How to Use Etcher AppImage on Ubuntu

What is Etcher?

Etcher is an open source, cross platform application from balena that is used to flash USB drives. It is a great tool for making bootable drives from ISO files etc. It is a downloadable, standalone portable application that can be run, on a Windows environment, by double clicking it. However, in a Linux system like Ubuntu, a couple of preparatory steps have to be done first.

The Different Packages

balena offers different types packages for Etcher. Windows users can download an installer or portable versions while Linux users are offered an AppImage.

Now, they also offer versions for packages for Debian (.deb) and Red Hat (.rpm) packages which can be downloaded from GitHub.

You can download the Etcher package from their website https://etcher.balena.io/#download-etcher or using the command line.

wget https://github.com/balena-io/etcher/releases/download/v1.18.11/balenaEtcher-1.18.11-x64.AppImage

What is an AppImage?

AppImage is a software deployment package used in Linux system that allows users to install an application without the need for superuser permissions. It’s main objective is to install the program without touching the underlying operating system. However, this means that unlike Windows, you need to prepare the package for use.

Preparing for an AppImage

In order to use an AppImage, your system requires Filesystem in Userspace or FUSE (for short) installed.

sudo apt install fuse libfuse2

You also have to make your AppImage an executable by using the chmod command

chmod +x balenaEtcher-1.18.11-x64.AppImage      

You can also do this using the GUI by right clicking on the file and changing the permissions. Once these steps are complete then you should be able to run Etcher or any AppImage file.

Running Etcher

To use your prepared Etcher package simply execute the file in command.

./balenaEtcher-1.18.11-x64.AppImage