[gentoo-user] Package "sys-boot/unetbootin" masked

[gentoo-user] Package "sys-boot/unetbootin" masked

[Dr Rainer Woitok]

Greetings,

just starting  a routine upgrade  I found the following  in the "emerge"
output:

   !!! The following installed packages are masked:
   - sys-boot/unetbootin-702::gentoo (masked by: package.mask)
   /var/db/repos/gentoo/profiles/package.mask:
   # Andreas Sturmlechner <asturm@gentoo.org> (2025-09-16)
   # Abandoned upstream, based on Qt5, "must be run as root", then fails to
   # start w/ current kde-plasma/kdesu-gui[X] within Wayland sessions too.
   # Removal on 2025-10-16. Bug #957179

In the past I used this package to update the bootable image on my reco-
very USB stick, but now this no longer seems to be a good idea :-(

What are others using to create a bootable USB stick?

Sincerely,
  Rainer

Re: [gentoo-user] Package "sys-boot/unetbootin" masked

[Michael]

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On Tuesday, 23 September 2025 15:54:26 British Summer Time Dr Rainer Woitok 
wrote:
> Greetings,
> 
> just starting  a routine upgrade  I found the following  in the "emerge"
> output:
> 
>    !!! The following installed packages are masked:
>    - sys-boot/unetbootin-702::gentoo (masked by: package.mask)
>    /var/db/repos/gentoo/profiles/package.mask:
>    # Andreas Sturmlechner <asturm@gentoo.org> (2025-09-16)
>    # Abandoned upstream, based on Qt5, "must be run as root", then fails to
>    # start w/ current kde-plasma/kdesu-gui[X] within Wayland sessions too.
>    # Removal on 2025-10-16. Bug #957179
> 
> In the past I used this package to update the bootable image on my reco-
> very USB stick, but now this no longer seems to be a good idea :-(
> 
> What are others using to create a bootable USB stick?
> 
> Sincerely,
>   Rainer

I've never used unetbootin, but if it just burns an ISO file on a USB device, 
then dd which I use frequently should achieve the same, e.g.:

dd if=my_ISO_file of=/dev/sdc bs=1M conv=fsync status=progress

where /dev/sdc is the USB device.  See below for details:

https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/LiveUSB

I have also used k3b on Plasma/KDE, by selecting Tools > Burn Image.

If you do not have an ISO fs and therefore you need to create it first with 
squashfs, grub or syslinux, etc. before you transfer it over to the USB 
device, take a look here:

https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Install_Gentoo_on_a_bootable_USB_stick

For creating custom Gentoo ISOs, perhaps to match a different arch, you could 
take a look at the  dev-util/catalyst tool:

https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Catalyst

HTH


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Re: [gentoo-user] Package "sys-boot/unetbootin" masked

[Sergey Filatov]

Unetbootin for sure is not updated for years. I was doing one of those 
two methods instead:

1. dd an ISO to USB worked well for years. BIOS/UEFI machines pick this 
flash drive mostly with no issues. The only downside is that it is now 
recognized as iso9660/udf/CDFS partition that's common for CD/DVD 
drives, making it read-only. To make it writable again you must wipe 
everything on the USB stick and create an MBR/GPT table on it again with 
a new fresh partition. Still perfect for one-time installation of if you 
won't use that stick to store/transfer other files.

2. You can also make a GPT table (sometimes MBR table works too) with a 
single FAT32 partition on USB stick (GParted, parted, other partition 
tool), then just copy all the files from the ISO on it. Most modern UEFI 
systems will boot from it with no issues and you can still use the drive 
as a normal flash drive, put other files on it, etc. You don't have to 
make it ESP - UEFI normally should pick up a standard FAT32 partition 
from a USB drive and try to boot a EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI from it.

On 23.09.2025 18:54, Dr Rainer Woitok wrote:
> Greetings,
> 
> just starting  a routine upgrade  I found the following  in the "emerge"
> output:
> 
>     !!! The following installed packages are masked:
>     - sys-boot/unetbootin-702::gentoo (masked by: package.mask)
>     /var/db/repos/gentoo/profiles/package.mask:
>     # Andreas Sturmlechner <asturm@gentoo.org> (2025-09-16)
>     # Abandoned upstream, based on Qt5, "must be run as root", then fails to
>     # start w/ current kde-plasma/kdesu-gui[X] within Wayland sessions too.
>     # Removal on 2025-10-16. Bug #957179
> 
> In the past I used this package to update the bootable image on my reco-
> very USB stick, but now this no longer seems to be a good idea :-(
> 
> What are others using to create a bootable USB stick?
> 
> Sincerely,
>    Rainer
> 

