How to create a Ubuntu Bootable USB using Ventoy (Linux Guide)

This guide is for Linux-based systems only, not Windows.

I decided to install Ubuntu to explore various developer tools and workflows.

I thought of installing it, but found I needed to install a tool named Ventoy to do so.

We will be creating a Ubuntu Bootable USB using Ventoy

It was a new concept for me to just install it on the pendrive and paste the iso as before when I was using Rufus. It basically does some background processes, and we just need to select the iso.

But in the case of Ventoy, we need to run some commands, and we can get a few errors like space not available, even if there is, it is basically the junk files that are taking up the space. I have mentioned the complete steps below, from installation links to troubleshooting errors I faced.

This is also useful for someone who is trying to make space-related changes. First, we need to make a bootable pendrive and run the commands below, booting into live Ubuntu.

Critical BIOS setting before booting through USB

Also, I faced a critical issue where the USB was not booting. Later, I found out it’s due to secure boot through the vendor, which prevents Ventoy Bootable USB from initializing.

In my case, I had to enter the BIOS using the F2 key, then in the Security Tab Set Supervisor Password, and then in the Boot Tab, I was able to set Secure Boot to disabled.

Initially, Secure Boot is enabled by ACER. We need to manually set it to disabled.

Also in the BIOS menu, the system starts to get hotter faster.

Why I feel Ventoy is better than Rufus :

Traditional bootable USB tools force you to wait nearly 20 minutes to flash a single image. With Ventoy, you can skip the wait and host multiple boot options on one drive just by copying the ISO files directly—no flashing required

Prerequisites for making Ventoy USB on Ubuntu OS

Note first time the Pendrive will be formatted, and it’s normal for all tools like Ventoy and Rufus, so just make a backup of your important data.

Also, Ventoy installation will make two partitions of the USB: one VTOYEFI and another Ventoy(this will contain the ISO files)

Below is a screenshot after creating the Bootable USB using Ventoy

First, we need a pendrive as well as an Ubuntu iso image and Ventoy Software.

Step 1: Download Ventoy and Ubuntu ISO

Links for downloading Ubuntu and Ventoy from their Official website

Ubuntu

Official Ubuntu download page link: https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop

From the list of available ISO images, I downloaded Ubuntu Desktop ISO 24.04.3, which is almost 6 GB in size.

Ventoy for Linux

Official Ventoy Download Link: https://www.ventoy.net/en/download.html

We need to download: ventoy-1.1.10-linux.tar.gz

We are redirected to https://sourceforge.net/projects/ventoy/files/v1.1.10/

Make sure to download ventoy-1.1.10-linux.tar.gz

(After redirect download tar.gz 20 mb one)

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We are proceeding with creating a bootable pendrive in Linux

First, check the device name using the command below. Our device is a 16GB pendrive, so we can distinguish using its size

lsblk

In our case its dev/sda

We will use this partition(dev/sda) below while installing Ventoy

Step 2: Install Ventoy on USB

Commands need to run to install Ventoy in a USB

Location where I had kept Ventoy files: /Documents/ventoy-1.1.10-linux/ventoy-1.1.10

Generic command: sudo sh Ventoy2Disk.sh -i <Partition of USB>

sudo sh Ventoy2Disk.sh -i /dev/sda

STEP 3: Copy Ubuntu ISO

Then just paste the Ubuntu iso.

Facing issue while copying ISO into usb follow: #troubleshoot-copy-into-usb

Now just sync and eject

sudo sync

sudo eject /dev/sda

Troubleshooting unable to unmount/eject USB

We encountered an error while trying to unmount, so we tried using the sudo command

sudo umount /dev/sda1

Check who is using the device using the command below:

sudo lsof /dev/sda1

From the list of processes Kill a process using the process id for our pendrive

pid can be different, please confirm it in your case first

sudo kill 9568

Troubleshoot Problem

Troubleshoot why the Pendrive is showing full even if there is space in the USB drive.

sudo du -h /media/kailash/Ventoy

We can see that trash is consuming our space, and we can remove it

Steps to remove junk files

Do ls -la to confirm there is Trash files

And then remove using :

rm -r ./Trash-1000/

Check that trash files are removed

Run the command below, opening the terminal inside the device path

du -h

Now we can easily copy the iso files and boot from the Pendrive

Ubuntu iso started being copied now. We can see in the screenshot below.

Enjoy booting into your new OS now.

Thanks for reading!!

In my case :

For Acer Boot menu opens in F12 key.

We need to shut down and then again start, and keep pressingthe F12 key until we see the boot menu.

You can check with your vendor’s website for the exact keys.

Resizing Partition after creating a live USB using Ventoy

We cannot resize the partition while the OS is running because the partition is ‘mounted’ and locked. To fix this, we boot into the Ubuntu Live USB we just created. Choose ‘Try Ubuntu’—this runs the OS from the USB and RAM, leaving your hard drive partitions unmounted and ready for resizing via GParted

Using Gparted, we will be resizing the partition, making sure it’s installed.

sudo apt install gparted

Resize after booting using the UBUNTU live USB created with Ventoy.

Command: sudo gparted

This will open Gparted which will help us resize our partition

First lets see how much the current size is

using the below command:

lsblk

Currently it’s 140 GB (dev/nvme0n1/nvme0n1p2)

Select the allocated space, select Resize, then the screen below will open, drag and allocate as required. I will select the complete unallocated space, then click on Reaize button.

Then we have below, where we now need to click on the green tick option to apply operations to begin the process of merging.

We will be asked to confirm the pending operation select Apply.

After shutting down, you will be asked to remove the bootable USB remove it.

The system will shut down successfully.

Verify Final Partition Size

Now we can reboot and confirm the final space

using command: df -h

Voila! We have our 468 GB partition ready.

Muti Boot Option

Drop another ISO of Windows ISO, and now in just 2 minutes, we can boot into Windows as well using this USB.

This was lacking in Rufus. This makes Ventoy different from other tools like Rufus.