Linux USB-SD creator.

  • Hi folks I'm new to the forum having just registered today.

    I'm not new to Kodi / Libreelec howerver, though admittedly not an expert as I haven't had the need to tinker or do deep dives into configs and the like.

    Now to the availability of a Linux USD-SD creator.

    I recently, (yesterday), needed to rebuild my Kodi box due to a hardware failure.
    I run Kodi / Libreelec on retasked older hardware so it is put to good use.

    It's been some time since I have needed to do an install.

    I don't run MS Windows on any of my systems for any reason whatsoever, and haven't done so for years.

    Imagine my surprise to see that a Linux based installation media tool is listed as (currently not available).

    Firstly I attempted to install libreelec from a downloaded and uncompressed image copied to a Ventoy USB.

    This is the method I usually use when installing from an image personally or when doing installs for others.

    That failed as installing or booting a live instance of libreelec would not progress beyond a certain point via Ventoy.

    The solution for me was to install Windows 10 into a VM then run the tool.

    The end result an effortless, fast, and successful install of libreelec on my freshly 'refurbished' HTPC build.

    While not entirely problematic, and not a stumbling block per se.

    It would be nice to have the Linux based media creator available once again as needing to install Windows on a VM or otherwise for the less than 10 minutes task of creating install media is I feel an unnecessary annoyance.

    Other than that my thanks to the team for providing a quick and easy method of installing Kodi.

    Cheers.

  • Go to Best Answer
  • Creating a non-static Qt6 version of the tool is simple, but this won't run on 95% of Linux desktops without lots of Qt dependencies being pre-installed and we've elected to not inflict that on our users.

    Creating a static Qt6 version of the tool allows it to run basically everywhere but requires a new Qt6 static build recipe and nobody managed to guess at the right combination of juju to make that happen yet. It's one of those Linux "dark arts" challenges; sounds simple but reality is different.

    Plan B (or C?) .. download the .img.gz file you need and use "dd" which is native in every OS and most Linux folks know how to use it.

  • With Linux tools:

    - download the *.img.gz

    - Unpack the Image

    gzip -d *.img.gz

    - plug in the SD card and search the device name

    lsblk

    - write the image to disk, replace sdX with the device name of the SD card

    sudo dd if=*.img. of=/dev/sdX bs=4M

  • Hi folks thanks for the responses.

    chewitt interesting, not being a developer I know nothing of the challenges you folks face in developing a cross distro tool I hope you folks find a satisfactory solution down the road.

    DD is something I'm familiar with, so I'll look into that.

    MatteN honestly I hadn't considered Etcher, don't I feel a fool....
    I've used it in the past, but had forgot about it since 'discovering' Ventoy which handles all the isos / imgs that I've deployed with it to date.
    I'll be sure to test it as with the DD option mentioned above.

    herrmeier thanks for the suggestion but not applicable in my situation as I retask older PC HW for my HTPC builds.
    Perhaps when there comes a time I no longer have HW available to retask and I look to a PI based (or similar) Kodi / Libreelec install.

    Thanks to all for the ideas.

    In the meantime, I've now got a perfectly functioning refurbished Kodi/Libreelec based HTPC, which I've now customised to my preferences.
    Bonus: much better Audio quality as the mainboard used has much better onboard sound than the previous positively ancient board.

    My thanks once again to the Libreelec team for making a lean and mean Kodi solution.

    Cheers.

    Edited 2 times, last by Taliesyn (February 15, 2023 at 1:09 AM).

  • You may want to look into the Raspberry Pi imaging tool as well. It is located on that page, just the next section down.

    Raspberry Pi OS – Raspberry Pi
    From industries large and small, to the kitchen table tinkerer, to the classroom coder, we make computing accessible and affordable for everybody.
    www.raspberrypi.com
  • USBImager for linux

    Files · master · bzt / usbimager · GitLab
    A very minimal GUI app that can write compressed disk images to USB drives.
    gitlab.com

    Known from Linux Mint, the Mintstick program

    Index of /pool/main/m/mintstick/

    122563505-f5829600-d04c-11eb-9ff8-55f8630fa1d1.png

    Linux Mint - Community

    DDcopy

    ddCopy
    ddCopy writes bootable iso image files* Makes a bootable CD/DVD* Makes a bootable USB key* Formats a USB key
    www.pling.com

    Rosa ImageWriter ( old program )

    ROSA ImageWriter - Rosalab Wiki

    Popsicle (?) It is possible to flash an ISO image on several USB sticks at the same time

    Popsicle
    Popsicle is a Linux utility for flashing multiple USB devices in parallel, written in Rust.NOTE: This is only to provide appimages, I am not the developer.
    www.linux-apps.com

    live-usb-maker-qt

    Releases · dolphinoracle/lum-qt-appimage
    appimage package for the live-usb-maker system from antiX and MX, renamed here live-usb-maker-qt - dolphinoracle/lum-qt-appimage
    github.com

    Edited 5 times, last by kobrawerde (May 3, 2024 at 9:43 AM).