Skip to main content
  1. Blog
  2. Article

Canonical
on 9 March 2010

OS X Ubuntu USB Creator

Design programming
I've spent some time attempting to make a Cocoa that lets you burn an Ubuntu ISO to a USB memory stick on OS X.

I think I've got as far as I'm gonna get with it now, sadly.


How far I got...

  • The UI is pretty concise
  • A USB stick gets detected when plugged in
  • The right signal is sent to the dd process and parses the progress for the progress bar
Major outstanding issues

  • It's really SLOW. I'm not familiar with how the dd command line utility works -- people keep talking about 'eraseblocks' and suchlike and my eyes glaze over..
  • It doesn't detect and inform the user when the write is complete
  • It doesn't seem to create a bootable device
  • I can't see how to automatically remount a device after I've unmounted it with diskutil
  • I'm not amazingly confident that once I've detected the device a volume resides on I'm not then going to end up destroying all the data on the wrong drive 
The project is on Launchpad here: https://code.launchpad.net/~michaelforrest/ubuntuusbcreator-osx/trunk

It would be pretty awesome if you were able to help out.  
source: mikebuntu.blogger.com


Related posts

Miguel Divo
22 May 2026

Decoding design: How design and engineering thrive together in open source

Design Design

Open source thrives on engineering-driven processes. Fast feedback loops, terminal tools, Git workflows: they’re the lifeblood of how we build software in the open. But for software to truly excel, we need to create user experiences that empower people to use them. I wanted to bring this conversation into the spotlight as part of Canonica ...

Johann Wolf
27 April 2026

Why Web Engineering is great

Ubuntu Article

Like many software engineers, one of my first software development experiences started with creating my own web page. Since that time 20+ years ago, a lot has changed in the web landscape. Having worked a lot in web since then, I’d like to take a moment to reflect on what I think makes web great! ...

Miguel Divo
13 February 2026

From inspiration to impact: design students from Regent’s University London explore open design for their dissertation projects

Design Article

Last year, we had the opportunity to speak at Regent’s UX Conference (Regent’s University London’s conference to showcase UX work by staff, students, and alumni), where we engaged with students to make them aware of open design and their ability to contribute design skills to open source projects. The talk sparked great discussion, and we ...