I have created a USB drive with a linux mint install that has all the apps I need.
I would like to send an ISO file to my co worker so he can make the exact USB drive.
How do I create an ISO file with the partition table so I can send a single ISO to him?

Thank you!

Well. Folks used to use Filezilla a bunch. Which Mint has in it's repos.

Me? I am too lazy. Plus I don't run into this scenario so much. I just copy and paste my downloaded iso and send it using

https://www.sendspace.com/

It is pretty simple to use.

In case I misunderstood.

https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=292382

I can get it to him, but how do I make a bootable ISO from the USB stick?

Welcome to LQ,

You already do have a bootable USB drive.

For me, the easier thing to do would be to just clone USB to USB. I usually just use dd, as in:That will make an exact copy of what you do have and it will be the same, a bootable USB drive. In fact, you can test it out and confirm this. Only minor caveat is that you should not use a smaller sized USB drive than the source, and a minor quirk I've noticed is that not all (example) 8 Gig drives are the same, some have a few more or less bits available. But recommend you just try it with same or greater sized USB drive and it should work fine.

A different option is to try Clonezilla. I've never used it, but I see it touted by a lot of people. I don't know if it can deal with some few bytes of size difference for disk manufacturing tolerances.

Yes, and I want to create a bootable ISO from it so my coworker can create an identical USB. DD will make the ISO file, but there is no partition table. How do I include the partition table so that he has a bootable USB once he loads the ISO??? He's not sitting in the office next to mine, or I would just give him a stick. I want to transfer the entire ISO. I have the means to do the transfer, just need to make a BOOTABLE ISO file.

You took steps to install Linux Mint onto a USB and it was successful.
Repeat those exact steps onto a different USB. Then give that USB to your co-worker.

What do you mean by partition table?
What do you want your co-worker's Linux Mint USB to do which is different to your Linux Mint USB?

Yes.
I'm sure that would be very convenient.

Send your co-worker an email of the simple basic steps you took to make a bootable Linux Mint USB.
A bootable Linux Mint USB cannot be emailed to another USB.

Each Linux distro on a computer must perform the DD command with a .iso file (preferably gpg verified) to install a bootable Linux distro onto the USB.
The Linux distro on USB cannot be emailed.

A usb drive doesn't always have a partition table. When you buy them, they are usually formatted with the whole drive as one big vfat partition, so no table is necessary. So what happens when you copy an install image onto one? I think an old-fashioned CD iso/hybrid image will still end up as a single partition, but an image designed to boot in native UEFI mode will not. In my experience, these will boot with GRUB and have a separate EFI partition and another with the software on it. And that kind of drive will have a partition table.

Is the USB stick bootable?

If it is then a simple "dd if=/dev/sdb of=path/to/file.iso bs=32M " (assuming the USB is /dev/sdb) will create an iso that is an exact copy of what is on the USB. Then that file can be sent and he can recreate a bootable USB for his use.

The iso will contain all the partition table and other data on your USB so when he puts it on the new USB it will "just work". He will have to use a USB that is equal in size to the image you create or larger.

This is essentially what is done when the iso image for the installer is created to make the bootable image you used to do the install.

If it is not bootable then I have no clue how to make it bootable, although the creation of the iso image is the same.

result: The source is bootable. I used the dd command below, and get the result in the photo when i use balena etcher to try to build a drive from the file.

Attached Thumbnails

 

And what happens when you click continue?

I get a USB stick that won't boot.

I think you likely need to use a 'live' distro to build an .iso file of your installation.

Use mkisofs, (or equivalent), then run isohybrid against the resulting .iso file, then you should be able to image write it, (using dd), to another pendrive.

Need some more information.

Is this a live version with persistence or a "normal" installation?

Are you trying to image the drive on the same system that is currently running? If so that is probably the reason it isn't working.

Also make sure the destination USB drive is not mounted prior to running etcher.

Thank you, all!
I figured it out. As I was entering the location of the source, I was adding the partition number, which meant it would not copy the partition table.

Thanks!

The command I gave you was for the device, not the partition. Please read carefully.