Linux

Creating a full, bootable backup of a USB drive as an .iso or .img file is a critical task for IT professionals and tech enthusiasts. Whether you’re archiving a custom Windows installer, preserving a Linux live environment, or creating deployment images, a sector-by-sector clone ensures that the bootloader, partition table, and all data are perfectly preserved. This guide provides three reliable methods to clone a bootable USB drive, catering to different user preferences: the command-line power of PowerShell with WSL, the simplicity of a GUI tool on Windows, and the classic dd command on Linux. ...

In a modern Linux environment, it’s increasingly common to find both PowerShell (pwsh) and Bash installed on the same system. This provides a unique opportunity for system administrators and developers to leverage the strengths of both shells. You can use Bash for its powerful text-processing utilities and then pipe the results to PowerShell for its object-oriented data manipulation, or vice versa. This guide will walk you through the techniques for calling Bash from PowerShell and PowerShell from Bash, enabling you to create powerful, cross-shell automation scripts. ...

If you’re a user of the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), you might have noticed that when you plug in a USB flash drive, it doesn’t automatically appear in your Linux environment. Unlike your C: drive, which is typically mounted at /mnt/c, WSL does not automatically mount removable drives. Fortunately, accessing your USB drive from within WSL is a straightforward process. This guide will walk you through the two primary methods for mounting a USB drive in WSL2, from a simple drive letter mount to accessing the raw physical disk. ...

For decades, Bash (Bourne Again Shell) has been the undisputed king of the command line on Linux and other Unix-like systems. It’s powerful, ubiquitous, and has a rich ecosystem of tools built around it. However, with Microsoft open-sourcing PowerShell (pwsh) and making it fully cross-platform, a new contender has entered the Linux arena. So, which shell should you use? This guide provides a head-to-head comparison of PowerShell and Bash, exploring their fundamental differences in philosophy, syntax, and capabilities to help you choose the right tool for the job. ...

PowerShell is no longer just for Windows. As a powerful, open-source scripting language and shell, PowerShell (pwsh) is now fully supported on Linux, allowing you to manage cross-platform environments, automate tasks, and use a consistent scripting language across your entire infrastructure. This guide provides step-by-step instructions for installing PowerShell on the most popular Linux distributions, including Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, and Arch Linux. Why Install PowerShell on Linux? Cross-Platform Scripting: Write one script that can run on both Windows and Linux. Object-Oriented Shell: Unlike traditional text-based shells, PowerShell works with objects, making it easier to manipulate and manage data. Powerful Cmdlets: Leverage a rich ecosystem of cmdlets for managing systems, files, and services. Automation: Automate complex administrative tasks across a mixed-OS environment. Method 1: Installing on Debian and Ubuntu This is the most common method and is officially supported by Microsoft. We’ll use Ubuntu 22.04 as an example, but the steps are identical for recent versions of Debian and other Ubuntu derivatives. ...