From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.ubuntu

I want to create a bootable Ubuntu installer thumb drive using Win11.
The installer needs to offer an option to install the bootable Ubuntu partition alongside of an existing bootable Win11 partition. I want
to create this bootable installer using Windows 11.
Any explanatory info you provide about creating the thumb drive will be appreciated.
TIA. Bill S.

--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.ubuntu

On 15/09/2025 21:33, bilsch01 wrote:

I want to create a bootable Ubuntu installer thumb drive using Win11.
The installer needs to offer an option to install the bootable Ubuntu >partition alongside of an existing bootable Win11 partition. I want
to create this bootable installer using Windows 11.
Any explanatory info you provide about creating the thumb drive will be >appreciated.
TIA. Bill S.

You need Rufus. It's a Windows app that takes an ISO and uses it to create a
bootable USB stick.
--
--
A PICKER OF UNCONSIDERED TRIFLES
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.ubuntu

On Mon, 9/15/2025 5:06 PM, Jason H wrote:

On 15/09/2025 21:33, bilsch01 wrote:

I want to create a bootable Ubuntu installer thumb drive using Win11.
The installer needs to offer an option to install the bootable Ubuntu partition alongside of an existing bootable Win11 partition. I want
to create this bootable installer using Windows 11.
Any explanatory info you provide about creating the thumb drive will be appreciated.
TIA.   Bill S.

You need Rufus. It's a Windows app that takes an ISO and uses it to create a bootable USB stick.

https://rufus.ie/en/

(1) Non exhaustive list of ISOs Rufus is known to work with

AlmaLinux,Arch Linux,Archboot,CentOS,Clonezilla,Damn Small Linux,Debian,Elementary OS,
Fedora,FreeDOS,Garuda Linux,Gentoo,GParted,Hiren's Boot CD,Kali Linux,Knoppix,KolibriOS ,
Linux Mint,Manjaro Linux,NT Password Registry Editor,OpenSUSE,Raspberry Pi OS,Raspbian,
ReactOS,Red Hat,rEFInd,Rocky Linux,Slackware,Super Grub2 Disk,Tails,Trinity Rescue Kit,
TrueNAS CORE,Ubuntu,UEFI Shell,Ultimate Boot CD,Windows XP (SP2+),Windows Vista,
Windows 7,Windows 8/8.1,Windows 10,Windows Server 2019,Windows 11,

As far as I know, it handles one ISO at a time. It is not "Ventoy".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ventoy

The problem with some ISO compilations today, is they are larger than 4.7GB
and require dual layer media. In the case of Ubuntu, putting some
SNAPs on the ISO, then forcing the user to immediately upgrade the
SNAPs after installation is complete, is a gross waste of resources.

There is also this:

https://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=supergrub

That's a tool that will boot a distro that was installed on HDD,
but no longer boots. When you boot that media, it sniffs partitions
and offers to boot them, for the things it "recognizes". Whether
via trickery you could load an installing software onto HDD and
access it with SuperGrub, that I don't know. I did one install
years ago like that. Two FAT32 partitions, one had the install
materials, the second partition was the target, and a boot floppy
provides the needed leverage. But not every install in life is
that easy :-)

Everyone needs a hobby, and installing is a hobby.

Paul
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.ubuntu

On Mon, 15 Sep 2025 13:33:17 -0700, bilsch01 wrote:

I want to create a bootable Ubuntu installer thumb drive using Win11.

You could install WSL2 and take advantage of its Linux functionality, like
the “dd” command.
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.ubuntu

On Mon, 9/15/2025 7:49 PM, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:

On Mon, 15 Sep 2025 13:33:17 -0700, bilsch01 wrote:

I want to create a bootable Ubuntu installer thumb drive using Win11.

You could install WSL2 and take advantage of its Linux functionality, like the “dd” command.

Yikes.

You can do better than that.

