🔥 Flicker

A modern, fast, and safe USB bootable drive creator for Linux, written in Rust 🦀

Flicker is a Rufus alternative for Linux that allows you to easily create bootable USB drives from ISO images. Built with Rust for maximum safety, performance, and reliability.

✨ Features

• 🔍 Smart USB Detection - Automatically detects and lists USB devices
• 🚀 Fast Writing - Optimized 4MB chunk writes for maximum performance
• 🛡️ Safety First - Multiple validations and confirmations to prevent data loss
• 📊 Real-time Progress - Beautiful progress bars with ETA and speed
• ✅ Data Verification - Optional byte-by-byte verification after writing
• 🔓 Auto Unmount - Automatically unmounts devices before writing
• 💻 CLI Interface - Simple and intuitive command-line interface
• ⚡ Zero Dependencies - Single binary, no external tools required

📦 Installation

From Source

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/vimi-tt/Flicker.git
cd Flicker

# Build release version
cargo build --release

# Install to system
sudo cp target/release/flicker /usr/local/bin/

# Verify installation
flicker --version

Requirements

• Rust 1.70 or higher
• Linux kernel 3.0+
• Root privileges (for writing to devices)

🚀 Quick Start

1. List available USB devices

flicker list

Output:

📀 Available USB devices:

  /dev/sdb - SanDisk Ultra (14.92 GB)
  /dev/sdc - Kingston DataTraveler (29.84 GB)

2. Write ISO to USB

sudo flicker write --iso ubuntu-24.04.iso --device /dev/sdb

3. Write with verification (recommended)

sudo flicker write --iso ubuntu-24.04.iso --device /dev/sdb --verify

📖 Usage

Commands

list - List USB devices

# Simple list
flicker list

# Detailed information
flicker list --verbose
flicker list -v

write - Write ISO to USB

sudo flicker write --iso <ISO_FILE> --device <DEVICE> [OPTIONS]

Options:

• --iso, -i <FILE> - Path to ISO file (required)
• --device, -d <DEVICE> - Target device path (required)
• --verify, -v - Verify data after writing
• --yes, -y - Skip confirmation prompts

Examples:

# Basic write
sudo flicker write --iso debian.iso --device /dev/sdb

# With verification (recommended for important data)
sudo flicker write --iso ubuntu.iso --device /dev/sdb --verify

# Skip confirmation (use with caution!)
sudo flicker write --iso arch.iso --device /dev/sdb --yes

# Short flags
sudo flicker write -i ubuntu.iso -d /dev/sdb -v

verify - Verify ISO checksum

flicker verify --iso <FILE> [--checksum <HASH>]

Note: Checksum verification is planned for future release

Complete Workflow Example

# Step 1: List devices to identify your USB
flicker list -v

# Step 2: Write ISO with verification
sudo flicker write \
    --iso ~/Downloads/ubuntu-24.04-desktop-amd64.iso \
    --device /dev/sdb \
    --verify

# Step 3: Done! Safely remove your USB

🔒 Safety Features

Flicker includes multiple safety checks to prevent accidental data loss:

1. Root Permission Check - Ensures proper privileges
2. ISO Validation - Verifies file exists and is valid
3. Device Validation - Confirms device exists and is a block device
4. USB Detection - Warns if target is not a removable device
5. Size Check - Ensures ISO fits on device
6. Mount Check - Auto-unmounts mounted partitions
7. Confirmation Prompts - Multiple confirmations before writing
8. Verification - Optional byte-by-byte verification

🛠️ Development

Project Structure

flicker/
├── src/
│   ├── main.rs          # Entry point
│   ├── cli/             # CLI argument parsing
│   │   └── mod.rs
│   ├── usb/             # USB device detection
│   │   └── mod.rs
│   ├── writer/          # ISO writing logic
│   │   └── mod.rs
│   └── utils.rs         # Helper functions
├── docs/                # Documentation
├── Cargo.toml           # Project configuration
└── README.md

Building from Source

# Development build (faster compilation)
cargo build

# Release build (optimized)
cargo build --release

# Run tests
cargo test

# Run with logging
RUST_LOG=debug cargo run -- list -v

# Check code without building
cargo check

# Format code
cargo fmt

# Run linter
cargo clippy

📋 Roadmap

✅ Beta 1 (Current)

• USB device detection
• ISO writing with progress
• Data verification
• Auto-unmounting
• Safety validations

🚧 Beta 2 (Planned)

• ISO checksum verification (SHA256, MD5)
• Multi-device support (write to multiple USBs)
• Resume interrupted writes
• GUI version (optional)

🐛 Troubleshooting

"Permission denied"

# Always use sudo for writing
sudo flicker write --iso file.iso --device /dev/sdb

"Device not found"

# List devices to find correct path
flicker list -v

# Check with system tools
lsblk

"ISO file not found"

# Use absolute path
sudo flicker write --iso /home/user/Downloads/ubuntu.iso --device /dev/sdb

# Or relative with ~
sudo flicker write --iso ~/Downloads/ubuntu.iso --device /dev/sdb

"Verification failed"

Possible causes:

• Faulty USB device
• USB disconnected during write
• Bad ISO file

Solutions:

• Try another USB device
• Verify ISO checksum
• Re-download ISO file

For more help, see docs/COMMAND_WRITE.md

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

🙏 Acknowledgments

• Inspired by Rufus (Windows)
• Built with Rust 🦀
• Uses clap for CLI parsing
• Uses indicatif for progress bars

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Flicker - Making bootable USB creation simple, fast, and safe on Linux