Installing Ventoy from NixOS

A while ago I needed to format my USB key, but after this needed to install Ventoy back on it.

Previously I was using Windows as my primary desktop OS, but I’m still slowly (very slowly) moving everything over to NixOS.

So, without further ado; here’s how I installed Ventoy on a USB stick from NixOS. This guide assumes you’re using bash, if not; you can enter a bash shell with bash.

The Ventoy package currently is considered insecure on NixOS so you’ll need to allow the installation of insecure packages before you begin, but then it’s just a case of installing it via nix-shell.

export NIXPKGS_ALLOW_INSECURE=1
nix-shell -p ventoy

With that installed, you can now check over your drives, and install on sdc (replacing this with your USB key device):

lsblk --fs
sudo ventoy -i /dev/sdc

After this, check that it’s correctly installed with sudo ventory -l /dev/sdc

Now, you can add your images to make this newly installed USB key actually useful:

lsblk --fs
sudo mount /dev/sdc1 /mnt/usb
sudo mv *.iso /mnt/usb/ -vin
sudo umount /mnt/usb