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Another neat "pick an OS to boot into" tool I discovered recently is Ventoy [1]. You install the bootable menu on your USB drive, and then you just drop ISOs or

by kej 4y ago

Another neat "pick an OS to boot into" tool I discovered recently is Ventoy [1]. You install the bootable menu on your USB drive, and then you just drop ISOs or IMGs on there to add choices. [1] https://ventoy.net/en/index.html https://ventoy.net/en/index.html

csdvrx 4y ago
Not bad, but with questionable choices making it not usable on a dedicated hard-drive partition: https://github.com/ventoy/Ventoy/issues/1342 https://github.com/ventoy/Ventoy/issues/1342
- tssva 4y ago
  "Ventoy is an open source tool to create bootable USB drive for ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI files." From the description of the project it doesn't seem running from a dedicated hard-drive partition is an actual goal of the project. I don't know that making choices which don't support a non-goal of a project are questionable. It works great for my use case of booting from a USB drive and I very much appreciate that it exists.
  - csdvrx 4y ago
    > From the description of the project it doesn't seem running from a dedicated hard-drive partition is an actual goal of the project This "goal" would require a grand total of 2 changes. > It works great for my use case of booting from a USB drive and I very much appreciate that it exists. It's just like grubfm - a few files + a heuristic to use these with isos to make them bootable.
- stuaxo 4y ago
  I took the time to read the comments on the issue and I can't see anyone refusing to do this. It seems like the person that suggested it can't compile ventoy as it requires a particular version of fedora. This needs somebody to compile ventoy and make a PR. Tabgentially it seems like the solving the issue where it needs an old version of fedora would make it easier for others to participate. The best way of moving this forward would be to free up a block of time and either work on a PR, or if not that a PR to make ventoy compilable on more distros.
  - csdvrx 4y ago
    > I took the time to read the comments on the issue and I can't see anyone refusing to do this. Personally, I see a lack of interest and a lack of desire to expand the functionality > It seems like the person that suggested it can't compile ventoy as it requires a particular version of fedora. Yes, that was me. > This needs somebody to compile ventoy and make a PR. As you may guess by how I explained the problem and the solution (with code!), I would be happy to make a PR, but I don't want to waste more time by writing code that won't be merged. > solving the issue where it needs an old version of fedora would make it easier for others to participate Yes, that too But given the lack of interest by the maintainer of the low hanging fruit of making ventoy usable on partitions, even when it would bring the side benefit of respecting the block size of removable media (like thumbdrives, SD cards...) I think working on either would be a waste of time :( > The best way of moving this forward would be to free up a block of time and either work on a PR, or if not that a PR to make ventoy compilable on more distros. A week ago, someone started a fork for a better integration with other tools. If you want to join in to fix the compilation issues (so that it doesn't require a specific old Fedora for example) I'll be happy to fix the partition stuff. My email is my nickname at outlook dot com
rtp4me 4y ago
Love Ventoy. Been using for a while now. Makes it very easy to boot a number of ISOs via simple USB drive. My go-to boot tool when doing system rescues.
shantnutiwari 4y ago
Ventoy is one of those "Great in theory, doesnt work in practice" tools. I spent some trying to boot from it, couldn't get it work. Couldnt find any help anywhere, so went back to the old boring tools that just work.
- aardvark1200 4y ago
  Was secure boot on? That made it not work right for me as well
- SahAssar 4y ago
  I'm not sure what your issue was, but I've used ventoy across 5-ish computers and with multiple OS'es (various linux distros and win10) and never had an issue. Did you file a bug report or find out what the issue was?
  - seanw444 4y ago
    Same. Ventoy has been pretty awesome for me. I like to have options for if a friend wants me to set up and show them one of the simpler distros, or if I'm at work and I need to re-install Arch (or just boot the ISO and fix the existing install). Way better than either bringing multiple thumbdrives, or having to just pick one OS to be able to have on the go, and rolling with it.
- guilamu 4y ago
  I don't know how you managed not to be able to make it work. I've been using it on dozens of pcs, never had any issue.
- gsich 4y ago
  Also great in practice.
- squarefoot 4y ago
  Have you tried it on different USB dongles? There are notoriously crappy no-name ones that fake their capacity or have other problems, but once in a while also legit ones can fail in strange ways: I had this branded USB key bought in a regular shop that passed all data integrity tests but refused to boot. I had bought 3 of the same model the same day and the other two worked fine, but that one would never boot, no matter which image i would flash it with; I never discovered what the problem was, and the dongle still works fine for other uses. So you may want to test other dongles to be sure.