Amid all the advertising (this page didn't have advertising at one time):

http://www.chrysocome.net/dd # Manual page

# About 70% down the page...

http://www.chrysocome.net/downloads/dd-0.6beta3.zip

That gives you "dd.exe", to be run in a Windows Administrator terminal session. The tool was previously "rawrite" and the name changed to "dd" at some point. It is an acquired taste (does not detect the end of the source disk properly for one kind of media, not a big deal). As long as you craft your block size bs=
value and your count= value, that should be sufficient to make it work.

So Windows has its own dd, as a third party executable.

The command

dd.exe --list

lists the device names as text strings. You can copy those text strings
when crafting your "dd" command. The regular dd expects the user to know
the canonical names of the /dev materials. Since the Windows user is not exposed to this particular format and name space, the list option was
added as a convenience.

*******

The WSL2 does not have a working /dev layer. It's not designed to hack
around or subvert Windows itself. The people who worked on WSL,
evidence points to them being pretty skilled at what they did.
I can tell by how quickly they "tuned" the implementation,
what kind of a team they are.

$ sudo disktype /dev/sda
[sudo] password for paul:

--- /dev/sda
Block device, size 388.4 MiB (407314432 bytes)
Ext4 file system
UUID nil
Volume size 388.4 MiB (407314432 bytes, 99442 blocks of 4 KiB)

$ sudo disktype /dev/sdb

--- /dev/sdb
Block device, size 186.0 MiB (195080192 bytes)
Ext4 file system
UUID nil
Volume size 186.0 MiB (195080192 bytes, 47627 blocks of 4 KiB)

$ sudo disktype /dev/sdc

--- /dev/sdc
Block device, size 16.00 GiB (17179873280 bytes)
Linux swap, version 2, subversion 1, 4 KiB pages, little-endian
Swap size 16.00 GiB (17179865088 bytes, 4194303 pages of 4 KiB)

$ sudo disktype /dev/sdd

--- /dev/sdd
Block device, size 1 TiB (1099511627776 bytes)
Ext4 file system
UUID F722DDB4-B8E6-4D0A-A5BE-4EC49B24314C (DCE, v4)
Last mounted at "/distro"
Volume size 1 TiB (1099511627776 bytes, 268435456 blocks of 4 KiB)

Those do not correspond to physical things all that much. The 1 TiB thing
is likely to be a dynamic container which is only partially filled (as no blob on that SSD is that big). The partial fill would be on the order of 8GB.

The Linux "dd" might work on those, but I don't think there is much
profit to be had, by doing so.

And if we look at mounts...

$ ls /mnt
c d e f g h i k s wsl wslg

it's a pretty fuzzy collection of stuff you could just as easily
attack from the Windows side.

Using the Linux "dd" from there, is not a big help.

*******

However, if you use Windows VirtualBox and had the PUEL hardware passthru installed (as a home user, not for commercial use), then you could connect
a USB stick to the PC, and via passthru, a Linux LiveDVD in VirtualBox could
be used to write to the USB stick. Similarly, you could run Linux VirtualBox, and using the passthru, do the same thing. The passthru does not work for everything (you can't boot from a USB stick via passthru), but for a limited set of tasks, you can succeed via passthru. Maybe even a USB DVD writer could be run that way. A regular DVD writer over a SATA cable, does not normally work,
but you might succeed over USB.

Summary: I have prepared some number of USB flash sticks using dd.exe ,
but the Rufus is just as good at it. At least with Rufus there is
a GUI to look at :-) Occasionally, I burn optical media as well.
(The USB DVD makes the rounds, on boxes where I can't reach the
tray to insert media.)

Paul

--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.ubuntu

On Mon, 15 Sep 2025 22:34:30 -0400, Paul wrote:

On Mon, 9/15/2025 7:49 PM, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:

On Mon, 15 Sep 2025 13:33:17 -0700, bilsch01 wrote:

I want to create a bootable Ubuntu installer thumb drive using Win11.

You could install WSL2 and take advantage of its Linux functionality,
like the “dd” command.

