Make bootable USB stick

To make a bootable USB stick of a Linux distro:

Download an ISO image of your preferred Linux distro
Insert the USB key and unmount it
Copy IMG to USB key using dd (see instructions below)

Using `dd` on Linux

Find out the name of your USB drive with lsblk. Make sure that it is not mounted.

lsblk

Run the following command, replacing /dev/sdx with your drive, e.g. /dev/sdb. (Do NOT append a partition number, so do NOT use something like /dev/sdb1)

sudo dd bs=4M if=/path/to/archlinux.iso of=/dev/sdx status=progress && sync

Wait for the command sync to complete before unplugging the USB drive to ensure the data was written completely.

See Core utilities#dd and the ArchLinux Wiki for more information.

Using `dd` on OSX

# get the device name on OSX
diskutil list 
# use the appropriate device name; do not use partition!!!
sudo dd if=file.img of=/dev/sdc bs=4M

Stack Exchange and Tinned Software propose a different solution for OSX in which the ISO image is first converted to a DMG using hdiutils.

Make bootable USB stick

Using dd on Linux

Using dd on OSX

Using `dd` on Linux

Using `dd` on OSX