r/linux_on_mac • u/-_cloudyy-_ • 1d ago

Creating bootable USB makes USB unreadable

Looking for advice.

Tried creating a bootable USB with Linux Mint xfce 22.3 on it to salvage an early 2015 Mac (which was also used here to create said USB).

I have checked integrity of the ISO file as instructed by the installation guide. I tried both balenaEtcher and with the dd commands in terminal, both have the following outcome:

During the process itself, no errors appear but once it's done, the laptop instantly fails to read it ("The disk you attached was not readable by this computer.") Rebooting doesn't seem to help. The disk (USB) works fine after running command to erase it.

Any thoughts on what may be causing this, and what should be done to successfully create the bootable media? Thanks!

1 Upvotes

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6

u/Scared_Bell3366 22h ago

That sounds completely normal to me. The current OS can’t read it, that’s all. Boot off it to find out if it works.

1

u/-_cloudyy-_ 19h ago

It worked! I feel a bit silly now. Thanks for the advice :D

2

u/googleflont 20h ago

Look on the bright side. Once you format a computer for Linux, you’ll be able to insert that bootable USP and read it.

2

u/rylab 20h ago

A bootable drive is just that, for booting an OS. It's a specific format that's not readable like a normal FAT or EXT etc drive. That's expected behavior.

2

u/-_cloudyy-_ 19h ago

Thanks for the information! I'm all new to this stuff and got spooked by the warning. (We're allowed to ignore this stuff?! ::D) The USB worked as intended.