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balena-io / etcher

Flash OS images to SD cards & USB drives, safely and easily.
https://etcher.io/
Apache License 2.0
29.3k stars 2.08k forks source link

Support burning Windows images #210

Open jviotti opened 8 years ago

jviotti commented 8 years ago

Looks like burning Windows images requires a few custom steps for the drive to be bootable:

http://onetransistor.blogspot.com/2014/09/make-bootable-windows-usb-from-ubuntu.html

It'd be nice to experiment detecting a Windows image and perform this steps automatically.

lurch commented 4 years ago

I had a bit of a rummage around, and https://clonezilla.org/clonezilla-live.php says

Clonezilla Live is a small bootable GNU/Linux distribution for x86/amd64 (x86-64) based computers.

and

Two types of files are available, iso and zip. The former one is for CD, the latter is for USB flash drive.

so it's not surprising that trying to flash the ISO to a USB flash drive doesn't work. And https://clonezilla.org/liveusb.php talks about manually partitioning the drive and then

To make your USB flash drive bootable, first change the working dir, e.g. "cd /media/usb/utils/linux", then run "bash makeboot.sh /dev/sdd1"

so unfortunately it sounds like Clonezilla Live isn't distributed in a format that's suitable for flashing by Etcher. :slightly_frowning_face:

Other ISO files like linux distro installers flash to the USB fine and can be run

Other Linux distros, like Ubuntu, have solved this problem by using hybrid ISOs which means they don't need to supply different versions for CD and USB flash drive (and therefore do work with Etcher).

No need for persistence.

Indeed, that was my misunderstanding of the problem, sorry.

polarathene commented 4 years ago

@lurch I would say the docs you're referencing are just out of date to be honest. For example, they have a section for USB with Windows tool Rufus(an Windows only alternative to Etcher for this task), and it specifically mentions the ISO file:

Download the Clonezilla Live iso file. From MS Windows, run the Rufus program and follow the instructions in the GUI to install Clonezilla Live on your USB flash drive.

And this is exactly what I did. I don't remember the exact message, but Rufus detected some issue with the syslinux setup on the ISO, mentioning two missing or incompatible files, I do recall it saying some version supplied on the ISO was from 10-15+ years ago and Rufus asked to go online and update that with something more recent.

I could perform that again if specifics would help. After Rufus accomplished the task, I booted the Clonezilla Live media just fine and made a backup image of my Windows install.

Personally, it would be nice if Etcher could support the same feature that Rufus has handled, it apparently does so for other media that needs it(prompt user for permission). I'd rather not need to have access to a Windows system if I could use my preferred cross-platform tool Etcher for this.

lurch commented 4 years ago

but Rufus detected some issue with the syslinux setup on the ISO, mentioning two missing or incompatible files

Yeah, that's the kind of logic that Etcher doesn't (yet?) have. That sounds quite different from supporting Windows ISOs, so I wonder if it's worth creating a separate issue? :man_shrugging:

After Rufus accomplished the task, I booted the Clonezilla Live media just fine

Nice to know that at least you have a workaround :slightly_smiling_face: @thundron Is this something that should be added to the documentation? https://github.com/balena-io/etcher/blob/master/docs/USER-DOCUMENTATION.md#why-is-my-drive-not-bootable

polarathene commented 4 years ago

That sounds quite different from supporting Windows ISOs, so I wonder if it's worth creating a separate issue?

I created a separate issue. I only chimed in here based on the forum link to this issue being advised as related to the problem. I've not attempted to create a bootable Windows OS for a while, so I can't recall what Rufus does differently vs Etcher to make the ISO bootable if it's different from what happened with Clonezilla.

reversed-coffee commented 4 years ago

Support!

f3ndot commented 4 years ago

I recently went through the hell of running the latest macOS and attempting to "burn" the official Windows 10 iso from Microsoft onto a 16GB USB:

  1. The latest iso has an sources/install.wim that is larger than the FAT32 4GB file limit, resulting in the file to be missing on the USB (generating quite the annoying error)
  2. macOS 10.15 (Catalina) has removed the Bootcamp Assistant approach people have described. So that's out.
  3. To side-step the 4GB limit I attempted ExFat as some suggested. However, using ExFat formatting did not make the USB bootable

The only way I was able to get a successful Windows 10 USB installation medium with a macOS host was to follow this blog post: https://alexlubbock.com/bootable-windows-usb-on-mac. Spoiler: You have to split the large install.wim into 4000 MB chunks (just like rar part files) using some sort of particular splitting binary.

Based on the research I see, Etcher would have to automate the steps of that guide in order to support macOS hosts.

825i commented 4 years ago

How is it after 4 years Etcher still isn't able to create a bootable Windows 10 USB? Guys I love Linux as much as the rest of you, but please get on this asap.

