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Ventoy: Create bootable USB drive for ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI Files

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Re: Ventoy: Create bootable USB drive for ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI Files

#101

Post by munchlax »

bombcar wrote: post #95
organsnyder wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I would recommend using GPT Perhaps this is obvious to many in this context, but this refers to the partitioning scheme for the disk—not the LLM service.

ChatMBR.

I've replaced all my GPT disklabels with Sun disklabels because I refuse to let them talk.

UEFI still boots. Spec said it can boot from fat in an eltorito floppy image and sun disklabels sit in the second or so sector. Spec also said it abstracts the type of volume so all boot methods always work for all drives. ISO images don't use the first 4kB so it doesn't see there's disklabel at all

So now I can mount the ssd as iso9660 but there's also partitions on it of which the third spans the entire drive (of course, because that's the c partition)

Re: Ventoy: Create bootable USB drive for ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI Files

#102

Post by graton »

AnotherGoodName wrote: post #87
graton wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The binary blob issue has been brought up since back in 2020. And since then very little real progress has happened from what I can tell. I am not willing to use the software due to that issue. It just seems suspicious.

Just to be clear do you understand that all of these are built from source with documentation so you can recreate the binaries yourself? As in it's completely source buildable with no unknown binaries. They just don't have a single 'build' that pulls all of these in and builds them at once. Instead you're following the build instructions for each part, creating libraries that you then link together at the end. This i…

Have you done this? How do you know this is true? Are there reports of trusted 3rd parties who have verified this?

Re: Ventoy: Create bootable USB drive for ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI Files

#103

Post by theodric »

hddherman wrote: post #17
mkesper wrote: post #13

The lot of (partially scary) binary blobs is still an unsolved issue: https://github.com/ventoy/Ventoy/issues/3224

If anyone is wondering, then there are Ventoy alternatives like IODD [0], but they are not perfect. Usable, but annoying in some aspects. [0]: https://ounapuu.ee/posts/2025/02/14/iodd-st400-review/

So far I am 0/2 on buying IODD devices and having them fail within a couple of weeks. I gave it a good 5 years between purchases and bought a different version of the unit. Perhaps I just have extremely bad luck, but my experience is that basically anything is more perfect than an IODD.

Re: Ventoy: Create bootable USB drive for ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI Files

#104

Post by nutjob2 »

guilamu wrote: post #74
nutjob2 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Notably Ventoy doesn't work with some Windows install ISOs.

Never had this issue. Tested isos: Windows 10 x64 (Pro, LTSC), Windows 11 (Pro, LTSC). I've installed windows on hundreds of computers with Ventoy and it never failed me.

Lucky you. I'm not sure why it happened to me and not you, but it's a real problem and others have had it too.

It manifests itself as the dreaded "a media driver your computer needs is missing" error message when trying to start the install.

Re: Ventoy: Create bootable USB drive for ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI Files

#105

Post by nutjob2 »

CapsAdmin wrote: post #73
jaderobbins1 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any specifics on which windows install ISOs don't work? That way I'll know which ones will need a dedicated USB stick.

Last week I tried to make a bootable usb with windows 11. I tried using dd on macos, and that seemed to work, but the windows installer errored about "not finding drivers for the hdd". This threw me off because I thought something was wrong with the nvme. Turns out you can't just dd a windows iso onto a usb drive. You have to format it to fat32, then manually copy all the files. However there is one big installer fil…

Don't know why you're being voted down, this was exactly my experience, and from all reports, correct.

But instead of the process you describe (which some tools will do for you) I used Rufus to copy the install files onto a USB formatted as a NTFS partition, working around the 4GB limitation.

