insanepjj / bootiso Goto Github PK

Create a USB bootable device from an ISO image easily and securely.

Don't want to messup the system with dd command? Create a bootable USB from an ISO in one line [see it in action].

Works seamlessly with hybrid and non-hybrid ISOs (SYSLINUX or UEFI compliant) such as any linux ISO, Windows ISO or rescue live-cds like UltimateBootCD. You don't have to tweak anything: bootiso inspects the ISO file and chooses the best method to make your USB bootable.

bootiso [<options>...] <file.iso>
bootiso <action> [<options>...] <file.iso>
bootiso <action> [<options>...]

The default action [install-auto] as per first synopsis is to install an ISO file to a USB device in automatic mode. In such mode, bootiso will analyze the ISO file and select the best course of actions to maximize the odds your USB stick be proven bootable (see automatic mode behavior).
Other <options> and <actions> are listed in this bellow section.

To have a quick feedback, [probe] around to check bootiso capabilities with given ISO file and list USB drives candidates [watch video]:

bootiso -p myfile.iso

With the default action [install-auto] [read its detailed behavior here], give the ISO as first argument and you'll be prompted to select from available USB drives amongst a list extracted from lsblk. If there is only one USB device connected, bootiso will automatically select it:

bootiso myfile.iso

Or provide explicitly the USB device with -d flag. Command fails and exit if the provided device is not USB, such as sata [watch video]:

bootiso -d sde myfile.iso

Avoid being promtped before writting to USB drive and autoselect device when there is exactly one [watch video]:

bootiso -ay myfile.iso

List available USB drives and exit:

bootiso -l

[inspect] the given ISO file and exit:

bootiso -i myfile.iso

Quick-[format] the USB drive to NTFS and label it 'SAMUEL_SONY':

bootiso -f -t ntfs -L 'SAMUEL_SONY'

Go to the flags section to see the full list of actions and options.

curl -L https://git.io/bootiso -O
chmod +x bootiso

Optionally, move the script to a bin path

mv bootiso <bin-path>

Where bin-path is any folder in the $PATH environment, preferably for superuser utilities such as /usr/local/sbin/.

Make sure to follow our distro-dependent tweaks to have bootiso settled.

If you like bootiso, feel free to help the community find it by staring the project and upvoting those SE posts:

• How to create a bootable Ubuntu USB flash drive from terminal?
• How to create a bootable USB from one ISO file securely from the shell?

--probe (shorten -p) gives you details about ISO boot capabilities and list available USB drives.

--assume-yes (shorten -y) bypass prompting the user for overwritting USB device, and --autoselect (shorten -a) allow automatic selection of USB device when exactly one device is connected in combination with --assume-yes.

In the bellow example, the selected device with --device (shorten -d) flag is not connected through USB and bootiso fails.

Note that short POSIX flags can be stacked as of v2.4.0, like so: bootiso -Jaybd /dev/sde

✔ bootiso inspects ISO file to find the best strategy resulting in a booting USB stick
✔ bootiso check the ISO file hash sum against a hash file if one found. Supported hash algorithms are md5, sha1, sha256 and sha512. ✔ bootiso asserts that selected ISO has the correct mime-type and exit if it doesn't (with file utility).
✔ bootiso asserts that selected device is connected through USB preventing system damages and exit if it doesn't (with udevadm utility).
✔ bootiso asserts that selected item is not a partition and exit if it doesn't (with lsblk).
✔ bootiso asserts that selected image is not larger than selected device.
✔ bootiso prompts the user for confirmation before erasing and paritioning USB device.
✔ bootiso will handle any failure from a command properly and exit.
✔ bootiso will call a cleanup routine on exit with trap.
✔ bootiso is being carefully linted and validated with shellcheck (see code quality status from codacy) and formatted with shfmt.

This script will also check for dependencies and prompt user for installation (works with apt-get, yum, dnf, pacman, zypper, emerge).

With default [install-auto] action, bootiso will inspect the ISO file and choose the best strategy to end up with a bootable USB stick.
99% of the time, you shouldn't enforce any strategy and let bootiso choose.

The main decision is to pick up image-copy or mount+rsync modes. In image-copy dd mode (enforcable with [install-dd] action, --dd flag), bootiso uses dd utility to make a raw copy of the ISO. This is perfectly appropriate when the ISO file is aimed both at disk drives and CDs. Those ISO are called hybrids.

In mount+rsync mode (enforcable with [install-mount-rsync] action, --mrsync flag), bootiso creates one partition with MBR table in the USB drive and copy files from mounted ISO. It will also install SYSLINUX bootlaoder if configuration files are found, which will allow legacy BIOS boot. When local version doesn't match ISO version, it will attempt to download the closest version available in kernel.org if --local-bootloader flag is not set.

• SYSLINUX_LIB_ROOT: set syslinux assets root, where mbr will be searched.

• On Fedora, set SYSLINUX_LIB_ROOT env to /usr/share/syslinux

This script was made after this askubuntu post answer from Avinash Raj to automate the described steps in a robust, secured way (see the security section for more details).