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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Bootloader equivalent to Rufus (lemm.ee)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

51 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I've been trying to find a linux programming similar to Rufus to flash images of OSes on a thumb drive.

Nothing from the listicles on the internet or the programs in flatpak have worked for me as well as Rufus on Windows.

What have you used that's worked well? Or, could I run Rufus on my linux machine with WINE?

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Or just cat file.img > /dev/....

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I think you should use dd for that?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Why? I am free to use whatever I want. This is not Microsoft Windows.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago

What

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

using dd for that is outdated info that everyone keeps blindly parroting with zero understanding why. cat is simpler and works fine.

note: both cat and dd only work for this when the image is made in a compatible way, my linux isos always work fine but a windows iso didnt and needs a more specific tool.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago (2 children)

cat is for writing files, dd for writing disks.

Can you explain how this can work?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

No, cat is not for writing files. Cat is for reading files and directing the data to standard output.

With ">" you are directing standard output to a file, in this case a blockdevice.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

Cool, need to try that

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

/dev/sdX is a file, and both dd, cat can read files in full. You can even try something like zstd to compress it too.

One of the nice things about dd though is you can see the progress with --status=progress