I stopped copying ISOs to my Ventoy drive because this free tool lets me boot operating systems over the network
A lightweight approach that replaces local ISOs with on-demand network booting to reclaim Ventoy space and simplify installs.
In the past, installing operating systems required downloading ISO files and writing them to USB drives using tools like Rufus. However, Ventoy simplifies the process by allowing multiple ISO files for various operating systems and tools on a single bootable USB drive. One user has a Ventoy drive with ten useful tools and ISO files of commonly used operating systems, but this isn't without limitations due to storage space constraints.
Ventoy's capacity is 28GB, with Ubuntu, Windows 11, Windows 10, and two MX Linux distributions consuming most of it. While a larger drive could be purchased, storage space is better utilized for a leaner Ventoy drive focused on essential tools and OS installations.
An alternative to Ventoy is network booting via tools like netboot.xyz, which uses iPXE to fetch installers, live environments, and resources for multiple operating systems. The user successfully uses netboot.xyz on their Ventoy drive, eliminating the need for numerous ISO files and freeing up storage. Network booting can be configured using the Ventoy drive's GUI interface and CLI version.
Configuring the network connection manually may be required, including specifying IP address, subnet mask, DNS, and gateway settings. Once configured, the tool's interface presents four categories: booting from the local HDD, a distribution category listing Linux distributions and other live environments, tools such as GParted, MemTest86+, Clonezilla, and ShredOS, and a download URL for Windows installations.
Using netboot.xyz for mainstream distributions like Debian, Ubuntu, and Fedora saves significant storage space, which can be used for live persistence or other purposes. The user prefers downloading ISOs from netboot.xyz's sources to ensure they have the latest versions. Though network booting might take longer than standard installations due to file transfers and resource copying, it provides flexibility and convenience for various installation scenarios.
Written by urgent.news from XDA Developers's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
