A while back I stopped using optical disks for making GNU/Linux live disks.
They are bulky and wasteful, especially the non-rewritable ones. Initially I
used third-party tools like UNetbootin, but then I discovered I could use the
built-in Disks utility, by selecting my USB, choosing 'Restore image', and
choosing the .ISO file I want to make a live disk from.
This worked fine for a while, but then I started to hit weird errors where I
couldn't restore an image on a USB I'd already used as a live disk, and
couldn't fully remove the partitions the restore process created. I found a
solution here:
https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2256873
"Change sdX to correct drive, sdb, sdg etc. Double and triple check you have
typed the correct letter a it will erase boot & partition table of the drive
you specify. Any typo then creates major issues.
Zero out MBR only, chang sdX to correct drive, erases both boot code and
partition table.
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX bs=512 count=1"
This seems to reset the partition table, allowing me to create a new
partition, and restore another image. If anyone knows how to avoid triggering
this problem in the first place, please share your knowledge here.
