Usually, when installing a fresh copy of some Linux distribution on your laptop or PC, you’ll need a bootable USB containing the distribution you want to install.

This tutorial will take you through the steps necessary to create a bootable linux USB stick on Windows, macOS and Linux machines. You can use this USB stick to boot and test out or install the Linux distribution on any computer that supports booting from USB.

Downloading the Distribution ISO file

To create a bootable USB drive first you need to download the distribution ISO file. This file contains everything you need to install the Linux distro on your system.

We’ll use the latest Ubuntu version but the steps explained in this article should work for any other Linux distribution.

Visit the distribution download page ( Ubuntu , CentOS …etc) and download the latest ISO file.

Creating Bootable Linux USB Drive with Etcher

There are several different applications available for free use which will allow you to flash ISO images to USB drives. In this example, we will use Etcher. It is a free and open-source utility for flashing images to SD cards & USB drives and supports Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Head over to the Etcher downloads page , and download the most recent Etcher version for your operating system. Once the file is downloaded, double-click on it and follow the installation wizard.

Creating Bootable Linux USB Drive using Etcher is a relatively straightforward process, just follow the steps outlined below:

1. Connect the USB flash drive to your system and Launch Etcher.
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3. Click on the Select image button and locate the distribution .iso file.
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5. If only one USB drive is attached to your machine, Etcher will automatically select it. Otherwise, if more than one SD cards or USB drives are connected make sure you have selected the correct USB drive before flashing the image.
6. Click on the Flash image button and the process of flashing the USB drive will start.
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8. Etcher will show a progress bar and ETA during the flashing.
9. The whole process may take several minutes, depending on the size of the ISO file and the USB stick speed. Once completed the following screen will appear telling you that the image is successfully flashed.
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11. Click on the [X] to close the Etcher window.

That’s all! You have a bootable Linux on your USB stick.

#linux