Home Bootable USB Create Bootable USB Drive With Ventoy WebUI In Linux

Create Bootable USB Drive With Ventoy WebUI In Linux

By sk
Published: Updated: 9.6K views

Creating single boot or multiboot USB devices with Ventoy is incredibly easy! With Ventoy graphical user interface, it is now even easier than ever. Starting from version 1.0.36, Ventoy bootable creation utility comes with a Web-based user interface. In this brief guide, we will see how to create bootable USB drive with Ventoy WebUI in Linux.

Ventoy Web GUI For Linux

There are plenty of applications exists to create bootable USB devices in Linux and Unix-like operating systems. Among all the USB bootable creation tools, I like Ventoy the most.

Ventoy allows you to painlessly create Linux, Unix, and Windows bootable USB mediums from commandline as well as graphically. It currently supports around 720+ ISO images including Linux, BSDs, Windows, VMware ESXi, and Citrix XenServer etc.

Just create the bootable USB device once and copy as many as OSes you want in the drive. No need to format the drive over and over. For more details about Ventoy and its usage, refer the following link:

Initially, Ventoy doesn't have any graphical user interface for Linux platforms. We can create bootable USB drives using Ventoy in Linux from commandline mode only.

Fortunately, Ventoy now ships with a web-based graphical user interface since version 1.0.36 and native GUI (GTK/QT) since 1.0.52.

The other day I tried the Ventoy WebUI in my Fedora Linux desktop. I am surprised how much I like the simplicity of the Ventoy graphical user interface.

Create Bootable USB Drive With Ventoy WebUI

Plug the USB drive in your system.

Step 1: Download the latest Ventoy application from the releases page. As of writing this guide, the latest version was 1.0.50.

Step 2: Go to the location where you downloaded the Ventoy utility and extract it. I have extracted it in a folder named "Ventoy" in Downloads directory.

Step 3: Cd into the Ventoy directory:

$ cd Downloads/Ventoy/

Step 4: Run the following command to launch Ventoy webUI:

$ sudo sh VentoyWeb.sh

Or,

$ sudo ./VentoyWeb.sh

You will see an output like below:

===============================================================
  Ventoy Server 1.0.50 is running ...
  Please open your browser and visit http://127.0.0.1:24680
===============================================================

################## Press Ctrl + C to exit #####################
Launch Ventoy WebUI
Launch Ventoy WebUI

As you see in the above screenshot, Ventoy prints a http address in the terminal.

Step 5: Open your web browser and navigate to http://127.0.0.1:24680 URL.

Ventoy graphical interface will be now opened in your browser.

Step 6: Choose your desired USB drive from the Device drop-down box and click Install to create bootable USB drive.

Create bootable USB drive with Ventoy WebUI
Create bootable USB drive with Ventoy WebUI

As you see above, I have selected 16 GB SanDisk USB thumb drive.

You will see a warning message that says the selected USB disk will be formatted. Make sure you don't have any important data in it and click OK to proceed.

Format USB drive
Format USB drive

Just to be sure, Ventoy will ask you one more time if you want to format the drive and install Ventoy in the USB drive. If you're OK with it, simply click OK again.

Confirm format USB drive
Confirm format USB drive

Upon successful bootable USB creation, you will see the following message.

Ventoy installed in USB drive
Ventoy installed in USB drive

Ventoy is successfully installed to the USB drive!

Go back to the Terminal and click Ctrl+c to exit Ventoy application.

Step 7: Open your File manager, and copy/paste all ISO file(s) in your USB drive.

Copy ISO files to Ventoy bootable USB drive
Copy ISO files to Ventoy bootable USB drive

Congratulations! Ventoy bootable USB drive is ready to use!

Step 8: Now boot your system with newly created bootable USB drive. The Ventoy boot menu will look like below.

Ventoy multiboot USB drive
Ventoy multiboot USB drive

Choose the OS you want to boot and hit ENTER.

As stated already, you don't need to format USB disk every time to add a new ISO. Create bootable drive once and then keep adding as many as OSes that fit into your USB drive.

Update Ventoy

It is not necessary to re-create the bootable USB whenever a new version is released. You can safely update ventoy to new version without losing any data from the USB drive.

To update the installed Ventoy version to latest available version, plug in the USB drive and launch Ventoy as described in the Step 4.

From the Ventoy web user interface, click Update button.

Update Ventoy
Update Ventoy

Ventoy will prompt you if you want to update it. It is SAFE! Click OK to continue.

Confirm update Ventoy
Confirm update Ventoy

This will install a new version of Ventoy in the USB drive. The existing ISOes will not be touched and they will remain intact.

Ventoy Options And Language

Ventoy has two section namely Options and Languages at the top.

Under the Options tab, you can perform the following tasks:

  • Choose secure boot support,
  • Select partition style (MBR or GPT),
  • Configure partitions (E.g. preserve some space at the end of the disk),
  • Clear Ventoy from USB drive
  • List all devices from the system. Careful when using this option. This will show all attached disks (including hdd/sdd) in your system. You might choose a wrong device and format it inadvertently.
Ventoy options tab
Ventoy options tab

The Languages tab lets you to choose your preferred language.

Change Ventoy URL

By default, Ventoy will listen on 127.0.0.1:24680 URL, and you can visit Ventoy WebUI from your local system itself. If you want to access Ventoy from other remote machines on the network, specify its IP address like below:

$ sudo sh VentoyWeb.sh -H 192.168.225.37

Sample output:

===============================================================
  Ventoy Server 1.0.50 is running ...
  Please open your browser and visit http://192.168.225.37:24680
===============================================================

################## Press Ctrl + C to exit #####################

Now you can access the Ventoy WebUI using http://192.168.225.37:24680 URL.

Change Ventoy URL
Change Ventoy URL

This will be useful when you use Ventoy in systems that doesn't have GUI environment.

You can also use different port with -P flag.

TL;DR

Creating single or multiboot USB drive with Ventoy consists of the following steps.

  • Plug your USB drive in the computer
  • Download the latest Ventoy installer from Ventoy website
  • Run VentoyWeb.sh script from Terminal
  • Click or go to the the address it prints out in the terminal
  • Select the desired USB from the menu
  • Click on the proceed button
  • Open the new bootable removable device it created in the file manager
  • Copy/paste as many ISOs as you want
  • Multi-boot USB bootable drive is ready!

Easy, isn't it? Indeed!

Conclusion

In this guide, we learned how to create bootable USB drives using Ventoy graphical user interface. In my opinion, Ventoy is awesome and the developers keep improving it and adding new features with each release.

If you're a distro-hopper who wants to often install or try multiple, different type of OSes, you must keep Ventoy in your toolbox.

Resource:

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2 comments

Jed August 25, 2021 - 1:56 am

Have been using this for some time and it makes booting into a machine so very easy.
I’m surprised that some “howto” articles even bother with Etcher or Rufus when Ventoy is available.

Reply
sk August 25, 2021 - 10:44 am

Yes, I have been using Ventoy for a while. Ventoy is much easier and better than its counterparts.

Reply

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