Unraid USB Creator

Unraid USB Creation Utility

Download the latest version for Windows, macOS and Ubuntu from the USB Creator Download Page.

main page

Based on the work by Raspberry Pi

How to use the Unraid USB Creator

License

The main code of the Imaging Utility is made available under the terms of the Apache license. See license.txt and files in "src/dependencies" folder for more information about the various open source licenses that apply to the third-party dependencies used such as Qt, libarchive, drivelist, mountutils and libcurl. For the embedded (netboot) build see also "embedded/legal-info" for more information about the extra system software included in that.

How to rebuild

Debian/Ubuntu Linux

Get dependencies

Install the build dependencies:

sudo apt install --no-install-recommends build-essential devscripts debhelper cmake git libarchive-dev libcurl4-gnutls-dev liblzma-dev \
    qtbase5-dev qtbase5-dev-tools qtdeclarative5-dev libqt5svg5-dev qttools5-dev libgnutls28-dev \
    qml-module-qtquick2 qml-module-qtquick-controls2 qml-module-qtquick-layouts qml-module-qtquick-templates2 qml-module-qtquick-window2 qml-module-qtgraphicaleffects

Get the source

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/unraid/usb-creator-next

Build the Debian package

cd usb-creator-next
debuild -uc -us

debuild will compile everything, create a .deb package and put it in the parent directory. Can install it with apt:

cd ..
sudo apt install ./unraid-usb-creator*.deb

It should create an icon in the start menu under "Utilities" or "Accessories". The imaging utility will normally be run as regular user, and will call udisks2 over DBus to perform privileged operations like opening the disk device for writing. If udisks2 is not functional on your Linux distribution, you can alternatively start it as "root" with sudo and similar tools.

Fedora/RHEL/CentOS Linux

Get dependencies

Install the build dependencies:

sudo yum install git gcc gcc-c++ make cmake libarchive-devel libcurl-devel lzma-sdk-devel openssl-devel qt5-qtbase-devel qt5-qtquickcontrols2-devel qt5-qtsvg-devel qt5-linguist xz-devel

Get the source

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/unraid/usb-creator-next

Build and install the software

cd usb-creator-next
mkdir -p build
cd build
cmake ../src
make
sudo make install

Windows

Cross-compile for Windows with Docker + MXE

Prerequisite: Docker

Dockerfile: src/windows/Dockerfile.win32dyn

To build the image (might take a few hours) and start a new container in interactive mode:

docker build --force-rm -f Dockerfile.win32dyn -t unraid/usb-creator:win32dyn .
docker run --rm -it unraid/usb-creator:win32dyn

Or, to pull the image from GitHub and start a new container in interactive mode:

docker pull ghcr.io/unraid/usb-creator-next/usb-creator-mxe:latest
docker run --rm -it ghcr.io/unraid/usb-creator-next/usb-creator-mxe:latest

Then, inside the container:

git clone https://github.com/unraid/usb-creator-next
cd usb-creator-next
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ../src -DQt5_DIR=/opt/mxe/usr/i686-w64-mingw32.shared/qt5/lib/cmake/Qt5 -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build . --config Release
makensis unraid-usb-creator.nsi

Signing

To sign the .exe installer on Windows, follow these instructions (private repo)

macOS

Get macOS dependencies

Get the Qt online installer from: https://www.qt.io/download-open-source During installation, choose a Qt 5.x edition and CMake.
For creating a .DMG for distribution you can use an utility like: https://github.com/sindresorhus/create-dmg
It is assumed you have an Apple developer subscription, and already have a "Developer ID" code signing certificate for distribution outside the Mac Store. (Privileged apps are not allowed in the Mac store)

Building on Mac

Download source .zip from github and extract it to a folder on disk
Start Qt Creator (may need to start "finder" navigate to home folder using the "Go" menu, and find Qt folder to start it manually as it may not have created icon in Applications), and open src/CMakeLists.txt
Menu "Build" -> "Build all"
Result will be in build_unraid-usb-creator_someversion
Install create-dmg for signing brew install create-dmg

Signing on Mac

For distribution to others:

code sign the .app
create a DMG
submit the DMG for notarization to Apple
staple the notarization ticket to the DMG.

E.g.:

cd build-usb-creator-next-Desktop_Qt_5_14_1_clang_64bit-Release/
codesign --deep --force --verify --verbose --sign "YOUR KEYID" --options runtime unraid-usb-creator.app
mv unraid-usb-creator.app "Unraid USB Creator.app"
create-dmg "Unraid USB Creator.dmg" "Unraid USB Creator.app" 
mv Unraid\ USB\ Creator.dmg imager.dmg
xcrun notarytool submit "Unraid USB Creator.dmg"  --apple-id YOUR-EMAIL-ADDRESS --password YOUR-APP-SPECIFIC-APPLE-PASSWORD --team-id TEAM-ID-FOUND-ON-https://developer.apple.com/account
xcrun notarytool wait SUBMISSION_ID --apple-id YOUR-EMAIL-ADDRESS --password YOUR-APP-SPECIFIC-APPLE-PASSWORD --team-id TEAM-ID-FOUND-ON-https://developer.apple.com/account
xcrun stapler staple "Unraid USB Creator.dmg"

Other notes

Debugging

On Linux and Mac the application will print debug messages to console by default if started from console. On Windows start the application with the command-line option --debug to let it open a console window.

Custom repository

If the application is started with "--repo [your own URL]" it will use a custom image repository. So can simply create another 'start menu shortcut' to the application with that parameter to use the application with your own images.

Telemetry

Telemetry is currently disabled on the Unraid USB Creator

Images

Homepage

main page

OS Selection

os selection

Drive Selection

Blacklisted

blacklisted

Good Drive

good

Options Selection

options

Writing in Progress

writing progress

Success

success message