Balena Etcher is an interesting free tool for creating bootable SD cards and USB drives. I often use it to test new operating systems on my Raspberry Pi, but you can also use it to install new Linux distributions. It is generally easier to use than other alternatives (like Rufus), so let’s learn how to install it on Ubuntu and other Debian-based distributions.

The easiest way to run Balena Etcher on Ubuntu is to run it directly from its AppImage file without installation. Alternatively, if you want it to be easily installed and kept updated like other applications, you can add its repository to the APT sources.

At the end of the article, I will also show you how to use Balena Etcher to flash images.

Run Balena Etcher on Ubuntu Without Installation

Balena Etcher is a free tool available for Windows, macOS, and Linux. If you just want to use it quickly without a full installation, you can directly launch the portable AppImage.

Here’s how to run Balena Etcher without a full installation:

1. Go to the official website and download the AppImage file, select the file corresponding to your system architecture (you may need Linux x64).

Official website: https://etcher.balena.io/#download-etcher

2. Unzip the zip file into a folder.

3. Before running, you may need to adjust file permissions. Go to the unzipped folder, right-click the executable file, and select “Properties”. Then check the “Execute as a program” box:

4. Double-click the file to start it, or right-click the file and select “Run”:

Note: Older versions of Etcher may prompt for the missing FUSE2 package. You need to install this package to make it compatible with your system:

sudo apt install libfuse2

(This is because older versions of Etcher still use FUSE 2, while Ubuntu 22.04 and later versions default to FUSE 3. The latest version of Etcher has fixed this issue.)

Now that it can run, you can jump to how to use Balena Etcher on Ubuntu.

Please note that you can now easily install Raspberry Pi Imager on Ubuntu, which has similar functionality to Balena Etcher, and is even better if you are flashing SD cards for Raspberry Pi.

https://raspberrytips.com/install-raspberry-pi-imager-ubuntu/

Alternative Method: Install Balena Etcher on Ubuntu via APT

If you want to launch Balena Etcher from the main menu like other programs in your Ubuntu system, you can install it via APT. To do this, you need to download the .deb file from Etcher’s official GitHub page.

Note: The following method is only applicable to 64-bit operating systems

Here’s how to install Balena Etcher on Ubuntu via APT:

1. Download the .deb file from the official release page: https://github.com/balena-io/etcher/releases/

wget https://github.com/balena-io/etcher/releases/download/v1.19.25/balena-etcher_1.19.25_amd64.deb

(Replace the link in the above command with the latest AMD64 version from the above page).

2. Use APT to install the .deb file:

sudo apt install ./balena-etcher_1.19.25_amd64.deb

That’s all! Once completed, Balena Etcher will be available in the main menu (we will cover how to use it in the next section).

It is worth noting that this method will not update Etcher during system updates. To update the application, you must remove the package with APT and then re-execute the above steps with the new .deb version.

By the way, it should work for most Debian-based distributions. So even if you are using Debian, Mint, Twister, or other distributions, you can follow the same steps.

How to Use Balena Etcher on Ubuntu

After installation, you can find Balena Etcher in lightpad. Open the application list and click the Etcher icon to launch it. You will see a prompt like this

As I mentioned in the introduction, using Balena Etcher is very simple. It has three main parts:

1. On the left, you can select the image to be written to the SD card or USB drive. For example, click “Flash from file” and browse to your downloads folder to use the latest Debian image, as shown in the screenshot:

2. Then it will unlock the second part, where you can select the target drive. If you haven’t inserted it yet, insert your USB drive or SD card. If it doesn’t select automatically, click “Select target” and choose your drive from the list.

3. Finally, you can click “Flash!” to start the installation. Etcher will do all the work for you (formatting, partitioning, copying files, and verifying integrity).

That’s it! If you are used to tools with less intuitiveness, you will definitely love this tool.

As shown in the first screenshot, you can also flash an image from a URL, but I really don’t see the point in doing that (it seems to me that the chances of failure are greater), or copy an existing drive (which can be very useful for creating complete backups).

In any case, once you master the right steps, it’s not that complicated.

Related Questions

How to Uninstall Balena Etcher on Ubuntu?

If you ran Balena Etcher from the AppImage file, you don’t need to uninstall it.

If you installed Balena Etcher using APT, you can also use APT to remove it from your computer:

sudo apt remove balena-etcher

How to Install Balena Etcher on Fedora?

When installing Etcher on Fedora, you can use similar steps as above. You can find the corresponding installer on the GitHub page for Red Hat, OpenSuse, and even Manjaro.

Red Hat: https://raspberrytips.com/glossary/hat/

Manjaro’s GitHub page: https://github.com/balena-io/etcher

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