Easily create bootable drives on Linux with BootQT
BootQT is a highly easy-to-use bootable drive creation tool for Linux. In this guide, we’ll show you how to install it. We’ll also go over how you can easily use BootQT to create bootable drives on your Linux system.
Installing BootQT on Linux
Before you can use the BootQT application to create a bootable drive, you’ll have to install the application on your computer. There are many ways to install the BootQT app on Linux. As of now, it supports Flatpak and Python.
To start the installation process for BootQT, open up a terminal window. You can open a terminal window on the Linux desktop by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T on the keyboard. Alternatively, search for “Terminal” in the app menu and launch it that way.
With the terminal window open, follow the installation instructions below that correspond with the Linux install method you prefer.
Flatpak
The BootQT application is best installed on Linux as a Flatpak. However, before you attempt to install the BootQT application on your system, you’ll need to set up the Flatpak runtime.
Unsure about how to set up the runtime on your computer? Follow our in-depth installation guide for Flatpak. It goes over how to download the Flatpak package, use it, etc.
Once the Flatpak runtime is set up on your Linux system, you’ll need to run the flatpak remote-add command to add the Flathub app store. You’ll need the Flathub store to install BootQT.
flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
With the Flathub app store set up, you can install the BootQT app with the flatpak install command.
flatpak install flathub io.github.giantpinkrobots.bootqt
Python3
If you’re not interested in using Flatpak to run BootQT, you can download the app as a Python script and run it. Install Pip and Git to start.
Ubuntu
sudo apt install python-pip git
Debian
sudo apt-get install python-pip-whl git
Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S python-pip git
Fedora
sudo dnf install python3-pip git
OpenSUSE
Head to the OpenSUSE Software page, and find your OpenSUSE Linux release. Then, select the “Expert Download” option to download the latest version of Python-pip for your OpenSUSE Linux computer.
After installing the latest versions of Pip and Git, you’ll have to set up “PyQt5” with Pip using the command below.
pip install PyQt5
Next, download the BootQT code to your computer using the git clone command.
git clone https://github.com/giantpinkrobots/bootqt.git
Enter the “bootqt” directory using the cd command.
cd bootqt/
Copy the bootqt.py file into the “bqi18n” command using the cp command.
cp bootqt.py bqi18n/
Finally, you can execute the BootQT application on your computer using the python3 command.
python3 ./bootqt.py
Creating a bootable drive with BootQT
To create a bootable drive with BootQT, open up the app and follow the step-by-step instructions below. Unsure about how to launch BootQT? Open the app menu, search for “BootQT,” and launch it.
Step 1: Insert your USB flash drive into the USB port on your computer. Ensure your USB flash drive is at least 2 GB, as most Linux ISO files are enormous.
Note: if your USB flash drive is not detected in BootQT after plugging it in, you may need to restart the app.
Step 2: Upon inserting the USB flash drive, BootQT should detect it. Once it is detected, find the “Select Drive” drop-down menu and click on it with the mouse. Then, select your USB flash drive.
Step 3: After selecting your USB flash drive in the “Select Drive” menu, choose the “Select Image File” button with the mouse. Once you select this button, a pop-up window will appear on the screen.
Use the pop-up window to browse for the ISO file you wish to install to the flash drive with BootQT.
Step 4: After selecting your ISO file, find the “Prepare Drive” button in the BootQT application. Click the “Prepare Drive” button to begin the ISO installation process. This process will take some time, depending on how large the ISO file is.
Note: you can get more detailed information about the status of the USB installation process by selecting the down arrow in the BootQT app.
Step 5: Unplug your USB flash drive from the computer when the ISO installation process is complete. Then, close the BootQT application as it is no longer necessary.
Step 6: Plug your USB flash drive into the computer with which you plan to use the bootable drive. Then, boot the computer into the BIOS and configure it to boot from USB so you can use the operating system installed on the USB.
