the issue ---- Is there a TRUE REAL bootable usb stick , not an iso to burn to my 32GB usb stick and leaving all the remaining spaces unallocated and wasted?
details: ----
I have a desktop pc running ubuntu, now I want to install manjaro it.
I don't have an CD-drive on the pc, just like most of the others today. but I have a 32GB usb stick, which I used to copy photos, pictures, docs from other devices.
as what is described in the official manual, I can download the manjaro iso, burn it to my usb stick as ISO (so that it's bootable just like booting from CD drive). and it works ---- I mean, I got my manjaro installed in this way.
but, here comes the problem:
1, it turned my entire usb stick into a READ-ONLY ISO image! all the data on it got lost and I can no longer use it to copy data , the entire usb stick got turned into a READ-ONLY ISO which takes only 2.4GB of my 32GB usb stick, leaving all the remaining 27.8GB spaces unallocated and you know what, I cannot reuse it by creating partitions on it! ---- if I tried to create new partition on it, the usb mbr (or whatever the name is ---- I mean the very first sectors on the usb stick) got updated and the iso partition GONE! it simply cannot be both bootable and free for data-coping.
I think the root cause of the issue, is that, by nature, what manjaro provides, is a bootable-CD iso image for me to install from a CD-drive. it DOES NOT support booting from usb or harddisk.
but as I said at the begining, may of the users do not have a CD-drive on their pc, instead usb are well-supported.
so comes the solution on the official guide: burn the iso onto usb stick.
that works.
but, I mean, given usb is much more popular nowadays than CD-drive, why not provide TRUE bootable image (not iso) to write to ONE OF the partitions on the usb stick (with bootable information wrote to the very first sector just like a harddisk does). so that the rest part of the usb can be used.
why insisted on iso image.
not like Achmed - that's something with a bang attached.