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Create a Ventoy USB drive on Linux

Download, verify, and install Ventoy on a USB drive from Linux. Supports BIOS and UEFI. Drop ISOs directly onto the drive — no re-flashing needed between images.

Distrosubuntu, debian, fedora, opensuse, arch
Shellbash
Updated
Script
bash
# 1. Find your USB drive device path — VERIFY before proceeding
lsblk -o NAME,SIZE,TYPE,TRAN,MOUNTPOINTS

# 2. Set the version (check https://github.com/ventoy/Ventoy/releases for latest)
VENTOY_VER="1.0.99"

# 3. Download and verify
wget "https://github.com/ventoy/Ventoy/releases/download/v${VENTOY_VER}/ventoy-${VENTOY_VER}-linux.tar.gz"
wget "https://github.com/ventoy/Ventoy/releases/download/v${VENTOY_VER}/ventoy-${VENTOY_VER}-linux.tar.gz.sha256"
sha256sum -c "ventoy-${VENTOY_VER}-linux.tar.gz.sha256"

# 4. Extract
tar -xzf "ventoy-${VENTOY_VER}-linux.tar.gz"
cd "ventoy-${VENTOY_VER}"

# 5. Install to USB — REPLACE /dev/sdX WITH YOUR DRIVE (e.g. /dev/sdb)
#    WARNING: This ERASES all data on the target drive.
sudo sh Ventoy2Disk.sh -i /dev/sdX

What this does

Installs Ventoy onto a USB drive, creating two partitions:

  • A small FAT16 boot partition with the Ventoy bootloader
  • A large ExFAT data partition where you drop ISO files

After installation you copy any number of ISOs directly to the drive. Ventoy presents a boot menu at startup — no re-flashing required when you add or swap images.

Prerequisites

  • A USB drive (8 GB minimum; 32 GB+ recommended)
  • wget installed (sudo apt install wget / sudo dnf install wget)
  • Root or sudo access

Critical: identify the correct device

Run lsblk and confirm the device path of your USB drive before proceeding. Writing to the wrong device will silently destroy data on that disk.

lsblk -o NAME,SIZE,TYPE,TRAN,MOUNTPOINTS

Look for a disk with usb in the TRAN column and a size matching your drive. Common paths: /dev/sdb, /dev/sdc. Never use /dev/sda — that is almost always your system disk.

GUI option

If you prefer a graphical interface, Ventoy ships VentoyGUI.x86_64 (or aarch64) in the same archive:

cd ventoy-1.0.99
sudo ./VentoyGUI.x86_64

Updating an existing Ventoy drive

If Ventoy is already installed and you want to update the bootloader without losing your ISOs:

sudo sh Ventoy2Disk.sh -u /dev/sdX

The -u flag upgrades only the boot partition. Your data partition and all ISOs are untouched.

Secure Boot

Ventoy supports Secure Boot via MOK enrollment. During first boot from the Ventoy drive, select Enroll Key and follow the prompts. On subsequent boots Secure Boot will trust the Ventoy loader.

Adding ISOs

Once installed, mount the data partition and copy ISOs directly:

# The ExFAT partition appears automatically on most desktops
# Or mount manually:
sudo mkdir -p /mnt/ventoy
sudo mount /dev/sdX2 /mnt/ventoy
cp ~/Downloads/ubuntu-24.04-desktop-amd64.iso /mnt/ventoy/
sudo umount /mnt/ventoy

Ventoy scans all subdirectories — you can organise ISOs into folders (/mnt/ventoy/linux/, /mnt/ventoy/windows/, etc.).

Notes

  • Ventoy supports ISO, WIM, IMG, VHD(x), and EFI files
  • The SHA256 checksum is published alongside each release on GitHub — always verify before installing
  • Source code: github.com/ventoy/Ventoy (open source, Apache 2.0)
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