Ventoy, the Ultimate flash booter

[LibertyLinux]

I just found the coolest software for using a flash drive to create a multiple image bootable usb drive. Better than etcher or rufus or anything really. Just install Ventoy to your flash drive and quite simply then copy image files right to it. Once you boot to the flash, it's menu IS the image files themselves.
Extract linux file. In MX I used:

sudo sh Ventoy2Disk.sh -i /dev/sda

(sdX as in whichever drive it may be)

So instead of constantly creating new flash drives every time you want to try or install something, just copy the image file to your ventoy flash and boot it.
https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html

I'm also seriously considering replacing my desktop OS (dual boot of win7 and MX) with proxmox instead and doing everything virtual. If I ever get a mini pc I can shut the desktop down altogether. Too much power wasted to keep it on all the time imo.
A good place for images? linuxserver.io
Thanks to technotim on youtube for the suggestions.

[Huckleberry Finn]

Yes, but it doesn't always work perfectly. Previously it was ok with 64bit but not on 32bit on my trials (I'd even added a comment on github).. (The issue was not only with MX & antiX, also Puppy and SliTaz .. )

Other than that, of course it's handy just to copy-paste .iso files and have a multiboot tool ...

[baldyeti]

Ventoy may not work with every distro (or bit-ness) under the sun but it *is* super useful, and easy to update without having to reformat your bootable key nor copy those multi-GB ISO's once again. I know of no other tool that previously made it so easy to maintain a multi-boot key.

[agnivo007]

I've been an old user of it and love it.
These days, it comes with a webUI which is definitely a good GUI for it. Give a try!

[Adrian]

It's a good launcher for ISOs, however one of the advantages of MX is the persitency and remaster, those are not supported (at least not in an easy manner). I guess if you want to preserve changes you could take a snapshot and write another ISO but that is time consuming.

[Senpai]

Ventoy may not work with every distro (or bit-ness) under the sun but it *is* super useful, and easy to update without having to reformat your bootable key nor copy those multi-GB ISO's once again. I know of no other tool that previously made it so easy to maintain a multi-boot key.

Hi:
I have been using it for a long time, but I have noticed that the new versions are very slow to start, it takes minutes to scan the pendrive and show me the list of ISOs, does it also happen to you?

[baldyeti]

I have been using it for a long time, but I have noticed that the new versions are very slow to start, it takes minutes to scan the pendrive and show me the list of ISOs, does it also happen to you?

I have not noticed this, if you have many files on your stick building the list of ISO's can take time, maybe this page can help: Ventoy Search Configuration

[LibertyLinux]

Many image files does not make it boot into the menu slower. I was trying to get persistence working with an MX iso snapshot but it was a little tricky and I'll give it a go later. I don't need persistence personally. I tried an arm image which did fail. Still, for a multi-boot device it does work pretty well. Just the fact you don't have to create anything, just copy a file, is nice all on it's own.
The ventoy site has a ton of plugins, persistence being one, so if someone is really into bootable flash systems great. IMO, usb is too slow period. Good for security purposes and installation/testing. If I were to use a dedicated boot device it would have to be an nvme in an enclosure. A luxury right now indeed.

[masinick]

I've found Ventoy as a handy tool to collect quite a few ISO images in one place; for that purpose, it's fine. As Adrian says, however, distributions like MX Linux and brethren distro antiX have features that cannot be fully exercised from Ventoy. So for those who want to either use it with other distros or use it as a bootable ISO repository, it seems to do that well. However, if you intend to use MX Linux or antiX Linux, I'd suggest getting a separate device for them.

Both distros in this "family" work really well on their own stick and provide persistence, ISO Snapshot, remastering, all coupled together with multiple forms of persistence. To take FULL advantage of these on removable hardware, use separate media; it's pretty inexpensive to do this and well worth devoting a USB of it's own (or a couple of them) to each of these distributions.

[Senpai]

I have been using it for a long time, but I have noticed that the new versions are very slow to start, it takes minutes to scan the pendrive and show me the list of ISOs, does it also happen to you?

I have not noticed this, if you have many files on your stick building the list of ISO's can take time, maybe this page can help: Ventoy Search Configuration

Fantastic! I had not seen it, now it starts well