Whatever the reason may be, bootable USB flash drives makes it easier for everyone to re-install or install an operating system to your laptops and computers. Here is a list of benefits of having a bootable USB flash drive: USB flash drives are compatible to all laptops and computers.
The Steps to Create a Bootable USB Disk. So as I mentioned, we’re working with the Ubuntu ISO file here to create a bootable USB disk, but you can replace the ISO with any other ISO that’s built to be bootable and then follow the tutorial exactly as is.

CDs are long gone and if you want to reinstall an operating system, a bootable USB drive is the one required. Let’s learn how to create a bootable USB disk from Ubuntu using terminal today. We’ll be creating a bootable USB of the Ubuntu ISO file, but you can work with any ISO file that was designed to be written to a CD to be bootable.

The Steps to Create a Bootable USB Disk

The firmware in newer Macs allows to boot standard UEFI bootable media, which are rather trivial to create and don't require special Ubuntu images. – LiveWireBT May 7 '15 at 9:20 The standard USB-image will boot on a mac if prepared according to instructions. UNetbootin for Mac OS X can be used to automate the process of extracting the Ubuntu ISO file to USB, and making the USB drive bootable. The resulting USB drive, however, can be booted on PCs only. If attempting to make a USB drive that can be booted from a Mac, follow the instructions below. Manual Approach.

So as I mentioned, we’re working with the Ubuntu ISO file here to create a bootable USB disk, but you can replace the ISO with any other ISO that’s built to be bootable and then follow the tutorial exactly as is.

For Ubuntu, we need a USB disk that’s 8GB so we can have all the files. If you’re working with any other ISO or operating system, the storage requirements will be different.

1. Download the ISO File

To create a bootable USB disk from the Ubuntu terminal, we need to download the ISO file first. In my case, I’m downloading the Ubuntu ISO file for version 20.04. You can choose to download the ISO for another operating system that you want to write to USB. You can follow this link to reach the Ubuntu download page – https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop

Select the package which you wish to set up your bootable USB drive with. For this demonstration, we are using the Ubuntu 20.04 (Codename Focal Fossa). You can either directly download the file by clicking on the Download link on the page or use the wget command to get the file on your system.

2. Connect the USB drive

Once we have downloaded the correct disk image file, we will open the terminal and connect our USB drive. One that’s done, our next step is to figure out the drive name using the Linux fdisk -l command

This will give you a list of all the disk drives that are available on the system. You’ll see a separate section with just a single disk path like /dev/sdb1 with a mount path that’s different from the common ones in Linux (like /home/, /etc/, /boot/ etc.). With Ubuntu, the default mount point is in the /media/ directory. Mine was mounted on the /mnt/

3. Unmount the USB stick

Since Ubuntu automounts any external device that’s connected, we need to unmount it so we can proceed to write the ISO to the USB. We use the umountcommand for this purpose. This action can be executed in two different methods.

The first method will involve using the path at which our USB device has been mounted. This command should look like this.

In this particular case, we will use the command as given below.

This will unmount the USB disk from our system.

Alternatively, we can use the device’s name in this format.

In this particular case, we will use the command as given below to unmount the USB disk.

Now that the device has been unmounted, we will make a bootable drive using it.

4. Write the ISO to the USB Disk

Our USB disk has been unmounted and our ISO file is already downloaded on our system. Now we will make this USB drive bootable for Ubuntu 20.04 using one single command. This is how you enter this command in the terminal.

This command requires us to use sudo privileges.
The bstag reads the number of bytes which will be read from the source and written to the destination at a time.
The second tag, if denotes the path of the input file for the function
Whereas ofdenotes the path where the file has to be output to.

The thing about the dd command in Linux is that it will do anything you ask it to do without asking any questions. Hence, we need to use the command carefully. Before you begin writing, ensure that the output path is the path that you want to write the data to. There’s no turning back once the data has been written.

For our system, we will use the command as given below to create our bootable USB disk for Ubuntu 20.04.

This should start the process of writing the ISO image file on your USB disk and converting it into a bootable drive. You should see a screen as given below. Once you are done, which should take only a few minutes, your USB disk is ready to work as a USB bootable disk for Ubuntu 20.04.

Wrapping up

There are multiple methods to create a bootable USB disk for the Ubuntu OS. Using the terminal for the task is a commonly used method because it eliminates the need for you to install any additional software. Further, it often takes less time to create a bootable USB disk from the Ubuntu terminal as compared to other methods like using the Startup Disk Creator or installing some other software.

Hence this method is advisable even if you are not much comfortable with the terminal-based commands. It eliminates the need for any GUI software, which may be unavailable in some situations. The only major flaw in this method is the lack of a safe-check with the dd command, but it can be eliminated by carefully entering the command. This tutorial aimed to help you create a bootable USB disk from the Ubuntu terminal. If you have any feedback, queries or suggestions, feel free to reach out to us in the comments below.

I bought a Macbook Air yesterday after Dell lost my laptop from their service centre last month. And among the first few things I did was to dual boot Mac OS X with Ubuntu Linux. I’ll cover up Linux installation on Macbook in later articles as first we need to learn how to create a bootable Ubuntu USB drive for Mac in OS X.

While it is fairly easy to create a bootable USB in Ubuntu or in Windows, it is not the same story in Mac OS X. This is why the official Ubuntu guide suggest to use a disk rather than USB for live Ubuntu in Mac. Considering my Macbook Air neither has a CD drive nor do I possess a DVD, I preferred to create a live USB in Mac OS X.

Create a Bootable Ubuntu USB Drive in Mac OS X
As I said earlier, creating a bootable USB in Mac OS X is a tricky procedure, be it for Ubuntu or any other bootable OS. But don’t worry, following all the steps carefully will have you going. Let’s see what you need to for a bootable USB:

Step 1: Format the USB drive
Apple is known for defining its own standards and no surprises that Mac OS X has its own file system type known as Mac OS Extended or HFS Plus. So the first thing you would need to do is to format your USB drive in Mac OS Extended format.

To format the USB drive, plug in the USB key. Go to Disk Utility program from Launchpad (A rocket symboled icon in the bottom plank).

Disk Utility Mac
In Disk Utility, from the left hand pane, select the USB drive to format.
Click the Partition tab in the right side pane.
From the drop-down menu, select 1 Partition.
Name this drive anything you desire.
Next, change the Format to Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
The screenshot below should help you.

Format USB drive in Mac to make it bootable
There is one last thing to do before we go with formatting the USB. Click t

Ubuntu Bootable Usb For Mac