Tails - Replacing balenaEtcher with Rufus as installer for Windows
tails.net

I am shocked by this - the quote in below is very concerning:

“However, in 2024, the situation changed: balenaEtcher started sharing the file name of the image and the model of the USB stick with the Balena company and possibly with third parties.”

Can’t see myself using this software anymore…

  • pH3ra@lemmy.ml
    1·
    4 months ago

    If you need a FOSS, cross platform GUI for bootable USB sticks, Raspberry Pi Imager is a really good solution.
    It is mainly used to flash SD cards for RPIs, but also you can burn any ISO on any support with it.

  • Rozz@lemmy.sdf.org
    0·
    4 months ago

    What options are there for flashing to SD cards? Something that works on Mac too would be nice. A gui is preferred.

    • downhomechunk@midwest.socialEnglish
      0·
      4 months ago

      Plug your usb drive in and run lsblk to figure out which letter to use instead of x in /dev/sdx

      sudo dd if=image.iso of=/dev/sdx bs=1M status=progress

      EDIT: I totally didn’t read your request. This is not gui or Mac based, but it still might help someone.

        • downhomechunk@midwest.socialEnglish
          0·
          4 months ago

          I use a microSD to usb adapter and have 2 spinning rust disks. So it’s /sdc for me, but i still always double check. Dd isn’t called the disk destroyer for nothing.

    • yeehaw@lemmy.ca
      0·
      4 months ago

      Can always use dd but I always go stupid when I need to set boot flags and all that crap, which is so much easier with etcher. I think I’ve done dd with gparted in the past.

  • Xanza@lemm.eeEnglish
    0·
    4 months ago

    Generally Ventoy is better than both. Choose a dedicated flash storage, flash Ventoy to it, then click and drag as many ISO’s as can fit on your drive and you can boot from any one of them at any time.

    Much better than Etcher or Rufus, IMO.

  • xttweaponttx@sh.itjust.works
    0·
    4 months ago

    Balenaetcher has, for me at least, failed to write to USBs for the last 3 years or so that I’ve tried to use it - meanwhile random iso writers from flatpak have been more reliable for me. Very obnoxious that so many iso related sites recommend it. Rufus kicks tons of ass, if for whatever reason you’re still on windows.

    Also on most distros I’ve tried, the disk utility has some sort of right click or context menu that gets you a ‘restore disk image’ button that works great as well.

    Edit= I used Popsicle USB writer from flatpak on steam deck with no issue today! Made by system76 (makers of popOS) and found on flatpak. It is absolutely no frills, but works well enough to write an SD card image for a raspberry pi! 🙂