Re: [gentoo-user] Package "sys-boot/unetbootin" masked

[Dale]

Dr Rainer Woitok wrote:
> Greetings,
>
> just starting  a routine upgrade  I found the following  in the "emerge"
> output:
>
>    !!! The following installed packages are masked:
>    - sys-boot/unetbootin-702::gentoo (masked by: package.mask)
>    /var/db/repos/gentoo/profiles/package.mask:
>    # Andreas Sturmlechner <asturm@gentoo.org> (2025-09-16)
>    # Abandoned upstream, based on Qt5, "must be run as root", then fails to
>    # start w/ current kde-plasma/kdesu-gui[X] within Wayland sessions too.
>    # Removal on 2025-10-16. Bug #957179
>
> In the past I used this package to update the bootable image on my reco-
> very USB stick, but now this no longer seems to be a good idea :-(
>
> What are others using to create a bootable USB stick?
>
> Sincerely,
>   Rainer
>
> .
>


Someone mentioned this a long time ago on this list.  I tried it.  It is
awesome.  I think it supports a lot of booting methods.  I'm not sure if
it will do what you want but if you read about it, it may be that it
does and is a good option for you to try.  Here is a link. 

https://github.com/ventoy 

Basically, once you get it set up, you just put whatever you want to
boot in a directory and when you boot from it, it generates a menu with
all the available options.  You can add or remove easily. 

It may not do what you want but if it does, it could be worth taking a
few minutes to look into it. 

Dale

:-)  :-)

Re: [gentoo-user] Package "sys-boot/unetbootin" masked

[Hoël Bézier]

Am Di, Sep 23, 2025 am 12:25:37 -0500 schrieb Dale:
>Dr Rainer Woitok wrote:
>> Greetings,
>>
>> [snip]
>>
>> What are others using to create a bootable USB stick?
>>
>> Sincerely,
>>   Rainer
>
>Someone mentioned this a long time ago on this list.  I tried it.  It is
>awesome.  I think it supports a lot of booting methods.  I'm not sure if
>it will do what you want but if you read about it, it may be that it
>does and is a good option for you to try.  Here is a link. 
>
>https://github.com/ventoy 

I also recommend Ventoy, that I find very useful.

That being said, if you just want to create a plain bootable usb stick, I’d use 
cat.

   cat iso > /dev/sdb

Replacing sdb with your usb stick name, of course.

Re: [gentoo-user] Package "sys-boot/unetbootin" masked

[zyxhere💭]

On Tue, 2025-09-23 at 12:25 -0500, Dale wrote:
> Dr Rainer Woitok wrote:
> > Greetings,
> > 
> > just starting  a routine upgrade  I found the following  in the
> > "emerge"
> > output:
> > 
> >    !!! The following installed packages are masked:
> >    - sys-boot/unetbootin-702::gentoo (masked by: package.mask)
> >    /var/db/repos/gentoo/profiles/package.mask:
> >    # Andreas Sturmlechner <asturm@gentoo.org> (2025-09-16)
> >    # Abandoned upstream, based on Qt5, "must be run as root", then
> > fails to
> >    # start w/ current kde-plasma/kdesu-gui[X] within Wayland
> > sessions too.
> >    # Removal on 2025-10-16. Bug #957179
> > 
> > In the past I used this package to update the bootable image on my
> > reco-
> > very USB stick, but now this no longer seems to be a good idea :-(
> > 
> > What are others using to create a bootable USB stick?
> > 
> > Sincerely,
> >   Rainer
> > 
> > .
> > 
> 
> 
> Someone mentioned this a long time ago on this list.  I tried it.  It
> is
> awesome.  I think it supports a lot of booting methods.  I'm not sure
> if
> it will do what you want but if you read about it, it may be that it
> does and is a good option for you to try.  Here is a link. 
> 
> https://github.com/ventoy 
> 
> Basically, once you get it set up, you just put whatever you want to
> boot in a directory and when you boot from it, it generates a menu
> with
> all the available options.  You can add or remove easily. 
> 
> It may not do what you want but if it does, it could be worth taking
> a
> few minutes to look into it. 
> 
> Dale
> 
> :-)  :-)

