Creating a bootable USB from an ISO

I have found that the tools for doing this on Mac is really not working or non-existing. Disk Utility is supposed to be able to do this, but last time I tried, it didn't even want to recognise my image file, and even if it would recognise anything I threw at it, I would just get an error anyway because the USB stick were already in use. If I ejected the USB stick, it wouldn't find the stick.

(The trick is to manually unmount the file system that is in use with the USB stick before attempting the operation, but I don't remember the Terminal command line for this, there are articles about this around on the Internet.)

There isn't an abundance of tools from what I have found on Mac either.

Last time I needed a boot USB, I ended up using Windows, after hours of failing to either find a proper tool, or making Disk Utility work. (You will find Disk Utility in your Applications/Utilities folder.)

If anyone else here has a tip of a good USB boot image making tool, I would be greatful as well.

Why not fire up dd(1) and sip coffee? See this article with example. If it complains use the raw disk device instead — /dev/rdisk with the drive number.

<Link Edited by Host>

GNU dd uses the bs=1m syntax. Other dd will like bs=1M.

That Linux .iso that you have is the installer, but needs to be placed on bootable hardware. The dd syntax that I pointed you to is essentially a disk duplication — it simply copies the contents of the .iso (without conversion) onto the USB stick. If the Kali Linux .iso is also a LiveCD, you can boot to it from your Mac and run it from the USB stick. Holding down the option key on boot will show all boot devices.

If you want to access this Linux variant regularly from your MBP, and you have 4GB or more memory, then download a free copy of VirtualBox and read the installation instructions for Linux. VirtualBox will boot that .iso and let you install Kali Linux into a guest container that you can boot from a single key-click. I would advise against installing Kali Linux into your Mac — partitioned alongside OS X.

Hey great reply - I have been using 'dd' for all my iso related activities for ages on mac, linux and windows (well i use the term 'windows' loosely as I quit using anything microsoft years ago but a little netbook i bought recently had something called 8.1 on it arrgghh ) anyway thats another headache altogether.

My question is very related to booting a macbook pro with a say 'kali-linux.iso'. I used to do it with Refit/Refind boot manager and it worked perfectly.

The problem started when apple in all their wisdom released a new version of their OS. So it was the one before the current version, so the version before OS Sierra, whatever that was called. Now they have made it even more difficult to install another OS from USB or Flash media.

Do you know the way to get around this by any chance?

I remember reading a great tutorial on how to do just that, which was disabling smart boot or something but of course I lost that link ... Thanks in advance

LJ

I am literally trying top do the same exact thing with Kali, could you give me an update on what you did?