Yikes.

You can do better than that.

You can on a native Linux system, but we’re trying to get to that.

That gives you "dd.exe", to be run in a Windows Administrator terminal session. The tool was previously "rawrite" and the name changed to "dd"
at some point. It is an acquired taste (does not detect the end of the
source disk properly for one kind of media, not a big deal).

A load of crap, in other words.

The WSL2 does not have a working /dev layer. It's not designed to hack
around or subvert Windows itself. The people who worked on WSL,
evidence points to them being pretty skilled at what they did.

But maybe not skilled enough. Does “lsblk” work? Does the content of /proc/self/mountinfo show anything sensible?

The Linux "dd" might work on those, but I don't think there is much
profit to be had, by doing so.

So much for being “skilled”, eh?

And if we look at mounts...

$ ls /mnt
c d e f g h i k s wsl wslg

it's a pretty fuzzy collection of stuff you could just as easily attack
from the Windows side.

That’s not how you normally query what’s mounted. Try the “df” command.

Using the Linux "dd" from there, is not a big help.

You might be right.

However, if you use Windows VirtualBox and had the PUEL hardware
passthru installed (as a home user, not for commercial use), then you
could connect a USB stick to the PC, and via passthru, a Linux LiveDVD
in VirtualBox could be used to write to the USB stick. Similarly, you
could run Linux VirtualBox, and using the passthru, do the same thing.
The passthru does not work for everything (you can't boot from a USB
stick via passthru), but for a limited set of tasks, you can succeed via passthru. Maybe even a USB DVD writer could be run that way. A regular
DVD writer over a SATA cable, does not normally work,
but you might succeed over USB.

Windows just doesn’t want to make it easy, does it?
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.ubuntu

On Mon, 9/15/2025 10:55 PM, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:

On Mon, 15 Sep 2025 22:34:30 -0400, Paul wrote:

On Mon, 9/15/2025 7:49 PM, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:

On Mon, 15 Sep 2025 13:33:17 -0700, bilsch01 wrote:

I want to create a bootable Ubuntu installer thumb drive using Win11.

You could install WSL2 and take advantage of its Linux functionality,
like the “dd” command.

Yikes.

You can do better than that.

You can on a native Linux system, but we’re trying to get to that.

That gives you "dd.exe", to be run in a Windows Administrator terminal
session. The tool was previously "rawrite" and the name changed to "dd"
at some point. It is an acquired taste (does not detect the end of the
source disk properly for one kind of media, not a big deal).

A load of crap, in other words.

The WSL2 does not have a working /dev layer. It's not designed to hack
around or subvert Windows itself. The people who worked on WSL,
evidence points to them being pretty skilled at what they did.

But maybe not skilled enough. Does “lsblk” work? Does the content of /proc/self/mountinfo show anything sensible?

The Linux "dd" might work on those, but I don't think there is much
profit to be had, by doing so.

So much for being “skilled”, eh?

And if we look at mounts...

$ ls /mnt
c d e f g h i k s wsl wslg

it's a pretty fuzzy collection of stuff you could just as easily attack
from the Windows side.

That’s not how you normally query what’s mounted. Try the “df” command.

Using the Linux "dd" from there, is not a big help.

You might be right.

However, if you use Windows VirtualBox and had the PUEL hardware
passthru installed (as a home user, not for commercial use), then you
could connect a USB stick to the PC, and via passthru, a Linux LiveDVD
in VirtualBox could be used to write to the USB stick. Similarly, you
could run Linux VirtualBox, and using the passthru, do the same thing.
The passthru does not work for everything (you can't boot from a USB
stick via passthru), but for a limited set of tasks, you can succeed via
passthru. Maybe even a USB DVD writer could be run that way. A regular
DVD writer over a SATA cable, does not normally work,
but you might succeed over USB.

Windows just doesn’t want to make it easy, does it?

There is one in Coreutils.

https://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/coreutils.htm

Needs the bin package and the dep package (two DLLs).

