nixpkgs/nixos/doc/manual/from_md/installation/installing-usb.section.xml

<section xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xml:id="sec-booting-from-usb">
  <title>Booting from a USB flash drive</title>
  <para>
    The image has to be written verbatim to the USB flash drive for it
    to be bootable on UEFI and BIOS systems. Here are the recommended
    tools to do that.
  </para>
  <section xml:id="sec-booting-from-usb-graphical">
    <title>Creating bootable USB flash drive with a graphical
    tool</title>
    <para>
      Etcher is a popular and user-friendly tool. It works on Linux,
      Windows and macOS.
    </para>
    <para>
      Download it from
      <link xlink:href="https://www.balena.io/etcher/">balena.io</link>,
      start the program, select the downloaded NixOS ISO, then select
      the USB flash drive and flash it.
    </para>
    <warning>
      <para>
        Etcher reports errors and usage statistics by default, which can
        be disabled in the settings.
      </para>
    </warning>
    <para>
      An alternative is
      <link xlink:href="https://bztsrc.gitlab.io/usbimager">USBImager</link>,
      which is very simple and does not connect to the internet.
      Download the version with write-only (wo) interface for your
      system. Start the program, select the image, select the USB flash
      drive and click <quote>Write</quote>.
    </para>
  </section>
  <section xml:id="sec-booting-from-usb-linux">
    <title>Creating bootable USB flash drive from a Terminal on
    Linux</title>
    <orderedlist numeration="arabic" spacing="compact">
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Plug in the USB flash drive.
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Find the corresponding device with <literal>lsblk</literal>.
          You can distinguish them by their size.
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Make sure all partitions on the device are properly unmounted.
          Replace <literal>sdX</literal> with your device (e.g.
          <literal>sdb</literal>).
        </para>
      </listitem>
    </orderedlist>
    <programlisting>
sudo umount /dev/sdX*
</programlisting>
    <orderedlist numeration="arabic" spacing="compact">
      <listitem override="4">
        <para>
          Then use the <literal>dd</literal> utility to write the image
          to the USB flash drive.
        </para>
      </listitem>
    </orderedlist>
    <programlisting>
sudo dd if=&lt;path-to-image&gt; of=/dev/sdX bs=4M conv=fsync
</programlisting>
  </section>
  <section xml:id="sec-booting-from-usb-macos">
    <title>Creating bootable USB flash drive from a Terminal on
    macOS</title>
    <orderedlist numeration="arabic" spacing="compact">
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Plug in the USB flash drive.
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Find the corresponding device with
          <literal>diskutil list</literal>. You can distinguish them by
          their size.
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Make sure all partitions on the device are properly unmounted.
          Replace <literal>diskX</literal> with your device (e.g.
          <literal>disk1</literal>).
        </para>
      </listitem>
    </orderedlist>
    <programlisting>
diskutil unmountDisk diskX
</programlisting>
    <orderedlist numeration="arabic" spacing="compact">
      <listitem override="4">
        <para>
          Then use the <literal>dd</literal> utility to write the image
          to the USB flash drive.
        </para>
      </listitem>
    </orderedlist>
    <programlisting>
sudo dd if=&lt;path-to-image&gt; of=/dev/rdiskX bs=4m
</programlisting>
    <para>
      After <literal>dd</literal> completes, a GUI dialog &quot;The disk
      you inserted was not readable by this computer&quot; will pop up,
      which can be ignored.
    </para>
    <note>
      <para>
        Using the 'raw' <literal>rdiskX</literal> device instead of
        <literal>diskX</literal> with dd completes in minutes instead of
        hours.
      </para>
    </note>
    <orderedlist numeration="arabic" spacing="compact">
      <listitem override="5">
        <para>
          Eject the disk when it is finished.
        </para>
      </listitem>
    </orderedlist>
    <programlisting>
diskutil eject /dev/diskX
</programlisting>
  </section>
</section>