MajorLinux
6592eb4fea
- Fixed 4 broken markdown links (bad relative paths in See Also sections) - Corrected n8n port binding to 127.0.0.1:5678 (matches actual deployment) - Updated SnapRAID article with actual majorhome paths (/majorRAID, disk1-3) - Converted 67 Obsidian wikilinks to relative markdown links or plain text - Added YAML frontmatter to 35 articles missing it entirely - Completed frontmatter on 8 articles with missing fields Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
82 lines
2.9 KiB
Markdown
82 lines
2.9 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: "Ventoy — Multi-Boot USB Tool"
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domain: opensource
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category: dev-tools
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tags: [ventoy, usb, boot, iso, linux, tools]
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status: published
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created: 2026-04-02
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updated: 2026-04-02
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---
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# Ventoy — Multi-Boot USB Tool
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Ventoy turns a USB drive into a multi-boot device. Drop ISO files onto the drive and boot directly from them — no need to flash a new image every time you want to try a different distro or run a recovery tool.
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## What It Is
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[Ventoy](https://www.ventoy.net/) creates a special partition layout on a USB drive. After the one-time install, you just copy ISO (or WIM, VHD, IMG) files to the drive. On boot, Ventoy presents a menu of every image on the drive and boots whichever one you pick.
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No re-formatting. No Rufus. No balenaEtcher. Just drag and drop.
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## Installation
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### Linux
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```bash
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# Download the latest release
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wget https://github.com/ventoy/Ventoy/releases/download/v1.1.05/ventoy-1.1.05-linux.tar.gz
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# Extract
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tar -xzf ventoy-1.1.05-linux.tar.gz
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cd ventoy-1.1.05
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# Install to USB drive (WARNING: this formats the drive)
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sudo ./Ventoy2Disk.sh -i /dev/sdX
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```
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Replace `/dev/sdX` with your USB drive. Use `lsblk` to identify it — triple-check before running, this wipes the drive.
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### Windows
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Download the Windows package from the Ventoy releases page, run `Ventoy2Disk.exe`, select your USB drive, and click Install.
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## Usage
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After installation, the USB drive shows up as a regular FAT32/exFAT partition. Copy ISOs onto it:
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```bash
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# Copy ISOs to the drive
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cp ~/Downloads/Fedora-43-x86_64.iso /mnt/ventoy/
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cp ~/Downloads/ubuntu-24.04-desktop.iso /mnt/ventoy/
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cp ~/Downloads/memtest86.iso /mnt/ventoy/
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```
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Boot from the USB. Ventoy's menu lists every ISO it finds. Select one and it boots directly.
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## Updating Ventoy
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When a new version comes out, update without losing your ISOs:
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```bash
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# Update mode (-u) preserves existing files
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sudo ./Ventoy2Disk.sh -u /dev/sdX
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```
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## Why It's Useful
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- **Distro testing:** Keep 5-10 distro ISOs on one stick. Boot into any of them without reflashing.
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- **Recovery toolkit:** Carry GParted, Clonezilla, memtest86, and a live Linux on a single drive.
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- **OS installation:** One USB for every machine you need to set up.
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- **Persistence:** Ventoy supports persistent storage for some distros, so live sessions can save data across reboots.
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## Gotchas & Notes
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- **Secure Boot:** Ventoy supports Secure Boot but it requires enrolling a key on first boot. Follow the on-screen prompts.
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- **exFAT for large ISOs:** The default FAT32 partition has a 4GB file size limit. Use exFAT if any of your ISOs exceed that (Windows ISOs often do). Ventoy supports both.
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- **UEFI vs Legacy:** Ventoy handles both automatically. It detects the boot mode and presents the appropriate menu.
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- **Some ISOs don't work.** Heavily customized or non-standard ISOs may fail to boot. Standard distro ISOs and common tools work reliably.
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## See Also
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- [linux-distro-guide-beginners](../../01-linux/distro-specific/linux-distro-guide-beginners.md)
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