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12. Writing a USB Stick

The image is a hybrid image: it is written onto the stick as it is, byte for byte, and the stick then starts on computers with BIOS and with UEFI. Copying the file onto the stick like a document does not work.

This erases the stick

Writing the image replaces everything on the stick. Take care to choose the stick, not another disk of your computer.

On Linux

The safest way is the program Disks (GNOME Disks), which most Linux systems have: choose the stick on the left, open the menu at the top right and choose Restore Disk Image…, then the image.

In a terminal, dd does the same:

lsblk -d -o NAME,SIZE,MODEL,TRAN      # find the stick: TRAN is usb, e.g. sdb
sudo umount /dev/sdX?*                # unmount its partitions, if they were mounted
sudo dd if=amadeos-amd64.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress conv=fsync oflag=direct

Replace sdX with the name of the stick, the whole device (/dev/sdb) and not a partition (/dev/sdb1). Check the name twice: dd overwrites whatever device it is given, without asking. When dd returns, the stick is ready and can be removed.

On Windows

Use Rufus, a small free program:

  1. Insert the stick and start Rufus. Choose the stick under Device.
  2. Click SELECT and choose amadeos-amd64.iso.
  3. Click START. Rufus asks how to write the image: choose Write in DD Image mode.
  4. Confirm that the stick will be erased, and wait until Rufus shows READY.

The ISO mode of Rufus copies files instead of the image and makes a stick that may not start amadeOS; the DD mode is the right one.

On macOS

In the Terminal:

diskutil list                         # find the stick, e.g. /dev/disk4
diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskN
sudo dd if=amadeos-amd64.iso of=/dev/rdiskN bs=4m

Replace N with the number of the stick. The r in /dev/rdiskN makes writing much faster. When dd is done, macOS may say that it cannot read the disk; choose Eject.

Did it work?

Afterwards the stick contains a small partition named amadeOS that Windows and macOS may not be able to read. That is normal. The real test is starting the computer from it, which is the next chapter.