Wed, 04/20/2005 02:41 PM 87,552 dd.exe
Tue, 03/16/2004 04:37 PM 898,048 libiconv2.dll
Sat, 10/09/2004 12:25 PM 101,888 libintl3.dll

*******

.\dd --help # Coreutils...

Usage: .\dd [OPERAND]...
or: .\dd OPTION
Copy a file, converting and formatting according to the operands.

bs=BYTES force ibs=BYTES and obs=BYTES
cbs=BYTES convert BYTES bytes at a time
conv=CONVS convert the file as per the comma separated symbol list
count=BLOCKS copy only BLOCKS input blocks
ibs=BYTES read BYTES bytes at a time
if=FILE read from FILE instead of stdin
iflag=FLAGS read as per the comma separated symbol list
obs=BYTES write BYTES bytes at a time
of=FILE write to FILE instead of stdout
oflag=FLAGS write as per the comma separated symbol list
seek=BLOCKS skip BLOCKS obs-sized blocks at start of output
skip=BLOCKS skip BLOCKS ibs-sized blocks at start of input
status=noxfer suppress transfer statistics

BLOCKS and BYTES may be followed by the following multiplicative suffixes:
xM M, c 1, w 2, b 512, kB 1000, K 1024, MB 1000*1000, M 1024*1024,
GB 1000*1000*1000, G 1024*1024*1024, and so on for T, P, E, Z, Y.

Each CONV symbol may be:

ascii from EBCDIC to ASCII
ebcdic from ASCII to EBCDIC
ibm from ASCII to alternate EBCDIC
block pad newline-terminated records with spaces to cbs-size
unblock replace trailing spaces in cbs-size records with newline
lcase change upper case to lower case
nocreat do not create the output file
excl fail if the output file already exists
notrunc do not truncate the output file
ucase change lower case to upper case
swab swap every pair of input bytes
noerror continue after read errors
sync pad every input block with NULs to ibs-size; when used
with block or unblock, pad with spaces rather than NULs
fdatasync physically write output file data before finishing
fsync likewise, but also write metadata

Each FLAG symbol may be:

append append mode (makes sense only for output)
sync likewise, but also for metadata
nonblock use non-blocking I/O

Sending a SIGUSR1 signal to a running `dd' process makes it
print I/O statistics to standard error, then to resume copying.

$ dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/null& pid=$!
$ kill -USR1 $pid; sleep 1; kill $pid
18335302+0 records in
18335302+0 records out
9387674624 bytes (9.4 GB) copied, 34.6279 seconds, 271 MB/s

Options are:

--help display this help and exit
--version output version information and exit

Report bugs to <[email protected]>.


*******

The chrysocome.net one can make a file. A 1GB test file.

dd if=/dev/zero of=D:\test.bin bs=1048576 count=1000

The gnuwin32 Coreutils one can copy it. It's doing about 4GB a second,
but the utility is a little "math challenged" when working out the speed.

dd if=test.bin of=testcopy.bin bs=1048576
1000+0 records in
1000+0 records out
1048576000 bytes (1.0 GB) copied, 0.278 seconds, -17981002498915788000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 GB/s

If we do the same copy test with the chrysocome one...

D:\TEMP>dd if=D:\test.bin of=D:\testcopy.bin bs=1048576
rawwrite dd for windows version 0.6beta3.
Written by John Newbigin <[email protected]>
This program is covered by terms of the GPL Version 2.

1000+0 records in
1000+0 records out

*******

The letter D: is on /dev/sdc, so next we try for a physical layer test.

.\dd if=/dev/sdc of=- bs=1048576 | wc -c

.\dd: opening `/dev/sdc': No such file or directory

So it's not a cygwin type implementation.

We can try the namespace the chrysocome one knows.
I should really be doing my physical layer tests in an Admin window,
for access! My mistake. I've removed some output to make this easier
to read.

