Writing hybrid ISO images to USB boot media

You can easily "burn" your chosen ALT Linux ISO image to a USB device using the Linux command dd.

Step 1 - Identify your USB mount point

On your Linux desktop, open up a terminal window. Plug in your USB storage device into your PC and enter the command:

 fdisk -l

You will need to be superuser to use fdisk, so either go to Super User / su mode or, if your current Linux distro supports it, use:

 sudo fdisk -l

The computer will return a mount point for your USB devices, which would look something like this:

 Disk /dev/sdb: 14.4 GiB, 15472047104 bytes, 30218842 sectors
 Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
 Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
 I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
 Disklabel type: dos
 Disk identifier: 0x4db85455

Of course, yours will be specific to the size of your USB device and it's formatting. But, the important bit of information we need for step 2 is the disk reference of /dev/sdb.

Step 2 - "Burn" ISO image to the USB device

IMPORTANT NOTE: This process will completely wipe the contents of the USB device. So, be sure to use a USB device that doesn't contain important data you don't want to lose!

cd (or Change Directory) into the folder that contains the ALT Linux ISO image you downloaded from the archives.

Again, as Super User enter the following command:

 dd if=bootable.iso of=/dev/sdx

Of course, in this example, replace the name bootable.iso with the name of the ISO you downloaded from the ALT repository AND change sdx to the sd device that was identified in Step 1.

Your computer will then begin to reformat and install the ISO image onto your USB storage device. It will take a bit of time, depending on how large the ISO image is. Once it's done, you can then reboot your PC and configure the BIOS to boot from your USB device.

Enjoy!