Re: Ventoy: Create bootable USB drive for ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI Files

#106

Post by estimator7292 »

stavros wrote: post #77
fumeux_fume wrote: post #11

The nice thing about Ventoy—and I didn’t fully appreciate this until I used it—is how simple it makes bootable USBs. You just drag and drop ISO images onto the drive, and it can hold as many as will fit. When you boot from the Ventoy USB, you just pick the image you want to install or run—no re-flashing, no fuss. It’s honestly wild how convenient it is. Ventoy was the only method that worked for me when I needed to i…

I would love it if it worked well, but it's been really flaky for me. Maybe half the ISOs work, the rest get various errors on boot and fail. These are Linux ISOS, too, which I would have expected to work. Am I doing something wrong?

90% of the time i have failures is because Linux did not correctly finish writing the ISO to disk.

The progress bar that your file manager gives you is an absolute fiction. You must eject the drive through your file manager or run 'sync' in a terminal.

The other 10% is because UEFI decided it hates me today

Re: Ventoy: Create bootable USB drive for ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI Files

#107

Post by stavros »

estimator7292 wrote: post #106
stavros wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would love it if it worked well, but it's been really flaky for me. Maybe half the ISOs work, the rest get various errors on boot and fail. These are Linux ISOS, too, which I would have expected to work. Am I doing something wrong?

90% of the time i have failures is because Linux did not correctly finish writing the ISO to disk. The progress bar that your file manager gives you is an absolute fiction. You must eject the drive through your file manager or run 'sync' in a terminal. The other 10% is because UEFI decided it hates me today

I always eject/sync the drive, but I'll triple check next time, thank you.

Re: Ventoy: Create bootable USB drive for ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI Files

#108

Post by canada_dry »

I'm curious why a GRUB based replacement for ventoy isn't popular? SSDs are ubiquitous/inexpensive.

SSD+USB+GRUB with either a single GRUB partition and multiple ISO files stored in subdirectories, OR one parition per ISO/OS.

Adding new ISOs would require some manual editing of the grub config but wouldn't this be a decent substitute??

Like many people I'm hesitant to use an OS installation tool that has not been thoroughly reviewed to ensure there is no malware in binary blobs.

Re: Ventoy: Create bootable USB drive for ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI Files

#109

Post by altairprime »

graton wrote: post #102
AnotherGoodName wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to be clear do you understand that all of these are built from source with documentation so you can recreate the binaries yourself? As in it's completely source buildable with no unknown binaries. They just don't have a single 'build' that pulls all of these in and builds them at once. Instead you're following the build instructions for each part, creating libraries that you then link together at the end. This i…

Have you done this? How do you know this is true? Are there reports of trusted 3rd parties who have verified this?

As someone who isn’t afraid of reproducible binary blobs but would absolutely pay attention to a failure-to-reproduce report from an advocate otherwise, I’m disappointed to see you failing to do so here. If you’re afraid and not willing to prove or disprove your fears yourself, then that negates your arguments to reject binary blobs categorically, rather than conditionally as I and others in this thread are accepting. So.. of this isn’t an argument about whether this project is safely using binary blobs, it’s about propagating the belief that binary blobs are never acceptable; then while normally I would dig up proof like you seek or make it myself, proof has no bearing on beliefs and I’d best not.

Re: Ventoy: Create bootable USB drive for ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI Files

#110

Post by RulerOf »

CapsAdmin wrote: post #73
jaderobbins1 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any specifics on which windows install ISOs don't work? That way I'll know which ones will need a dedicated USB stick.

Last week I tried to make a bootable usb with windows 11. I tried using dd on macos, and that seemed to work, but the windows installer errored about "not finding drivers for the hdd". This threw me off because I thought something was wrong with the nvme. Turns out you can't just dd a windows iso onto a usb drive. You have to format it to fat32, then manually copy all the files. However there is one big installer fil…

You can often format as NTFS and have it work anyway, but it depends on whether or not the system UEFI firmware includes an NTFS driver.

Rufus puts such a driver in its FAT32 boot partition and loads it before starting the winpe.

It drives me nuts that the UEFI sites never included ExFAT.

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