How to Install and Use Etcher on Linux for Making Live Linux USB
Etcher is a popular USB flasher app for creating bootable Linux USB drives. Let me show you how to install it and how to use it for making a live Linux disk.
Etcher: An open-source tool to flash Linux ISO on SD Cards & USB drives
Etcher is an open-source project by Balena to help flash SD cards for Raspberry Pi. In fact, we used it in our tutorial on how to install Raspbian OS on an SD Card.
Not just limited to SD Cards, you can also use Etcher to make a bootable USB drive just like we created a live USB of Manjaro in Linux with the help of it.
Ever since its first release, Etcher caught the attention for its neat interface and simplicity of use.
In this article, I will be focusing on the steps to help you install Etcher on Linux. And then, I’ll also show you how to use it. Before I do that, let me give you an overview of the features it offers:
Features of Etcher
- Validate drive before flashing
- Beautiful user interface
- Auto-detects USB drive/SD card to prevent wiping the HDD on your computer
- Cross-platform support (Windows, macOS, and Linux)
- Fast flashing
- Simple three-step process
On paper, you get everything one would need to flash OS images on an SD card and a USB drive. It is also exciting to know that they plan to add the support simultaneous writing to multiple devices as per their roadmap.
Installing Etcher on Linux
To get started, you have to grab the AppImage file that it offers (suitable for any Linux distribution) from its official website.
You just need to head on to its homepage and download the one for your system (32-bit/64-bit):
In my case, I got the 64-bit AppImage file for Ubuntu. You can go through our guide on using AppImage files on Linux, but I’ll give you a head start on what you need to do next.
You need to give the file permissions to execute and you can do that by right-clicking on the AppImage file -> Properties.
Next, click on “Allow executing as a program” under the Permissions tab as shown in the image below.
Now, just double-click on the AppImage file to launch balenaEtcher!
This should work on any Linux distribution. In either case, you can also head over to its GitHub releases section to find RPM, DEB, and the source file if you want to build it from source or just install it using the .rpm or .deb files.
You can also refer to our guide on using deb file in Ubuntu to install applications.
Attention!
It’s been noticed that when you use Etcher to create a live USB of Linux distributions, it leaves the USB in an apparent unusable state where it has only a few MB of the free state and cannot be formatted directly. On Linux, you can use the Disks tool to manually delete the partitions and then format it.
Using Etcher on Linux
It is just a three-step process to get started using Etcher. It should be self-explanatory as per the on-screen instructions after you launch it, but just to give you a head start, here’s what you have to do:
Step 1: Select the appropriate ISO image file or the URL of the file that you need to flash (as shown in the image below).
Step 2: Next, you will have to select the target device. It automatically detects and highlights removable devices to help you prevent selecting any internal storage locations.
In this case, I have a USB drive connected, and I have it selected as well (as shown in the screenshot below).
Step 3: Now, all you have to do is — flash the image and wait for it to complete successfully.
Here’s how the progress looks:
Wrapping Up
Etcher is a useful tool to flash OS images for both SD cards and USB drives. I tend to use it primarily to create live USB drives to test Linux distros and I’m happy with it.
What do you prefer to use to create bootable drives? Have you tried Etcher already? Let me know your thoughts in the comments down below.
Etcher
Flash OS images to SD cards & USB drives, safely and easily.
Etcher is a powerful OS image flasher built with web technologies to ensure flashing an SDCard or USB drive is a pleasant and safe experience. It protects you from accidentally writing to your hard-drives, ensures every byte of data was written correctly, and much more. It can also directly flash Raspberry Pi devices that support USB device boot mode.
Supported Operating Systems
- Linux (most distros)
- macOS 10.10 (Yosemite) and later
- Microsoft Windows 7 and later
Note: Etcher will run on any platform officially supported by Electron. Read more in their documentation.
Installers
Refer to the downloads page for the latest pre-made installers for all supported operating systems.
Packages
Debian and Ubuntu based Package Repository (GNU/Linux x86/x64)
Package for Debian and Ubuntu can be downloaded from the Github release page
Etcher
Etcher is available as an AppImage which means «one app = one file», which you can download and run on your Linux system while you don’t need a package manager and nothing gets changed in your system. Awesome!
AppImages are single-file applications that run on most Linux distributions. Download an application, make it executable, and run! No need to install. No system libraries or system preferences are altered. Most AppImages run on recent versions of Arch Linux, CentOS, Debian, Fedora, openSUSE, Red Hat, Ubuntu, and other common desktop distributions.
Running Etcher on Linux without installation
Behold! AppImages are usually not verified by others. Follow these instructions only if you trust the developer of the software. Use at your own risk!
Download the Etcher AppImage and make it executable using your file manager or by entering the following commands in a terminal:
Then double-click the AppImage in the file manager to open it.
Sandboxing Etcher
If you want to restrict what Etcher can do on your system, you can run the AppImage in a sandbox like Firejail. This is entirely optional and currently needs to be configured by the user.
Updating Etcher
If you would like to update to a new version, simply download the new Etcher AppImage.
Integrating AppImages into the system
If you would like to have the executable bit set automatically, and would like to see Etcher and other AppImages integrated into the system (menus, icons, file type associations, etc.), then you may want to check the optional appimaged daemon.
Note for application authors
Thanks for distributing Etcher in the AppImage format for all common Linux distributions. Great! Here are some ideas on how to make it even better.
Pro Tips for further enhancing the Etcher AppImage
Please consider to add update information to the Etcher AppImage and ship a .zsync file so that it can be updated using AppImageUpdate. Tools like appimagetool and linuxdeployqt can do this for you easily.
Improve this entry by shipping an AppStream metainfo file inside the AppImage in the usr/share/metainfo directory. There is an online tool that makes it easy to make one.
The screenshot for Etcher has been automatically taken during a fully automated test. You can specify the URL to a nicer one by shipping an AppStream metainfo file.
If you would like to see a donation link for the application here, please include one in the AppStream data.
compizomania
Etcher — это кроссплатформенная (Windows, MacOS и Linux) программа для записи iso-образа с дистрибутивом на флешку или микро SD-карту.
Тогда что такое balenaEtcher?
balenaEtcher — это тот же Etcher, разрабатываемый теперь на более продвинутой платформе balena, который записывает .iso-образы на 50% быстрее на несколько накопителей (USB-диск или карту памяти SD) одновременно, чем предыдуший Etcher .
Последняя стабильная версия balenaEtcher 1.4.9.
Одновременная запись образа на несколько накопителей информации: USB-диск (флешку) или карту памяти SD в balenaEtcher.
После того как выбран образ для записи и выбора устройств (Devices), нажмите на кнопке Flash, в окне Etcher отобразится ход выполнения задания на устройства определённые вами. В моём случае идёт запись на две флешки. А также запись сопровождается возможностями платформы balena в картинках:
По окончании записи Etcher известит вас об успешной записи образа (Flash Complete) на нескольких устройствах. В моём случае на двух:
Теперь обе мои флешки стали загрузочными с выбранным мной .iso-образом.
Установка balenaEtcher в Ubuntu и производные
Откройте терминал, скопируйте и выполните следующие команды:
echo «deb https://deb.etcher.io stable etcher» | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/balena-etcher.list
sudo apt-key adv —keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com —recv-keys 379CE192D401AB61
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install balena-etcher-electron
По окончании установки найдите в системном меню balenaEtcher:
Примечание. К сожалению, если у вас ранее был установлен Etcher, то новая установка balenaEtcher не перезаписывает предыдущую версию. Его желательно удалить: