Bug 231315

Summary:	Recommend using Etcher instead of Win32 Disk Imager for writing img to USB
Product:	Documentation	Reporter:	Rebecca Cran <bcran>
Component:	Books & Articles	Assignee:	freebsd-doc (Nobody) <doc>
Status:	Closed Works As Intended
Severity:	Affects Some People	CC:	danfe
Priority:	---
Version:	Latest
Hardware:	Any
OS:	Any

Description Rebecca Cran freebsd_committer

2018-09-12 02:30:04 UTC

Etcher - https://etcher.io/ - is an application that runs on Windows, macOS and Linux to "Flash OS images to SD cards & USB drives, safely and easily."

It might be easier for users to use Etcher instead of Win32 Disk Imager that's currently recommended on https://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/bsdinstall-pre.html in the section titled "Procedure 2.2. Using Windows® to Write the Image".

Comment 1 Alexey Dokuchaev freebsd_committer

2020-09-10 03:09:59 UTC

(In reply to Rebecca Cran from comment #0)
Are you seriously suggesting that instead of clean and simple ~100KB program Windows users should download some Electron/NodeJS-based ~150MB (balenaEtcher-Setup-1.5.45.exe) monstrosity just to flash the image?

I honestly don't see how's that any improvement.

Comment 2 Rebecca Cran freebsd_committer

2020-09-10 04:00:35 UTC

I've changed my mind on this!
There are security concerns around how much data is sent back to Balena, and as Alexey says it's overly complicated for what it does.

Comment 3 Rebecca Cran freebsd_committer

2020-09-10 04:00:57 UTC

Close this, since I no longer recommend people use Etcher.

Comment 4 Alexey Dokuchaev freebsd_committer

2020-09-10 04:09:28 UTC

(In reply to Rebecca Cran from comment #2)
> I've changed my mind on this!
Thank you. :-)