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Are there FOSS guides for making a one to many USB cloning device? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I am having issues getting results on searches because I get a bunch of results for doing a many ISOs to one USB (like Ventoy). Though I do get some results for hardware devices that can clone one USB to one or more blank USBs. But those hardware devices sell for hundreds of dollars.

I have a periodic need to update around 17 bootable USB drives at work. The drives are burned from ISO files (PC repair tools) and need to be updated with updated versions of the ISO. Currently I have to start each one at a time and is annoying (not as bad as some sys admins out there needing to do hundreds of drives).

So I was wondering if anyone knows of FOSS (or even mostly FOSS) plans/instructions for making a one to many USB clone hardware device using RPi or similar (I have a RPi 5 and a Pico W atm)? If a purpose built hardware device isn't around. Are there any FOSS software programs for Windows (my only real option at work) that can handle taking one ISO to burn onto many USBs? I am fine with it doing them one at a time if they are all plugged-in automatically or if it can do small groups of like four or five.

Just seems like out of all the different guides/plans/kits for things like RPi or similar-ish boards. That there would be something like those pricey one to many cloning devices. Thanks in advance to everyone that can point me to anything useful!

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Does your windows machine have WSL? I would just write a bash script that would DD the image to the drives. Keep in mind that you will be severely bandwidth limited by the USB interface, so it will take a long time. All of the ports on the controller share the same bandwidth. Ideally you would build a PC with lots of USB controller cards for that.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Is that true? I thought that pairs of USB-A ports shared the same PCIe lanes, and USB-C each got their own set?

Edit: thinking about it a bit more, I suppose it could depend on how the SOC/chipset allocates those lanes, but in my experience when writing a single USB I'm usually limited by the thermals of the USB, and writing well below the speed of the port. I suppose if you were writing many at once (or if your USBs were nice) that could bottleneck on the port speed.