PS D:\temp> .\dd --list
rawwrite dd for windows version 0.6beta3.
Written by John Newbigin <[email protected]>
This program is covered by terms of the GPL Version 2.
...
NT Block Device Objects
\\?\Device\Harddisk2\Partition0 <=== Whole disk drive identifier (equiv /dev/sdc)
link to \\?\Device\Harddisk2\DR2
Fixed hard disk media. Block size = 512
size is 21474836480 bytes
\\?\Device\Harddisk2\Partition1 <=== One and only partition identifier (equiv /dev/sdc1)
link to \\?\Device\HarddiskVolume9 Because the size is not listed, I can't
run this in a test.

Virtual input devices
/dev/zero (null data)
/dev/random (pseudo-random data)
- (standard input)

Virtual output devices
- (standard output)
/dev/null (discard the data)

But if I try that with the Coreutils one, it doesn't like that namespace.

*******

$ dd if=test.bin bs=1048576 | wc -c
5242880000 <=== wc stdout output printed first 5000+0 records in \
5000+0 records out \__ Coreutils stderr output
5242880000 bytes (5.2 GB) copied, 1.0969 seconds, -0.0 GB/s /

It's looking like, while the Coreutils dd exists, it doesn't seem to
work on the expected namespace. The chrysocome one does work (using
the namespace defined via the --list output). I don't have the Cygwin
set up right now, to test the "dd" it would have. The DLL list today,
is more than the two DLLs it used to use, so setting up a copy of dd on that would be a folder of stuff.

I can demo one Cygwin utility I have set up in a folder.
That is to demonstrate how that namespace *can* work. But
the Cygwin port is not going to be the same as the Gnuwin32 port.

S:\disktype>disktype /dev/sdc

--- /dev/sdc
Block device, size 20 GiB (21474836480 bytes)
DOS/MBR partition map
Partition 1: 20.00 GiB (21471690752 bytes, 41936896 sectors from 2048)
Type 0x07 (HPFS/NTFS)
NTFS file system
Volume size 20.00 GiB (21471690240 bytes, 41936895 sectors)

*******

IDK, I guess that's why I use it ? The chrysocome one.

And for the OP, none of this is particularly convenient.

To write a USB stick with a Ubuntu ISO, with the Chrysocome one, would be:

Name: ubuntu-24.04.2-desktop-amd64.iso # What I have handy, in the ISO collection
Size: 6343219200 bytes (6049 MiB)
SHA256: D7FE3D6A0419667D2F8EFF12796996328DAA2D4F90CD9F87AA9371B362F987BF

factor 6343219200
6343219200: 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 5 5 61 677

(Admin terminal window. write USB stick via Windows)

.\dd.exe if=ubuntu-24.04.2-desktop-amd64.iso of=\\?\Device\Harddisk2\Partition0 bs=153600 count=41297

Only a few USB sticks go really fast, doing this.
(There is a Patriot one that does at least 600MB/sec.)

Paul

--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.ubuntu

On Tue, 16 Sep 2025 05:42:52 -0400, Paul wrote:

And for the OP, none of this is particularly convenient.

So you’re saying WSL2 doesn’t give you a genuine enough Linux kernel for my idea to work?
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.ubuntu

bilsch01 wrote:

I want to create a bootable Ubuntu installer thumb drive using Win11.
The installer needs to offer an option to install the bootable Ubuntu partition alongside of an existing bootable Win11 partition. I want
to create this bootable installer using Windows 11.
Any explanatory info you provide about creating the thumb drive will be appreciated.
TIA.   Bill S.

<https://pendrivelinux.com/>

Simple. Easy.
--
Take care,

Jonathan
-------------------
LITTLE WORKS STUDIO
http://www.LittleWorksStudio.com
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.ubuntu

On Tue, 9/16/2025 5:48 AM, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:

On Tue, 16 Sep 2025 05:42:52 -0400, Paul wrote:

And for the OP, none of this is particularly convenient.