JosephTico commented 4 years ago

This alone made me uninstall Etcher. It's ridiculous that the developer doesn't care.

thundron commented 4 years ago

@JosephTico Remember that the "developer" is also you - this is an open source project and we're already working on a number of other things that you may or may not know, but saying we don't care can't be more wrong. If anyone feels like implementing this, feel free to, it isn't a priority of ours for now

825i commented 4 years ago

Apparently I'm still subscribed to this. Whilst I don't agree with Joseph's attitude :( I really have to reinforce to whomever reads this. Support for burning Windows .iso to USB is of paramount importance and should be the number one priority moving forward. If this application is to be offered at a cost for mass flashing of bootable media, it does not make any sense that Windows is not a supported OS.

I hope this is prioritised in the future, because if Windows was supported I (and I am sure a great deal of other people) would not see remotely any need to use other applications whatsoever.

My best to the Balena team. Have a lovely Summer/Winter everyone.

lurch commented 4 years ago

Support for burning Windows .iso to USB is of paramount importance and should be the number one priority moving forward.

That may be of "paramount importance" to you, but that doesn't mean that it's equally important for Balena, which is the company paying for @thundron and @zvin to be working on Etcher.

If this application is to be offered at a cost

?? AFAIK Etcher has always been (and always will be) Open Source Software, downloadable for free. If you're talking about EtcherPro, then I think I remember reading somewhere that you'll (obviously) be paying for the hardware, but that the software itself will remain Open Source.

martinbogo commented 4 years ago

Lorenzo,

Are you saying that if I submitted a pull request that fixes this, you would patch Balena Etcher and support the feature? If that's all that is stopping this from being implemented, I'm happy to give it a go.

-Martin

On Wed, May 13, 2020 at 3:33 AM Lorenzo Alberto Maria Ambrosi < notifications@github.com> wrote:

@JosephTico https://github.com/JosephTico Remember that the "developer" is also you - this is an open source project and we're already working on a number of other things that you may or may not know, but saying we don't care can't be more wrong. If anyone feels like implementing this, feel free to, it isn't a priority of ours for now

— You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/balena-io/etcher/issues/210#issuecomment-627835762, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAB5KKJAZUIDVQ7P5HR4K73RRJLNLANCNFSM4B6FMNFQ .

duel007 commented 4 years ago

How is this not implemented yet? Very frustrating to not be able to do such a basic task.

Forage commented 4 years ago

Please lock this issue. It's need and requirements are clear by now and nothing useful is being added to the discussion any more. Actual constructive discussions can take place again when someone steps up and creates a PR.

dginovker commented 3 years ago

How is this not implemented yet? Very frustrating to not be able to do such a basic task.

Use WoeUSB

StephanMeijer commented 3 years ago

How is this not implemented yet? Very frustrating to not be able to do such a basic task.

I get the complaint, but if it is this important.. Why don't you implement it yourself then? Would be happy to brainstorm about it with you.

fuzzy76 commented 3 years ago

if it is this important.. Why don't you implement it yourself then?

Are you under the impression that all users are developers?

rgaufman commented 3 years ago

Any scripts for Mac? - the couple of links above go into longwinded tutorials about manually splitting wimlib files, etc. Any tools to simplify it? -- if not, I may just go ahead and create one :D

Anon-Exploiter commented 3 years ago

+1 for windows :sweat_smile:

I don't want to run my VM everytime ;__;

fuzzy76 commented 3 years ago

Please vote on the issue instead of replying with a non-helpful comment.

lurch commented 3 years ago

https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html got a brief review in this month's LinuxFormat magazine, and apparently it's capable of booting Legacy / UEFI / Linux / Windows / etc. ISO images - sounds cool!

@thundron @zvin I wonder if it might be worth adding that to https://github.com/balena-io/etcher/blob/master/docs/USER-DOCUMENTATION.md ?

Anon-Exploiter commented 3 years ago

Please vote on the issue instead of replying with a non-helpful comment.

okay boomer

jellyfish-bot commented 3 years ago

[gelbal] This issue has attached support thread https://jel.ly.fish/83b1da11-14b2-454d-86bf-1b4ea4199e6d

jellyfish-bot commented 3 years ago

[chrisys] This issue has attached support thread https://jel.ly.fish/cd4916c6-9f65-4c8c-9447-616a0d7859f7

jellyfish-bot commented 3 years ago

[hades32] This issue has attached support thread https://jel.ly.fish/189c0459-c919-4626-9f78-5d7b639dff89

Firestar-Reimu commented 3 years ago

rufus can burn my Windows 10 Beta ISO, but balenaEtcher 1.5.121 still cannot.

jellyfish-bot commented 2 years ago

[zwhitchcox] This issue has attached support thread https://jel.ly.fish/cbdac561-a16f-4aec-bd20-10fd05f4d89a