I'm trying to format a USB stick as FAT32 so I can use UNetbootin to create a bootable drive for installing a Linux distribution. The stick has been used successfully for this before, but GParted currently shows the FAT32 option as disabled. What is missing, and how can I enable the option or format the drive properly?
2 Answers
Another option is Ventoy. It lets you install Ventoy to the USB once, then copy Linux ISO files directly onto the drive and choose which one to boot. This avoids repeatedly reformatting the stick, though it works differently from UNetbootin.
Make sure the FAT filesystem tools are installed. On many Linux systems, GParted relies on the dosfstools package to create FAT32 filesystems. After installing it, restart GParted or reopen the formatting menu, and the FAT32 option should be available.
That fixed it—after installing the package, FAT32 became available in GParted. Thanks!
That sounds useful for trying multiple distributions in the future.