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Creating a bootable USB Drive on Mac

How to Create And Boot from a Linux Usb Drive on Mac?

To know how to create and boot from a Linux USB drive on Mac computer, refer to the easy instructions provided on this web page.

Step 1 – Formatting the drive

First, connect your USB drive to your Mac computer.

On the home screen of the Mac computer, click the Applications option followed by the Utilities option and select the Disk Utility option.

Choose the USB drive from the left panel and click the Erase tab.

Fill the Name field, select the MS-DOS (FAT) option from the Format drop-down menu, and choose the GUID Partition Map option from the Scheme drop-down list.

Click the Erase option at the bottom.

By following these steps on how to create and boot from a linux USB drive on Mac.

Step 2

Download a Linux distros software.

Step 3 – Bootable Linux USB drive

Procedure 1 – Using the balenaEtcher software

The balenaEtcher is an open-source software that helps you to burn disc images on USB drives.
Download and install the balenaEtcher software.
Also, download the Linux image as per your preference.
After inserting the drive, open the main interface of the installed software on the Mac computer.
Click the Select Image option and choose the downloaded Linux image.
Make sure the correct USB drive is selected. If not, click the Change option and choose the correct one from the displayed list of connected devices.
Finally, click the Flash option.
A warning error message would appear on the screen stating that ‘Your USB drive isn’t compatible with Mac.’
Leave this error message and eject the USB drive.
If you do not want to use the balenaEtcher software, you can perform the following steps on how to create and boot from a linux USB drive on Mac.

Procedure 2 – Using the built-in command lines

Open the Terminal application.
Check where the Linux disc image is saved.
Type ‘hdiutil convert [X] -format UDRW -o [Y]’ without the quotes in the Terminal window and press Enter.
Note: The letter X denotes the location of the downloaded Linux image (ISO image). The letter Y denotes the destination where you have to save the converted image.
Enter the following command lines in the Terminal window.
diskutil list
Diskutil unmountDisk /dev/[diskM]
Note: Replace the diskM with your disk number.
Sudo dd if=[Y] of=/dev/[diskN] bs=1m

Step 4 – Booting the USB drive

Plug the Linux USB drive into the Mac computer.
Turn off the computer.
Hold the Option key and turn on the Mac computer.
You will see the Boot menu on the screen.
Double-click the USB drive.
When you see the next set of options and continue with the instructions to finish the process.

If you having any further queries regarding how to create and boot from a linux USB drive on Mac. Click the call button available on the screen.