I would stay vary of ventoy https://github.com/ventoy/Ventoy/issues/135
https://github.com/ventoy/Ventoy/issues/2795

Re: [gentoo-user] Package "sys-boot/unetbootin" masked

[Daniel Frey]

On 9/23/25 7:54 AM, Dr Rainer Woitok wrote:
> Greetings,
> 
> just starting  a routine upgrade  I found the following  in the "emerge"
> output:
> 
>     !!! The following installed packages are masked:
>     - sys-boot/unetbootin-702::gentoo (masked by: package.mask)
>     /var/db/repos/gentoo/profiles/package.mask:
>     # Andreas Sturmlechner <asturm@gentoo.org> (2025-09-16)
>     # Abandoned upstream, based on Qt5, "must be run as root", then fails to
>     # start w/ current kde-plasma/kdesu-gui[X] within Wayland sessions too.
>     # Removal on 2025-10-16. Bug #957179
> 
> In the past I used this package to update the bootable image on my reco-
> very USB stick, but now this no longer seems to be a good idea :-(
> 
> What are others using to create a bootable USB stick?
> 
> Sincerely,
>    Rainer
> 

I just use the ISO Image Writer in KDE.

  * Searching for isoimagewriter ...
[IP-] [  ] app-cdr/isoimagewriter-25.04.3:6

-Dan

Re: [gentoo-user] Package "sys-boot/unetbootin" masked

[Dale]

zyxhere💭 wrote:
> On Tue, 2025-09-23 at 12:25 -0500, Dale wrote:
>> Dr Rainer Woitok wrote:
>>> Greetings,
>>>
>>> just starting  a routine upgrade  I found the following  in the
>>> "emerge"
>>> output:
>>>
>>>    !!! The following installed packages are masked:
>>>    - sys-boot/unetbootin-702::gentoo (masked by: package.mask)
>>>    /var/db/repos/gentoo/profiles/package.mask:
>>>    # Andreas Sturmlechner <asturm@gentoo.org> (2025-09-16)
>>>    # Abandoned upstream, based on Qt5, "must be run as root", then
>>> fails to
>>>    # start w/ current kde-plasma/kdesu-gui[X] within Wayland
>>> sessions too.
>>>    # Removal on 2025-10-16. Bug #957179
>>>
>>> In the past I used this package to update the bootable image on my
>>> reco-
>>> very USB stick, but now this no longer seems to be a good idea :-(
>>>
>>> What are others using to create a bootable USB stick?
>>>
>>> Sincerely,
>>>   Rainer
>>>
>>> .
>>>
>>
>> Someone mentioned this a long time ago on this list.  I tried it.  It
>> is
>> awesome.  I think it supports a lot of booting methods.  I'm not sure
>> if
>> it will do what you want but if you read about it, it may be that it
>> does and is a good option for you to try.  Here is a link. 
>>
>> https://github.com/ventoy 
>>
>> Basically, once you get it set up, you just put whatever you want to
>> boot in a directory and when you boot from it, it generates a menu
>> with
>> all the available options.  You can add or remove easily. 
>>
>> It may not do what you want but if it does, it could be worth taking
>> a
>> few minutes to look into it. 
>>
>> Dale
>>
>> :-)  :-)
> I would stay vary of ventoy https://github.com/ventoy/Ventoy/issues/135
> https://github.com/ventoy/Ventoy/issues/2795
>
> .
>


For 135, you seen this?

https://github.com/ventoy/Ventoy/issues/2692

It would seem that a fix is done for that.  From another thread, it
appears this is a common thing with media that is bootable from
CD/DVD/USB stick.  If one is that concerned with security, disable
booting from USB completely. 

For 2795, you seen this thread? 

https://github.com/ventoy/Ventoy/issues/3224 

It would seem that it is being worked on. 

Still, I've used Ventoy on several systems here for all sorts of
reasons.  From my understanding, once you boot into the media, Gentoo
live build for me usually, Ventoy is out of the picture.  It also seems
the creator, like others who use the same code since it appears those
blobs are from upstream, is working on the issue.  Even if he didn't
create the issue. 

The creator seems to engage and work on any problems people find. 
That's more than can be said for some.

Dale

:-)  :-) 

Re: [gentoo-user] Package "sys-boot/unetbootin" masked

[Dr Rainer Woitok]

Michael,

On Tuesday, 2025-09-23 16:46:48 +0100, you wrote:

> ...
> I've never used unetbootin, but if it just burns an ISO file on a USB device, 
> then dd which I use frequently should achieve the same, e.g.:
> 
> dd if=my_ISO_file of=/dev/sdc bs=1M conv=fsync status=progress
> 
> where /dev/sdc is the USB device.

