this post was submitted on 19 Feb 2025
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I am shocked by this - the quote in below is very concerning:

"However, in 2024, the situation changed: balenaEtcher started sharing the file name of the image and the model of the USB stick with the Balena company and possibly with third parties."

Can't see myself using this software anymore...

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 2 days ago (14 children)

Sudo dd if=tails.iso of=/dev/sdb

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 days ago

Not used it since I discovered this nonsense. Shows how seriously they take security. https://github.com/balena-io/etcher/issues/3410

[–] [email protected] 26 points 2 days ago (5 children)

i still don't understand why anyone would use etcher. it's an electron wrapper over dd. it's 80MB where rufus is 1.5. when it appeared there were already other programs that did its job better.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 days ago (3 children)

I like clicking buttons that have a text on them saying what they do instead of trying to memorize a gajillion terminal commands and flags where I have to enter more commands and flags to see what they do.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 days ago

plus it's some some sanity checks like not showing you your system drives. Or warning you when the drive you are about to nuke is suspiciously large and maybe not the usb drive you actually want to use.

This is basically the main feature. Stopping you from fatfingering the wrong drive

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago

On Windows, Rufus is just as easy to use tho. And on Linux, there is Gnome Disks.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Rufus seems to be just for Windows and dd does not have a gui

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[–] QualifiedKitten 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I used it because that's what the instructions on the Linux Mint website for creating a bootable USB stick from Windows say to do.

I have no clue what "electron wrapper", "dd", or "rufus" are. I'm trying to learn more, but can't learn it all in one day.

https://linuxmint-installation-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/burn.html#in-windows-mac-os-or-other-linux-distributions

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

weird that the installation guide is hosted on a separate website that hasn't been updated in eight years. that's irresponsible of them. anyway rufus is a better version of etcher that you can download for windows.

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[–] kepix 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

have they tried also tracking for errors, cause it fucks up every second image unlike rufus

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Truth. Etcher is garbage. Rufus is king.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 days ago (9 children)

what is a good one to use, is there something like rufus on linux

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I just use Gnome Disks for convenience over dd.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yet another reason for people to run a default prompt (deny until prompt answer) firewall.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 days ago

Good question. I will attempt to clarify:

OP is saying that individual should run firewalls on their machines, that block port activity by default, and only allow traffic upon an approved request by the administrator account.

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[–] filister 21 points 2 days ago (7 children)
[–] warmaster 28 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Good luck with the binary blob!

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I thought the binary blob thing was explained?

Basically UEFI booting requires shims and those need to be signed so the Ventoy author is re-using the ones from Fedora and OpenSUSE. This can be verified by comparing hashes, which the author of that comment shows how to do.

This whole thing seems to come down to people freaking the F out because they don't understand how the software works and the Author of the software is currently PO'd off at the community and stopped answering questions.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 days ago (2 children)

For some more context:

https://lemmy.one/post/19193506

💀💀 seems like dd commands and gnome's MultiWriter might be the only ways to flash stuff on linux

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Fedora Writer is another one (also works on Windows and maybe Mac), and there's also GLIM for multiboot, similar to Ventoy.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

There's also Popsicle which is made by the folks over at System76.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 days ago

I tried belenaEtcher once on my Mac... And it seemed to me more like a spyware than an actual software, I was a bit confused and never used it again.

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