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Ventoy

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Ventoy
Developer(s)Hailong Sun (aka longpanda)
Initial release5 April 2020
Stable release1.0.99[1] Edit this on Wikidata (8 June 2024; 4 months ago (8 June 2024)) [±]
Repository
Operating systemCross-platform (Windows, Linux)
LicenseGPLv3+ License
Websiteventoy.net/en/ Edit this on Wikidata

Ventoy is a free and open-source utility used for creating bootable usb media storage device with files such as .iso, .wim, .img, .vhd(x), and .efi. Once Ventoy is installed onto a USB drive, there is no need to reformat the disk to update it with new installation files; it is enough to copy the .iso, .wim, .img, .vhd(x), or .efi file(s) to the USB drive and boot from them directly.[2][3][4] Ventoy will present the user with a boot menu to select one of these files. Currently, the project has been on hold in the absence of the main developer longpanda since June, 2024. Some users expressed fear of discontinuation of the project on the official forum,[5] with no affirmation from the developer.

Features

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Ventoy can be installed on a USB flash drive, local disk, solid-state drive (SSD, NVMe), or SD card and it will directly boot from the selected .iso, .wim, .img, .vhd(x), or .efi file(s) added. Ventoy does not extract the image file(s) to the USB drive, but uses them directly, as it has the unzipping facility and does so during the installation. It is possible to place multiple ISO images on a single device and select the image to boot from the menu displayed just after Ventoy boots.

MBR and GPT partition styles, x86 Legacy BIOS and various UEFI boot methods (including persistence) are supported. ISO files larger than 4 GB can be used. Ventoy supports various operating system boot and installation ISO files, including Windows 7 and later, Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), Fedora and more than a hundred other Linux distributions; various Unix releases, VMware, Citrix XenServer, etc. have also been tested.[6] Ventoy isn't recommended on the openSUSE wiki, since there are reports of boot issues by the users [7]

Pre-installed plugins

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Global Control Plugin

This plugin is used to make some global settings for Ventoy.

Password Plugin

With this plugin we can set a password for Ventoy or for an ISO at boot time. This is a very simple password function.

Driver Update Disk Plugin

This plugin offers a very simple way of integrating the DUD files.

Boot Conf Replace Plugin

When we boot some Linux distributions, sometimes we need to add the boot options for specific hardware or another purpose. This can be done with the "Configuration Replace Plug-in".

Auto Memdisk Plugin

With this plugin you can set the memdisk mode for some ISO/IMG files and Ventoy will always use the memdisk mode to boot them.

Windows Vhdboot Plugin

Ventoy uses this plugin to boot VHD(x) files. It supports both Legacy BIOS and UEFI.

Wimboot Plugin

Ventoy uses this plugin to boot WIM files (Legacy BIOS + UEFI).

Persistence Plugin

This plug-in makes it possible to save all changes you make to the live system so that they are still available the next time you start the system.

Auto Installation Plugin

Many Linux distributions offer unattended installation. You only need to specify a script for the installation to install an ISO automatically.

Menu Extension Plugin

Since Ventoy is based on grub2, you can define your own grub2 menu in a cfg-file and load it.

Menu Tip Plugin

With this plugin you can set a tip for the ISOs. This message is displayed when you select an ISO.

Menu Alias Plugin

With this plugin you can define an alias for the ISO/WIM files. The alias is only used to display it in the boot menu.

Menu Class Plugin

With this Ventoy plugin you can define a class for the ISO files and display an icon in the boot menu.

Theme Plugin

Ventoy is based on grub2, so all grub2 themes can be used on Ventoy.

Injection Plugin

With this plugin you can install some files (e.g. drivers/scripts ...). For Windows, this is the WinPE environment. For Linux this is the initramfs-environment.

Controversies

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Undocumented Blobs

Ventoy source code contains some binary blobs, as reported by the community members. This raised concerns among the community in light of the XZ Utils backdoor. Developer had been notified of the issues,[8] however, no official responses had been announced.

Absence of the developer

Since June, 2024, the main developer set the status of "on vacation" on their GitHub profile, made no attempts to be active on the project. Ventoy (longpanda) was last seen on June 8th when committing cb209f9.

Impersonation

Post claimed to be the developer appeared on Lemmy on October 13, 2024,[9] however, the identity of the author has yet to be confirmed. In the post, the author claimed that "...The BLOB feature is an important aspect of our app..." and "...will prioritize updating the documentation to provide a comprehensive understanding of how the BLOB functionality works...", however, the promises and descriptions of the issues are vague.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Release 1.0.99". 8 June 2024. Retrieved 27 June 2024.
  2. ^ Langner, Christopher. "Tutorial – Ventoy". Linux Magazine. Linux New Media USA. Archived from the original on 27 January 2021. Retrieved 6 April 2021.
  3. ^ "Bootable USB Creator Ventoy Gets A Native GUI For Linux".
  4. ^ "You may now use Ventoy without deleting data on USB Sticks". Retrieved 11 November 2021.
  5. ^ "Ventoy 1.0.99 is the final version".
  6. ^ "List Of Tested ISOs". Archived from the original on 2021-04-01. Retrieved 2021-03-09.
  7. ^ "Create installation USB stick".
  8. ^ "[issue]: Remove BLOBs from the source tree #2795".
  9. ^ "Lemmy: Ventoy Update".
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