How to Create Windows 10 / Linux bootable USB Stick on macOS / Linux

Last I wrote an article on how to Create Windows 10 bootable USB on Linux using WoeUSB, previously called WinUSB. In this guide, we’ll look at a universal tool that runs on macOS, Linux, and Windows which is used to create a bootable USB from various ISO files. This tool is referred to as Etcher.

We’ll cover installation of Etcher on macOS, Ubuntu, Fedora and Arch Linux. The UI interface of Etcher on all these distributions are similar, so using the tool should be a straightforward process.

Install Etcher on Ubuntu/Debian

Lucky enough, Etcher package is available on official Debian etcher repository. Here are the steps to install Etcher on Ubuntu and Debian.

Add Etcher repository to your Debian/Ubuntu system:

echo "deb https://dl.bintray.com/resin-io/debian stable etcher" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/etcher.list

Add GPG key to trust Bintray.com’s packages:

$ sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://pgp.mit.edu:80 --recv-keys 379CE192D401AB61
Executing: /tmp/tmp.qFFUtFD09s/gpg.1.sh --keyserver
hkp://pgp.mit.edu:80
--recv-keys
379CE192D401AB61
gpg: requesting key D401AB61 from hkp server pgp.mit.edu
gpg: key D401AB61: public key "Bintray (by JFrog) <[email protected]>" imported
gpg: Total number processed: 1
gpg: imported: 1 (RSA: 1)

Update the system and install Etcher:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install etcher-electron

Uninstall Etcher on Ubuntu/Debian

Run the following commands to uninstall Etcher on Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt-get remove etcher-electron
sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/etcher.list
sudo apt-get update

Install Etcher on CentOS/Fedora

Etcher also has a repository for RPM packages that can be installed on RHEL and its derivatives like CentOS and Fedora.

Add Etcher rpm repository to Fedora, RHEL or CentOS:

sudo yum -y install wget 
sudo wget https://bintray.com/resin-io/redhat/rpm -O /etc/yum.repos.d/bintray-resin-io-redhat.repo

Update you yum package index and install Etcher:

sudo yum install -y etcher-electron

For Fedora, you need to use dnf:

sudo dnf install -y etcher-electron

Uninstall Etcher on RHEL/CentOS

sudo yum remove -y etcher-electron
sudo rm /etc/yum.repos.d/bintray-resin-io-redhat.repo
sudo yum clean all
sudo yum makecache fast

Uninstall Etcher on Fedora

sudo dnf remove -y etcher-electron
sudo rm /etc/yum.repos.d/bintray-resin-io-redhat.repo
sudo dnf clean all
sudo dnf makecache

Install Etcher on Arch / Manjaro

For Arch Linux, etcher is available on AUR. Install it with your favorite AUR wrapper.

$ yaourt -S --noconfirm etcher

$ pacaur --needed --noconfirm --noedit -S

Install Etcher on macOS using brew cask:

You can install Etcher on macOS from Brew Cask. This makes it easy to update the package to the latest version.

$ brew cask install etcher

Uninstall Etcher on macOS

$ brew cask uninstall etcher

An alternative method is manually downloading the .img package and installing it on your macOS.

Using Etcher to create bootable USB from ISO

Once Etcher has been installed on your base Operating system, it’s time to create a bootable ISO from it. In this example, I’ll create a bootable USB on macOS of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS.

Launch the application, you should get a window similar to below:

Click on “Select image” and browse to the location of ISO image and click Open:

Next, you need to “Select drive“, this is your USB device where iso contents will be copied to. It will automatically detect all USB devices and ask you to select one.

The last thing to do is click “Flash” button. This will start to write USB device with iso content, when prompted for a password, enter your admin account password.

Wait for the process to complete. You will receive notification that the flash has been completed.

Eject your USB device and start the installation process on your target system.