So you’re saying WSL2 doesn’t give you a genuine enough Linux kernel for my idea to work?

I don't know what it has got, as there is no decent documentation.

Let's run blkid.

bash

$ blkid
$

Well, don't give up just yet. Who needs error messages really.

$ sudo blkid
[sudo] password for paul:
/dev/sda: TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sdb: TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sdc: UUID="f46af029-a8df-4e4b-a223-4accbd8794c1" TYPE="swap"
/dev/sdd: UUID="f722ddb4-b8e6-4d0a-a5be-4ec49b24314c" TYPE="ext4"

And those are the virtualized components, and not any real storage
devices, such as USB sticks.

Let us try again, this time after I shut down WSL2, plug in a USB stick, run WSL2 and try again.

$ sudo blkid
[sudo] password for paul:
/dev/sda: TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sdb: TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sdc: UUID="37e1ee9a-e9e9-4a93-abfc-b6298624f8fe" TYPE="swap" <=== makes a new random swap each time
/dev/sdd: UUID="f722ddb4-b8e6-4d0a-a5be-4ec49b24314c" TYPE="ext4" <=== consistent Ubuntu distro in container

$ df
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
none 32895052 0 32895052 0% /usr/lib/modules/6.6.87.2-microsoft-standard-WSL2
none 32895052 4 32895048 1% /mnt/wsl
drivers 124109820 78975248 45134572 64% /usr/lib/wsl/drivers /dev/sdd 1055762868 5160152 996899244 1% / <=== distro container
none 32895052 104 32894948 1% /mnt/wslg
none 32895052 0 32895052 0% /usr/lib/wsl/lib
rootfs 32890036 2672 32887364 1% /init
none 32890036 0 32890036 0% /dev
none 32895052 864 32894188 1% /run
none 32895052 0 32895052 0% /run/lock
none 32895052 0 32895052 0% /run/shm
none 32895052 72 32894980 1% /mnt/wslg/versions.txt
none 32895052 72 32894980 1% /mnt/wslg/doc
C:\ 124109820 78975248 45134572 64% /mnt/c
D:\ 20968444 59656 20908788 1% /mnt/d <=== Added a drive letter "fixed disk", just not a USB stick
H:\ 135264344 60774972 74489372 45% /mnt/h
S:\ 715167740 630943408 84224332 89% /mnt/s
snapfuse 65408 65408 0 100% /snap/core20/2582
snapfuse 65408 65408 0 100% /snap/core20/2599
snapfuse 94208 94208 0 100% /snap/lxd/29619
snapfuse 94208 94208 0 100% /snap/lxd/32662
snapfuse 50560 50560 0 100% /snap/snapd/24792
snapfuse 52096 52096 0 100% /snap/snapd/25202
tmpfs 6579008 4 6579004 1% /run/user/1000 quant@WALLACE:/mnt/d$ ls /mnt
c d e f g h i k s wsl wslg

The normal SSD has C:, H:, S: as partitions. That's a "fixed disk".

The letter D: is a RAM Drive, and the drive translation accepts that.
I work there all the time, however some recent change, has changed
the "security status" of D: . It throws up a warning I haven't been
able to remove. And loading an exception into the OS to make the
message go away, is not the right way to deal with that.

The letter E: is a USB2 drive with NTFS on it. The WSL2 would
not "translate" that as a "removable media" device.

The letter F: is a USB2 DVD burner, and WSL2 would
not "translate" that either, as it has a "removable media"
status and apparently is treated the same as a USB Stick.

End experiment.

There is more to WSL than some bland handwaving. I don't know
if the details of "what is missing" is documented somewhere. It
could be. But it is not just a Linux kernel and HyperV.

And WSL is not a place for writing USB sticks. Not even
remotely close to suitable for the purpose. /dev layer is not
proper. "Removable media" devices not getting mapped.
If you have a Sony "Fixed Media" (RMB bit set correctly for it),
then E: would show up, but there would be no /dev/sde or similar.
There are a few USB sticks that do not detect as Removable Media.

