Create a bootable (Bootable) Linux USB stick

A big advantage of Linux is that you can try it out without installing it on your hard drive. Most Linux distributions provide disk images (ISO files) that contain everything you need to boot into a live environment and, optionally, begin installation.

You can write the ISO file to a USB stick to boot Linux from it. This saves an installation and you can start Linux without installing it. If you still want to install Linux, you can also do this via the bootable USB stick with Linux on it. There are several Linux distributions that you can use to create a bootable USB stick.

Each Linux distribution has a slightly different installation process, but most all work via an ISO file that you can place on a USB stick to boot from.

Create a bootable (Bootable) Linux USB stick

Etcher is written in Electron and is a cross-platform open-source utility for flashing ISO disk images to USB drives and memory cards.

It runs on Windows, macOS and Linux and offers an accessible graphical user interface that reduces the process of creating a bootable Linux USB to just three simple steps.

You also need a Linux distro. I'm assuming you already own it, if not you can search for Ubuntu, the most user-friendly Linux distribution at the moment.

Create bootable Linux USB via Windows with Etcher

To begin download and install Etcher on your computer. Open Etcher and click on the “Flash from file” button.

Then select the Linux ISO file on your computer and click Open.

Then click on “Select target” to select the USB stick. Make sure the USB stick is recognized.

Once you have selected the USB stick, click on the “Flash!” button.

The USB stick is now flashed with the Linux distribution. After this process the USB stick is ready to use boot from USB.

Create bootable Linux USB via Windows with RUFUS

Before the release of Etcher in 2016, Rufus was the best way to create a bootable Linux USB in Windows. This bootable USB flash drive creator is much faster than any of its Windows competitors and it can create live USB drives for systems with both BIOS and UEFI.

To create a bootable Linux USB with Rufus:

• Download Rufus from its official website.
• You can choose between an installer and a portable version.
• Install it if you have downloaded the installer. Otherwise, you can just launch it via the Portable version.
• Select the target USB device.
• Click the Select button next to the boot selection dropdown menu and specify the ISO file you want to flash.
• Choose the right partition layout for your system.
• Click the Start button and wait for Rufus to finish.

Create bootable Linux USB via Mac

To begin download Etcher to your Mac. Open Etcher and click on the “Flash from file” button.

Then select the Linux ISO file on your Mac and click Open. Then select the USB stick on which you want to install the Linux distro and then click on “Flash!”.

A bootable Linux USB stick is now created in macOS.

Also read: create macOS installation USB.

I hope this helped you. Thank you for reading!