Reliable bootable USB creator in Ubuntu

Question

I need a reliable application which will make usb pen drives bootable. Recently, I tried creating a bootable lubuntu-13-04-alternate usb on a ubuntu 12.10 system but ended up with 'boot error' when trying to boot. I tried startup disk creator as well as unetbootin. This is not the first time I am experiencing this, rather the above two utilities have always had high failure rates in my experience. Universal-usb-installer, YUMI, LiLi have worked great whenever I tried them, but all of them are windows only! So I have two questions:

1. What is the method to reliably create a bootable usb in ubuntu?
2. Why does windows have some of the best bootable usb creators while linux dosent?

Solution 1

Try UnetBootin. Worked everytime for me.
Install by :-

$sudo apt-get install unetbootin

And, always use as root

$sudo unetbootin

Solution 2

Year 2020 Update

---

Balena Etcher

Features:

1. Open Source. Made with JS, HTML, node.js and Electron.
2. Validated Flashing. No more writing images on corrupted cards and wondering why your device isn't booting.
3. Hard Drive Friendly. Makes drive selection obvious to avoid wiping your entire hard-drive.
4. Beautiful Interface.
5. Cross Platform. Works for everyone.

I've been using the .AppImage version. Good thing about it is that it is auto-updating and can be used on any linux distro.

Solution 3

My pain killer is:

mkusb

Tested on Ubuntu 15.04 to burn 14.04.

Solution 4

KDE version of Start-up disk creator works better than the GTK version the times I've used it.

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Comments

[John Scott]

Startup Disk Creator is buggy, but usually works fine as long as you don't change the setting for the "reserved space". I use Startup Disk Creator, and although it is buggy, it usually works fine as long as you don't change that setting. Also make sure to check your BIOS and change it from UEFI to EFI or Legacy Boot Mode if necessary. Also make sure to change your BIOS' disk order if it has one (it's a completely different thing than boot order)!

[VRR]

I don't believe there is a single application to achieve this. There are a lot of issues to consider. I have managed to create a bootable USB for several different OS and tested them on this post.

[Gayan Weerakutti]

Grub and dd is reliable.

[sudodus]

mkusb works in all current Ubuntu versions to make USB boot drives with all current Ubuntu versions. It can manage many other linux distros too. See this link, help.ubuntu.com/community/mkusb/…

[Raghavendra P]

The KDE USB Creator works on 16.04 if you start it as root, i.e sudo usb-creator-kde

[wjandrea]

Looks like you have to install Wine to use it on Linux. Not very convenient...