Creating bootable Linux USB using Mac

README.md

Creating bootable Linux USB using Mac

CentOS, Ubuntu, Slackware, etc. Whatever Linux-based OS it is, you can create a bootable USB for it by using a Mac.

1. Prepare the .iso file

Download it, copy it, whatever it takes to prepare that Linux-based OS .iso file

2. Convert the .iso file into a .img.dmg

hdiutil convert -format UDRW -o linux.img linux.iso

Output

Reading Master Boot Record (MBR : 0)…
Reading CentOS 7 x86_64                  (Apple_ISO : 1)…
Reading  (Type EF : 2)…
Reading CentOS 7 x86_64                  (Apple_ISO : 3)…
.........................................................
Elapsed Time: 30.450s
Speed: 143.7Mbytes/sec
Savings: 0.0%
created: /tmp/linux.img.dmg

3. List the drives of the Mac

diskutil list

Output

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.3 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         500.1 GB   disk0s2

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +500.1 GB   disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            446.8 GB   disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 37.9 MB    disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                519.0 MB   disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      3.2 GB     disk1s4

/dev/disk2 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *31.4 GB    disk2
   1:             Windows_FAT_32 NO NAME                 31.4 GB    disk2s1

Make sure to note the device that identifies the flash drive. In this case it is /dev/disk2

4. Unmount the flash drive

diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk2

Output

Unmount of all volumes on disk2 was successful

5. Copy the .img.dmg to the flash drive

time sudo dd if=linux.img.dmg of=/dev/disk2 bs=1m

Output

Password: 
4375+1 records in
4375+1 records out
4588007424 bytes transferred in 1720.352991 secs (2666899 bytes/sec)

real	28m54.116s
user	0m0.059s
sys	1m0.412s

works! exactly as documented here. Thank You!

Works perfectly. Thanks.

The drive I tried this on wasn't recognized as bootable in the system I was trying to use it on.

EDIT: you may need to disable secure boot on the target device 🤦

Worked great! Thank you

Worked as it has been showed. Thankyou!

I believe we should download the mac arm64 kali linux image correct?

Step 5 & dd block size 1 megabyte is not very excellent but prone to media errors.

By using 4096 block size the creation took 100% longer but I got media that worked well, 1m did not.

The page size of the file system is super good guidance and probably may easily be multiplied with some low figures. However, 1 meg is too much and has high probabilty not working well.

@EnergyAndy is correct, I'm having issue install the base system with 1m block size, but after change to 4096, it all worked well.

thank you all for sharing those tips.

I just use https://etcher.balena.io/ for Linux USB; https://github.com/TechUnRestricted/windiskwriter if you need Windows. https://evolvingviews.com/2024/08/how-to-make-a-pc-usb-bootdisk-on-your-mac/

I have used Etcher in the past and it works really well, but I used it so rarely I uninstalled it and couldn't be bothered to go and reinstall it. These simple instructions with no additional software required. Thanks.