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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

#81
post #43

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…

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

You should be able to boot those using the "wimboot" mode.

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

#82
post #13

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

I am actually happy reading that though. As in it's literally the authors of the tool stating "hey we have a lot of binary blob drivers, what can we do to replace these?". He then audits them and links to build instructions. As in yeah there's precompiled binaries in this. But it's audited and each binary itself has a link to build instructions. What they are not doing is actually building everything from scratch in…

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.

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

#83
post #79
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?

How are you creating your Ventoy drive? I would recommend using GPT. Also be sure to boot your drive in UEFI mode. Finally, be sure to update Ventoy to the latest version, they release regular updates with bugfixes for compatibility issues with various ISOs.

> 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.

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

#84
post #76
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The rationale for needing a random driver makes some sense. The statement that they found a random build that was signed by some randy is a horrifying prospect.

Someone compared hashes of the sectors of both drivers and they are identical except for the signature. You don't know what due diligence was done.

I don't, no, but why should I trust the maintainer, and why should the maintainer trust Randy from some random site?

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

#85
post #77

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?

I don't think I've run into a Linux ISO that hasn't worked. I've done many versions of Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, Alpine, Proxmox, Debian, Gparted, and others without issue across dozens of different machine builds. Same with various versions of Windows or ESXi.

That said, I'm not very sure what you could be doing wrong. Make sure the drive is GPT (not MBR) and isn't starting to fail perhaps. If you've been running into this on a specific machine only it could just be that machine's UEFI is buggy.

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

#86
post #79
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?

How are you creating your Ventoy drive? I would recommend using GPT. Also be sure to boot your drive in UEFI mode. Finally, be sure to update Ventoy to the latest version, they release regular updates with bugfixes for compatibility issues with various ISOs.

Hm yeah, I think I used MBR with BIOS. I do upgrade Ventoy regularly, but I think you may be right, I think the issue was with something about the BIOS. I'll try that, thanks!

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

#87
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am actually happy reading that though. As in it's literally the authors of the tool stating "hey we have a lot of binary blob drivers, what can we do to replace these?". He then audits them and links to build instructions. As in yeah there's precompiled binaries in this. But it's audited and each binary itself has a link to build instructions. What they are not doing is actually building everything from scratch in…

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 is due to the pain in the ass of cross-compiling Linux/Windows/UEFI binaries all in the one project. It's pretty reasonable.

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

#88
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?

I don't think I've run into a Linux ISO that hasn't worked. I've done many versions of Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, Alpine, Proxmox, Debian, Gparted, and others without issue across dozens of different machine builds. Same with various versions of Windows or ESXi. That said, I'm not very sure what you could be doing wrong. Make sure the drive is GPT (not MBR) and isn't starting to fail perhaps. If you've been running into t…

I'll try a few things, thanks. I think last time it was Debian that wasn't working, so it's not even anything that out there. I'll try a few things, thanks!

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

#90

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…

It sure make it easy to boot a 64bits OS on a 32bits UEFI machine...
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