VirtualBox is a much more complete environment for fun and games.

Paul
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.ubuntu

On Tue, 16 Sep 2025 13:09:50 -0400, Paul wrote:

Let's run blkid.

bash

$ blkid
$

Well, don't give up just yet. Who needs error messages really.

$ sudo blkid
[sudo] password for paul:
[blkid now produces reasonable-looking output]

While on my genuine Linux system blkid is in /usr/sbin, and therefore
not in the usual $PATH for a nonprivileged user, it works for such a
user nonetheless:

ldo@theon:~> /usr/sbin/blkid
/dev/nvme0n1p3: UUID=[etc etc]

So another incompatibility with genuine Linux?

(And by the way, I normally use lsblk for displaying information about
block devices, as it lets you customize its display.)

C:\ 124109820 78975248 45134572 64% /mnt/c
D:\ 20968444 59656 20908788 1% /mnt/d <=== Added a drive letter "fixed disk", just not a USB stick
H:\ 135264344 60774972 74489372 45% /mnt/h
S:\ 715167740 630943408 84224332 89% /mnt/s

This seems really, really dumb to me. /mnt is supposed to be reserved
for *temporary* mount points, for sysadmin use. Your OS installation shouldn’t be keeping stuff there on an ongoing basis.

There is more to WSL than some bland handwaving. I don't know
if the details of "what is missing" is documented somewhere. It
could be. But it is not just a Linux kernel and HyperV.

Does seem that way.

And WSL is not a place for writing USB sticks. Not even
remotely close to suitable for the purpose. /dev layer is not
proper.

When it comes to Linux, accept no substitutes. And WSL2 is a poor
substitute indeed.
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.ubuntu

On 9/15/2025 2:06 PM, Jason H wrote:

On 15/09/2025 21:33, bilsch01 wrote:

I want to create a bootable Ubuntu installer thumb drive using Win11.
The installer needs to offer an option to install the bootable Ubuntu
partition alongside of an existing bootable Win11 partition. I want
to create this bootable installer using Windows 11.
Any explanatory info you provide about creating the thumb drive will
be appreciated.
TIA.   Bill S.

You need Rufus. It's a Windows app that takes an ISO and uses it to
create a
bootable USB stick.

I downloaded a Ubuntu 24.04.3 ISO file to my Win11 PC. Next I downloaded
and installed Rufus on my PC, which has the copy of the Ubuntu ISO file.
My intention is to run Rufus to create a bootable installer USB thumb
drive for installing Ubuntu along side Win11 ON OTHER PCs. While
installing Rufus on my PC it seemed to gather info about my PC as though
RUFUS thinks I'm getting ready to tell it to install Ubuntu on this PC.
That would be a mistaken use for any information it just gathered. I
just want to make a bootable thumb drive for installing Ubuntu on other
Win11 PCs. Please tell me if I am going down the correct road for that?
Thanks for your help.
Bill S.


my PC will be the target for installing Ubuntu. That makes me wonder if
Rufus thinks I'm getting ready to tell it to install Ubuntu on this PC- because that's NOT what I'm going to do. I just want to make a bootable
thumb drive for installing Ubuntu on other Win11 PCs. Please tell me: Am
I going down the correct road for that?
Thanks for your help.
Bill S.


--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.ubuntu

On 2025-09-15, bilsch01 <[email protected]> wrote:

I want to create a bootable Ubuntu installer thumb drive using Win11.
The installer needs to offer an option to install the bootable Ubuntu partition alongside of an existing bootable Win11 partition. I want
to create this bootable installer using Windows 11.
Any explanatory info you provide about creating the thumb drive will be appreciated.
TIA. Bill S.

I would use Etcher.

https://etcher.balena.io/

Cross platform. Download etcher and flash the Unbuntu iso onto a USB.
Backup the W11 machine
Boot the W11 machine from the drive and press install Ubuntu. Follow the instructions. Slow and easy is best first time.

