Bug#775826: www.debian.org: [CD/faq] discourage use of unetbootin
On Wed 21 Jan 2015 at 00:35:27 +1100, Stuart Prescott wrote:
> In #775689 and #775814, there has been discussion about the need to clarify
> for users that unetbootin is a poor choice of utility for copying an installer
> image onto a USB stick.
The last thing that the official Debian documentation wants to do is get
into the business of recommending or not recommending software to use
with Windows. No matter what your feelings or mine are about Unetbootin,
it is unsupported (and unsupportable) for the use we are talking about.
If someone were to do a wiki page, that would be a different matter.
Expressing an opinion there would not have the force which comes with
it being accessed in the Manual or the CD FAQ.
> In the CD/faq [1], "How do I write a CD image to a USB flash drive?" suggests
> that the user could use win32diskimager if not yet running a suitable GNU/Linux
> distribution. It would be good to add to that paragraph a note that unetbootin
> is best avoided for this task. Something like:
>
> The unetbootin utility is not suited to this task.
When I had access to various Windows systems I found win32diskimager
reliable; it would get my personal seal of approval. Unetbootin would
not, but that is because it failed to display the syslinux boot menu.
Singling out one piece of software for disapproval is not unreasonable.
But it has to be done in the right place and context and, preferably, be
indisputable.
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