Ventoy – Open-Source Alternative to Rufus for Creating Multi-Boot USB Drives : digitalescapetooks@sh.itjust.works

Ventoy – Open-Source Alternative to Rufus for Creating Multi-Boot USB Drives (thelemmy.club)

submitted 2 months ago by Digitalescapetools@sh.itjust.works [M] to c/digitalescapetooks@sh.itjust.works

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Ventoy makes reinstalling operating systems or testing Linux distros much easier.

Install Ventoy once, then simply copy ISO files to your USB drive, no need to reformat it every time you add another image. It also supports multiple operating systems, Secure Boot, persistence, and many rescue tools.

GitHub: https://github.com/ventoy/Ventoy

More details: https://digitalescapetools.com/tools/tool.html?id=ventoy

More privacy-friendly tools: https://digitalescapetools.com/

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[–] CameronDev@programming.dev 30 points 2 months ago (2 children)

It is open sourceish. There have been some binaries that have unclear provenance that were committed into the source. The creator was working on fixing those issues though.

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[–] Matty_r@programming.dev 5 points 2 months ago (1 child)

Thats still a problem? Damn that seems like it was years ago that it was raised.

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[–] CameronDev@programming.dev 2 points 2 months ago

Seems to be. There is also 800 issues open, which suggests they might be drowning a bit.

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[–] billwashere@lemmy.world 26 points 2 months ago

I’m an IT guy and this tool is one of the most used I have for installing bare metal. Very useful indeed.

[–] paddythegeek@lemmy.ca 10 points 2 months ago

Ventoy is fucking awesome!

[–] clay_pidgin@sh.itjust.works 6 points 2 months ago (1 child)

I have a thumbdrive with Ventoy on my desk at this very moment. It's super handy. I keep a live CD type distro on it, and my install media for Nixos and stuff.

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[–] Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 2 points 2 months ago

I have like half a dozen, plus a couple old laptop SSD's in enclosures with a bunch of software so I can build almost anything - pick an OS, an choose your software. Several different windows versions and Linux distros on there.

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[–] the_riviera_kid@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago (8 children)

Why do you need an alternative? Rufus is great.

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[–] adarza@lemmy.ca 21 points 2 months ago (6 children)

with a ventoy usb stick, all you have to do is copy bootable .iso over. that's it. you get a menu at boot to pick one.

it's extremely convenient.

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[–] HornedMeatBeast@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 2 months ago (4 children)

This is the main reason I use Ventoy.

I have a small external drive and I just dump multiple ISO files on it and then select whichever one I want at boot, I don't have to keep formatting and making new bootable drives.

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[–] schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works 1 point 2 months ago (1 child)

You can put them all on one USB instead of trying to remember which color thumb drive has which version of which distro... nice.

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[–] adarza@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 months ago

the iso don't even all need to be on the same ventoy, either... since you can browse other disks and boot .iso off those, too.

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[–] towerful@programming.dev 1 point 2 months ago (1 child)

It does mean you have to repackage isos if you want to include/update files.
For example, it made an automated.xml file for windows install a lot more complicated. But now I have a very nicely scripted iso builder for customised windows installations (I work in the events industry, so things like digital signage and show machines can be 95% configured before I even have to interact with it).
It's still windows, but it's now hands free from iso boot to being able to use it with the software and settings I want.

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[–] HornedMeatBeast@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 point 2 months ago

Ventoy, as far as I know, uses image files only, so if you are making changes to your files then my best guess is you will need to update the ISO or rebuild it.

I mainly use it for distro hopping, I will download the latest version of a Linux distro to give it a try. Got quite a few on my bootable drive. So I never update any files other than replacing the ISO I had been using for a certain distro.

I think Ventoy would work in your case if you needed to carry around more than one version of the automated Windows install you are using.

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[–] kuerbiskernoel@feddit.org 1 point 2 months ago

And you can keep both data and isos on it

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[–] Meron35@lemmy.world 19 points 2 months ago

Rufus is windows only
Rufus still requires formatting the drive every time, and is limited to one OS per drive. An overly reductionist take is that it is basically a fancy wrapper to dd. Ventoy is way more brain-dead to use - format once, just drag and drop multiple isos, and the ventoy menu will let you choose which to iso to boot into.

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[–] adarza@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 months ago

it's awesome, but there are a few things that don't boot or boot correctly off one. for those, i just use gnome disks to 'restore' an image, and overwrite a temporary usb when i need to.

[–] hereiamagain@sh.itjust.works 1 point 2 months ago

Is this back in Vogue? I used to love this, then something happened security wise, and everyone got out their pitchforks. I still used it, works great.

Glad to see whatever happened has unhappened 🤣

[–] FavouriteShapes@sh.itjust.works 1 point 2 months ago

Amazing! Just when i needed it too

[–] OldChicoAle@lemmy.world 1 point 2 months ago

That's hot!