make a bootable Windows 10 USB, which a lot of easier for Linux newbies. To format a USB drive, most of the users prefer VFAT and NTFS file systems because they can be easily used on the Windows operating system. Format with vFat File System sudo mkfs.vfat /dev/sdc1 Format with NTFS File System.
Instructions
This applies to both USB and microSD cards.
If the downloaded file has a
.xz
extension, use 7-Zipto extract the .img
file first. Prism shell mac os.Windows
- Download the latest version of balenaEtcher.Double-click on the downloaded file to install.
- Run the balenaEtcher application.
- Click on the Select Image button and choose the Ubuntu MATE
.iso
fileyou want to use. - Click the Select Target button and choose the appropriate USB device towrite the .iso to.
- Finally, click the Flash! button to begin the process.
- It will show a progress bar as it operates.
- Rebel riot mac os. Etcher will notify you when the process is complete.
- Please remove the USB drive and plug it into the system where you want toinstall Ubuntu MATE.
macOS
If you plan on writing and using your bootable USB on Mac hardware, you’llneed to erase and reformat your memory stick using Apple’s Disk Utility,which you can launch from Applications > Utilities or the search function.
- After launching Disk Utility, insert your USB stick, which will then appear.
- If it does not, check View > Show All Devices from the menu bar.
- Select the USB stick, and select
Erase
from the tool bar or right-click menu. - Select the
MS-DOS (FAT)
format andGUID Partition Map
from the respectivedrop-down menus. - Check (and double check - you can lose data if you select the wrong deviceor partition) that you’ve chosen the target USB stick and click
Erase
. - Download and install Etcher, an open sourceproject that flashes ISOs to SD cards and USB drives.
- If necessary, open the ‘Security and Privacy’ section in System Preferencesand allow apps downloaded from ‘App Store and identified developers.’ If thisstill does not allow you to run Etcher, click ‘Open Anyway.’
- Select the previously downloaded Ubuntu MATE ISO (which, by default, is inyour Downloads folder) using Select Image.
- Confirm Select Target is pointing to the intended USB drive, and if not,choose the appropriate device.
- Click Flash! to write the ISO to your USB drive. Etcher will prompt youfor your password. Etcher will display its progress, and inform you when theprocess has successfully completed with the image below.
- If macOS informs you ‘The disk you inserted is not readable by this computer,’select Eject, not Initialise
- To use your bootable media on a Mac device, insert the USB stick and restartor turn on the device while holding the option/alt key to launch StartupManager. Click on the gold disk labeled ‘EFI Boot,’ which will bring you tothe Ubuntu boot menu.
If you cannot boot from the USB drive on your Mac, try burning a DVD.
GNU/Linux
There are several apps and utilities for writing an ISO to a USB drive or amicroSDHC in GNU/Linux, but we prefer
ddrescue
(from the gddrescue package).The image can be directly written to a microSDHC or to a USB drive using anutility like
dd
, but we prefer ddrescue
(from thegddrescue package).On a Debian-based system, like Ubuntu MATE, run:
To find the block device name of your USB or microSDHC device, to see all yourconnected devices:
For example, in the image below, the USB drive is
/dev/sdb1/
. Checking thename of your device is a key step, as writing to the wrong device might corruptor destroy your data.Once you’ve confirmed you have the correct block device, enter the followingcommand replacing
path/to/iso
and sdx
with the path to the iso file andblock device name of your USB drive or microSDHC.![Format Usb For Ubuntu Boot Format Usb For Ubuntu Boot](https://anglehit.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/flash-usb.png)
Ubuntu/Ubuntu MATE
GNOME Disks comes pre-installed on Ubuntu 16.04 andlater. This is an easy way to create a bootable USB drive.
![Usb Usb](https://storage.googleapis.com/ubuntu-18/images/make-bootable-ubuntu-usb.jpg)
If Disks is not present on your system, you can install it from the terminal:
- Download your chosen Ubuntu MATE image, keep note of the location, and insertyour USB drive. Be sure it’s visible in File Manager/Caja. Remember this processwill format your USB drive and erase all existing data, so be sure you’vebacked it up.
- Right-click on the ISO file, and select “Open with Disk Image Writer.”
- Select your USB drive in the “Destination” drop-down menu.
- Click “Start Restoring.” When it asks if you’re sure you want to write thedisk image to the device, click “Restore.”
- You may be asked for your password for authentication. Enter it and click “Authenticate.”
- GNOME Disks will begin writing the image, showing its progress and anestimated time.
Ubuntu Boot From Usb
When complete, eject (or power off) the disk before removing.