(Once you have booted from the Ubuntu USB stick you are in the Linux environment so you can create a partition(s) for Ubuntu along side the
Windows 11, assuming there is enough space.


--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.ubuntu

On Tue, 9/16/2025 11:35 PM, bilsch01 wrote:

On 9/15/2025 2:06 PM, Jason H wrote:

On 15/09/2025 21:33, bilsch01 wrote:

I want to create a bootable Ubuntu installer thumb drive using Win11.
The installer needs to offer an option to install the bootable Ubuntu partition alongside of an existing bootable Win11 partition. I want
to create this bootable installer using Windows 11.
Any explanatory info you provide about creating the thumb drive will be appreciated.
TIA.   Bill S.

You need Rufus. It's a Windows app that takes an ISO and uses it to create a >> bootable USB stick.

I downloaded a Ubuntu 24.04.3 ISO file to my Win11 PC. Next I downloaded and installed Rufus on my PC, which has the copy of the Ubuntu ISO file. My intention is to run Rufus to create a bootable installer USB thumb drive for installing Ubuntu along side Win11 ON OTHER PCs. While installing Rufus on my PC it seemed to gather info about my PC as though RUFUS thinks I'm getting ready to tell it to install Ubuntu on this PC. That would be a mistaken use for any information it just gathered. I just want to make a bootable thumb drive for installing Ubuntu on other Win11 PCs. Please tell me if I am going down the correct road for that?
Thanks for your help.
Bill S.

my PC will be the target for installing Ubuntu. That makes me wonder if Rufus thinks I'm getting ready to tell it to install Ubuntu on this PC- because that's NOT what I'm going to do. I just want to make a bootable thumb drive for installing Ubuntu on other Win11 PCs. Please tell me: Am I going down the correct road for that?
Thanks for your help.
Bill S.

The Portable version does not install, but it does keep a settings file
next to the EXE after you've run it. I guess the one I've got on disk,
is the current one.

https://rufus.ie/en/

rufus-4.9p.exe Portable Windows x64 2 MB 2025.06.15

Name: rufus-4.9p-june15-2025.exe
Size: 2,102,632 bytes (2053 KiB)
SHA256: 497F796E6D076D4855D697965C04626E6D3624658FCE3ECA82AB14F7414EEDE2

It will present a UAC prompt for administrator elevation. This is
the portable version, that just runs by double clicking the EXE. The
elevation is needed for preparing the file system on the stick.

In the Ubuntu case, there should be only the one screen.

In the Windows 11 case, after you click Start, a secondary menu
appears with convenience features for Windows 11. If you tick enough
of the boxes in that secondary thing, it allows installing Windows 11
on unqualified computers (like my 4th gen 4930K machine running licensed W11 now).
The single tick box I've selected in the picture, is the "light touch" modification
to the install materials, intended to cause the least trauma to the install.

[Picture] Use the Download Original button near the top, for a full-resolution picture

https://i.postimg.cc/XYH5y55K/Using-Rufus-USB-Stick-Tool.gif

I hope that whatever you've downloaded, the dialogs you see in that picture, are the only information gathering steps, and it was not some adware on
the rufus.ie site you got instead.

You need to:

1) Identify which USB stick to write

2) Identify the ISO file to use as the source materials.

3) If prompted for a SYSLINUX download, agree to that, as more than
one version of SYSLINUX wrapper is used for stick preparation, and
not all SYSLINUX options are stored in the EXE at the moment.

4) One of the modes, is likely to be more of a "dd" style stick-write.

The other mode, unpacks the ISO and stores the components on the
USB stick file system. USB stick writing is notoriously free of
status indications, and if your stick is damaged or not working well,
it could take 20 minutes to write a large collection, so be patient.
USB sticks vary in the range of 3MB/sec writes, to 100MB/sec writes,
and this always feels "a bit slow".

Paul
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