[PLUG] Ventoy USB installer/builder tool

[JP Vossen via plug <plug@lists.phillylinux.org>]

This is adapted from an email at work because I thought it would be of interest to a lot of folks here.

See also:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ventoy
* https://github.com/ventoy/Ventoy

--- Begin adapted from Pat's email: ---

If you build hardware devices a lot, and find yourself carrying around 5 or 6 different USB sticks, because you have to build 5 or 6 different types of device, then do I have the tool for you...

From https://ventoy.net/:
	“Ventoy is an open source tool to create bootable USB drive for ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI files.  With ventoy, you don't need to format the disk over and over, you just need to copy the ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI files to the USB drive and boot them directly.”

I currently have a USB stick with 4 different versions of ESXi, as well as OEL-7, Linux Mint 21, Windows Server 2022 (don’t judge!), and Windows 11 (really don’t judge!).  I can now build all of those different devices with just one USB stick.

I like it better than Rufus for these reasons:
* Ventoy has native client for: Linux, MacOS, and Windows(7+), whereas Rufus is Windows only.
* To install a new ISO onto the drive, with Ventoy you just copy it on there.
* If you don’t like default exfat partition, you can re-format to: ntfs, vfat, udf, ext4 (or 2 or 3), or xfs

I like it better than Balena Etcher for these reasons:
* Etcher is exactly just a DD from the ISO to the Drive, so why would I need it? (make the DD easier, I guess)
* Etcher does not allow a writeable partition to store non ISO files.

Both Etcher and Rufus only deal with one ISO at a time. So you’re carrying multiple sticks. This may not be the fix-all tool for everything, but I find it very useful and very cool.

--- end ---

I can't speak to the Windows stuff or tools he talks about, but I will certainly give this a try some time.

Later,
JP
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JP Vossen, CISSP | http://www.jpsdomain.org/ | http://bashcookbook.com/
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