Neither partitioning  nor formatting  of the USB stick is required?   So
the bare minimum (without checksum checking)  would be a two lines Shell
script running "wget" and "dd"  to update the bootable image on my reco-
very USB stick?

Sincerely,
  Rainer

Re: [gentoo-user] Package "sys-boot/unetbootin" masked

[Michael]

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On Thursday, 25 September 2025 14:41:48 British Summer Time Dr Rainer Woitok 
wrote:
> Michael,
> 
> On Tuesday, 2025-09-23 16:46:48 +0100, you wrote:
> > ...
> > I've never used unetbootin, but if it just burns an ISO file on a USB
> > device, then dd which I use frequently should achieve the same, e.g.:
> > 
> > dd if=my_ISO_file of=/dev/sdc bs=1M conv=fsync status=progress
> > 
> > where /dev/sdc is the USB device.
> 
> Neither partitioning  nor formatting  of the USB stick is required?   So
> the bare minimum (without checksum checking)  would be a two lines Shell
> script running "wget" and "dd"  to update the bootable image on my reco-
> very USB stick?
> 
> Sincerely,
>   Rainer

The ISO image contains its own partitions and fs format(s) as required.  For 
example, this is the Gentoo minimal ISO which I have downloaded and 
transferred onto a 1.00 GB USB stick:

~ # gdisk -l /dev/sdb
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.10

Partition table scan:
  MBR: protective
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: present

Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.
Disk /dev/sdb: 1953792 sectors, 954.0 MiB
Model: USB DISK Pro    
Sector size (logical/physical): 512/512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): FB0382CF-F338-4593-AC96-98E9954CE3F8
Partition table holds up to 176 entries
Main partition table begins at sector 2 and ends at sector 45
First usable sector is 46, last usable sector is 1953746
Partitions will be aligned on 4-sector boundaries
Total free space is 438937 sectors (214.3 MiB)

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1              64             563   250.0 KiB   0700  Gap0
   2             564            6323   2.8 MiB     EF00  EFI boot partition
   3            6324         1514227   736.3 MiB   AF00  HFSPLUS
   4         1514228         1514827   300.0 KiB   0700  Gap1


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[gentoo-user] Re: Package "sys-boot/unetbootin" masked

[Grant Edwards]

On 2025-09-25, Dr Rainer Woitok <rainer.woitok@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tuesday, 2025-09-23 16:46:48 +0100, you wrote:
>> ...
>> I've never used unetbootin, but if it just burns an ISO file on a USB device, 
>> then dd which I use frequently should achieve the same, e.g.:
>> 
>> dd if=my_ISO_file of=/dev/sdc bs=1M conv=fsync status=progress
>> 
>> where /dev/sdc is the USB device.

I don't usually use the 'conv=fsync', but it's good practice.
Instead, I got into the habit of doing an 'eject' on the device before
I pull it out of the USB socket.  I should switch to using conv=fsync.

> Neither partitioning nor formatting  of the USB stick is required?

No, not for any .iso image or USB stick I've ever used.

> So the bare minimum (without checksum checking) would be a two lines
> Shell script running "wget" and "dd" to update the bootable image on
> my reco- very USB stick?

I've never used anything other than 'dd' for writing .iso images to
flash drives.  I never understood why anybody ever thought they needed
to write/use an app for that task.

--
Grant

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Package "sys-boot/unetbootin" masked

[Michael]

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On Thursday, 25 September 2025 22:41:55 British Summer Time Grant Edwards 
wrote:

> I've never used anything other than 'dd' for writing .iso images to
> flash drives.  I never understood why anybody ever thought they needed
> to write/use an app for that task.
> 
> --
> Grant

It could be because GUI applications don't need root access with udisks, so 
plain users can use them.  Also they check if there is a removable drive 
inserted and refuse to proceed if none is available.  With dd you remain 
wholly responsible for wiping your precious data by mistakenly pointing it to 
the wrong drive.  ;-)

PS. I mentioned I had used k3b to create a liveUSB.  I don't think this was 
true - I was only burning liveCD/DVDs with k3b.  On a Plasma desktop KDE's 
app-cdr/isoimagewriter is the tool to be used for USB devices.

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