What is the preferred way to make a bootable USB drive on Linux these days? I want to try a couple of distros on my very old mother’s PC before installing. When I googled it, I only found ways to do it in Windows. Perhaps my Google-fu is off? So I thought: why not ask Lemmy?
TL;DR: use Ventoy. Here’s my experience and how-to :)
Great you came to ask here! :)
Experienced distrohopper here.
The best way for your use case is Ventoy. You just download + execute the program. It will format your USB (I recommend 32 gb+) in a way you can boot from it AND use it as a “normal” file system. You then just copy your iso of choice on that “normal” USB.
When booting from it, it will give you a menu from which iso you want to boot from. Remember to disable secure boot and enable CSM in your UEFI, otherwise it might not get recognized. After trying or installing your Linux distro you can revert those changes in the UEFI/ BIOS if your distro supports it.
But I also use other (older) methods, like Etcher or the Fedora media writer, which overwrite the whole stick, too. They are somehow more reliable, and I’m not sure why… From time to time there are boot errors when selecting an iso. Maybe it’s because the files don’t get verified when copying, and then I have a “half copied” system.
(P.S.: Linux handles copying files different than Windows. Sometimes it says “finished” when it actually isn’t. ALWAYS eject your disks!)
The old method “just works”, and I always have one smaller USB lying around in case my boot repair iso doesn’t work.
But, especially for “trying out”, Ventoy is perfect for you. It will save you some time when trying out your ideal distro.
What are possible distro candidates you want to try and install? Just asking :) Just don’t solely place your choice on how it looks and how the first impression is.
For example, Mint might look a bit dated for some people (especially when coming from Win11), but is a fantastic distro. Garuda or EndeavourOS for example on the other hand might look modern and flashy, but will probably ruin your first impression with Linux, since they are less user friendly and more suited for more experienced users.
Remember, Linux is extremely customizable and you can exchange EVERYTHING.
It’s an old laptop, so I want to try MXLINUX, but for ease and support I would like see if it might be able to run Ubuntu.
Edit: switched “stability” for “ease”.
Alright.
But here’s my opinon, if you’re interested: maybe, just maybe, don’t use Ubuntu. Of course, do what you want. If it appeals to you, that’s great! :)
Ubuntu is often recommended as a good beginner Distro, but that’s not true anymore. That used to be a good choice a few years ago, but it is more and more hated by the community. The company developing it forces way too much of their own stuff onto new users, especially snaps (their own packaging format that sucks). In general, Ubuntu doesn’t provide you the best Linux impression anymore.
If you want to know more, then take a look into this and this video from TheLinuxExperiment.
Also, as long as your laptop isn’t super old (>10 years) it should pretty much run anything, not only those “revive your toaster-laptop”-distros. Try Mint or some other beginner-friendly-mainstream-distros too and take a look on how they perform :)
I personally love Fedora for example (just ask me why) and believe it might also be a solid beginner distro, especially since the default desktop (Gnome) looks so alien compared to Mac or Windows, you automatically assume that it doesn’t work like those two.
Thank you for your recommendations, and thanks for your detailed response in your first comment.
I see your points regarding Ubuntu, I just thought it would be a good compromise because of the amount of advice you can find on how to fix problems in Ubuntu. But I suppose much of that advice can be used for Mint as well… I haven’t tried Ubuntu in a few years, but I trust your assessment.
I currently have MX installed on a seriously old HP laptop and have been quite happy with it. I’m not sure if my mom’s laptop is older or newer, but either way it’s not by much so that’s why I immediately thought of MX for her PC as well. I’ll put Mint on the Ventoy stick as well and see which one works best.
Yeah, almost all guides for Ubuntu apply to other Ubuntu-based distros (Pop, Mint, even Debian). Only the desktop environment works a bit different.
I don’t know what’s up with MX, since it uses some different technologies under the hood and I’m not informed enough how much it differs
I would like to know why you love fedora.