by kej 4y ago

csdvrx 4y ago

Not bad, but with questionable choices making it not usable on a dedicated hard-drive partition: https://github.com/ventoy/Ventoy/issues/1342 https://github.com/ventoy/Ventoy/issues/1342

tssva 4y ago
"Ventoy is an open source tool to create bootable USB drive for ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI files." From the description of the project it doesn't seem running from a dedicated hard-drive partition is an actual goal of the project. I don't know that making choices which don't support a non-goal of a project are questionable. It works great for my use case of booting from a USB drive and I very much appreciate that it exists.
- csdvrx 4y ago
  > From the description of the project it doesn't seem running from a dedicated hard-drive partition is an actual goal of the project This "goal" would require a grand total of 2 changes. > It works great for my use case of booting from a USB drive and I very much appreciate that it exists. It's just like grubfm - a few files + a heuristic to use these with isos to make them bootable.
stuaxo 4y ago
I took the time to read the comments on the issue and I can't see anyone refusing to do this. It seems like the person that suggested it can't compile ventoy as it requires a particular version of fedora. This needs somebody to compile ventoy and make a PR. Tabgentially it seems like the solving the issue where it needs an old version of fedora would make it easier for others to participate. The best way of moving this forward would be to free up a block of time and either work on a PR, or if not that a PR to make ventoy compilable on more distros.
- csdvrx 4y ago
  > I took the time to read the comments on the issue and I can't see anyone refusing to do this. Personally, I see a lack of interest and a lack of desire to expand the functionality > It seems like the person that suggested it can't compile ventoy as it requires a particular version of fedora. Yes, that was me. > This needs somebody to compile ventoy and make a PR. As you may guess by how I explained the problem and the solution (with code!), I would be happy to make a PR, but I don't want to waste more time by writing code that won't be merged. > solving the issue where it needs an old version of fedora would make it easier for others to participate Yes, that too But given the lack of interest by the maintainer of the low hanging fruit of making ventoy usable on partitions, even when it would bring the side benefit of respecting the block size of removable media (like thumbdrives, SD cards...) I think working on either would be a waste of time :( > The best way of moving this forward would be to free up a block of time and either work on a PR, or if not that a PR to make ventoy compilable on more distros. A week ago, someone started a fork for a better integration with other tools. If you want to join in to fix the compilation issues (so that it doesn't require a specific old Fedora for example) I'll be happy to fix the partition stuff. My email is my nickname at outlook dot com

rtp4me 4y ago

Love Ventoy. Been using for a while now. Makes it very easy to boot a number of ISOs via simple USB drive. My go-to boot tool when doing system rescues.

shantnutiwari 4y ago

Ventoy is one of those "Great in theory, doesnt work in practice" tools. I spent some trying to boot from it, couldn't get it work. Couldnt find any help anywhere, so went back to the old boring tools that just work.

aardvark1200 4y ago
Was secure boot on? That made it not work right for me as well
SahAssar 4y ago
I'm not sure what your issue was, but I've used ventoy across 5-ish computers and with multiple OS'es (various linux distros and win10) and never had an issue. Did you file a bug report or find out what the issue was?
- seanw444 4y ago
  Same. Ventoy has been pretty awesome for me. I like to have options for if a friend wants me to set up and show them one of the simpler distros, or if I'm at work and I need to re-install Arch (or just boot the ISO and fix the existing install). Way better than either bringing multiple thumbdrives, or having to just pick one OS to be able to have on the go, and rolling with it.
guilamu 4y ago
I don't know how you managed not to be able to make it work. I've been using it on dozens of pcs, never had any issue.
gsich 4y ago
Also great in practice.
squarefoot 4y ago
Have you tried it on different USB dongles? There are notoriously crappy no-name ones that fake their capacity or have other problems, but once in a while also legit ones can fail in strange ways: I had this branded USB key bought in a regular shop that passed all data integrity tests but refused to boot. I had bought 3 of the same model the same day and the other two worked fine, but that one would never boot, no matter which image i would flash it with; I never discovered what the problem was, and the dongle still works fine for other uses. So you may want to test other dongles to be sure.