Popsicle is a free and open-source USB file flasher for parallelly flashing multiple USB devices. It has a simple, themeable user interface with a straightforward workflow that makes it convenient to use. Popsicle also supports USB 2 and USB 3 devices to which it can write ISO and IMG image types. It has the ability to verify ISO images with MD5 checksum or SHA256.
We’ve covered several flashing tools for creating bootable USB sticks such as WoeUSB, ISO Image Writer, Gnome Multi-Writer, Unetbootin, and Etcher, Popsicle takes the award for ease of use – and that is even when compared to Multisystem, a command-line tool for flashing multiple drives at once. Added to its feature list is the fact that it is the only official USB flashing tool available on Pop!_OS.
Features in Popsicle
- Simple, themeable graphical user interface.
- Usable from the command line.
- Supports USB 2 and USB 3.
- Parallel writing (write to multiple USB devices at once).
- Free and open-source with the source code available on GitHub.
- Verify ISO images with the SHA256 or MD5 checksum.
- Write ISO or IMG image types.
- Available on GNU/Linux.
- The only flashing tool for Pop!_OS.
- Written in Rust and GTK.
- Source code available on GitHub.
How to Popsic Multiple USB Creator on Linux
Popsicle ships preinstalled with Ubuntu-based distro, Pop!_OS. If you’re running Ubuntu or any of its derivatives, install the flashing tool with the following commands:
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:system76/pop
$ sudo apt install popsicle popsicle-gtk
$ sudo add-apt-repository -r ppa:system76/pop
The last command is important as it removes the PPA and prevents constant pop!_OS version alerts. When you want to update Popsicle to a later version, simply add the PPA repository again.
Using Popsicle
Popsicle is as easy to use as the other flashing software mentioned above and even easier to use than others. Connect the flash drives that you want to format and launch Popsicle.
From the main window, click to choose the image you want to flash and the drive(s) you want to make bootable. Hit next, and voila. Wait a few minutes and you should be ready to make a clean installation on your chosen machine.
See Also: MultiCD – A Shell Script to Combine Multiple Bootable ISO’s into One CD
Have you used Popsicle yet? Do you know another USB flashing utility tool that is as good as it is? Feel free to share your experience with us in the comments section below.
