3 ms·

> and needing external tools like Rufus Ubuntu and Linux Mint are now recommending balenaEtcher, which is easier to use than Rufus.

by p1mrx 1y ago

dartharva 1y ago
I noticed no difference in ease of use
doublerabbit 1y ago
While so, you have to download a program from somewhere. If I gave this to my mother she would just totally click the wrong link, infect her windows machine and give up. For the tech, sure but for common people not so. Why cannot Ubuntu just offer a download media creation tool like Windows does. Surely it's not that hard to couple dd with a batch gui.
- i80and 1y ago
  Fedora does, fwiw: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fedora_Media_Writer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fedora_Media_Writer
  - weaksauce 1y ago
    looks like it’s not just for fedora either. though that is still a little more complicated than an all in one ubuntu/mint/whatever installer. maybe someone should fork it and/or add that to this.
    - blahlabs 1y ago
      Fedora media writer is fantastic. You're right, it can either automatically download a fedora iso, or you can just feed it any image. Its so simple and handy for me, to the point a recent foray back to Debian was cut short because there was no included equivalent and the alternatives were just a hassle. Although, the `cat liveimage.iso > /dev/sdX` tip mentioned in this thread is very handy and is probably enough for me. Anything I can do without a distro specific tool is a win.
- heavyset_go 1y ago
  I wouldn't expect a casual user to install Windows, drivers and supporting software on their own, either. A fresh install of Windows on consumer laptops requires users to locate drivers and supporting software from the OEM's website and not infect themselves with malicious software in the process.
7734128 1y ago
And having to go through this insanity each time is even worse https://blog.balena.io/did-etcher-break-my-usb-sd-card/ https://blog.balena.io/did-etcher-break-my-usb-sd-card/
- eyegor 1y ago
  Is this advice insane or am I missing something > to fix your busted drive, just nuke the boot sector and send it > bash > dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/xxx bs=512 count=1 conv=notrunc
  - p1mrx 1y ago
    I often do that (with a larger prefix, like 1MB) to reset flash drives with weird partitioning.
AllegedAlec 1y ago
I use it but I'm very careful about it since it just puts hard drives and usb sticks into the same category. Most of the time that's fine but if you have hard drives smaller than the usb stick in your system it'll autoselect the hard drive instead and if you're not carefull you're fucking your live system.

> and needing external tools like Rufus Ubuntu and Linux Mint are now recommending balenaEtcher, which is easier to use than Rufus.

by p1mrx 1y ago

> and needing external tools like Rufus Ubuntu and Linux Mint are now recommending balenaEtcher, which is easier to use than Rufus.

dartharva 1y ago

I noticed no difference in ease of use

doublerabbit 1y ago

While so, you have to download a program from somewhere. If I gave this to my mother she would just totally click the wrong link, infect her windows machine and give up. For the tech, sure but for common people not so. Why cannot Ubuntu just offer a download media creation tool like Windows does. Surely it's not that hard to couple dd with a batch gui.

i80and 1y ago
Fedora does, fwiw: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fedora_Media_Writer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fedora_Media_Writer
- weaksauce 1y ago
  looks like it’s not just for fedora either. though that is still a little more complicated than an all in one ubuntu/mint/whatever installer. maybe someone should fork it and/or add that to this.
  - blahlabs 1y ago
    Fedora media writer is fantastic. You're right, it can either automatically download a fedora iso, or you can just feed it any image. Its so simple and handy for me, to the point a recent foray back to Debian was cut short because there was no included equivalent and the alternatives were just a hassle. Although, the `cat liveimage.iso > /dev/sdX` tip mentioned in this thread is very handy and is probably enough for me. Anything I can do without a distro specific tool is a win.
heavyset_go 1y ago
I wouldn't expect a casual user to install Windows, drivers and supporting software on their own, either. A fresh install of Windows on consumer laptops requires users to locate drivers and supporting software from the OEM's website and not infect themselves with malicious software in the process.

7734128 1y ago

And having to go through this insanity each time is even worse https://blog.balena.io/did-etcher-break-my-usb-sd-card/ https://blog.balena.io/did-etcher-break-my-usb-sd-card/

eyegor 1y ago
Is this advice insane or am I missing something > to fix your busted drive, just nuke the boot sector and send it > bash > dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/xxx bs=512 count=1 conv=notrunc
- p1mrx 1y ago
  I often do that (with a larger prefix, like 1MB) to reset flash drives with weird partitioning.

AllegedAlec 1y ago

I use it but I'm very careful about it since it just puts hard drives and usb sticks into the same category. Most of the time that's fine but if you have hard drives smaller than the usb stick in your system it'll autoselect the hard drive instead and if you're not carefull you're fucking your live system.