pixelwash

Hi there, just a note about balenaEtcher, the software you recommend for burning the image onto the usb stick - big warning about it - it BRICKS new SAMSUNG USB sticks! I took this up with Balena, they flat out denied that it was possible for this to happen, claiming their software does not affect anything that could brick a usb device, They have an article on their website basically claiming they can do no wrong https://www.balena.io/blog/did-etcher-break-my-usb-sd-card/ but in the comments section of that article, many people have complained about the software bricking their Samsung USB drives. Looking on Samsung's site, they describe the fact that the firmware in their drives have a mechanism in them to attempt to detect any hardware problems in the drive, and it automatically write protects the device if this is found, to "protect data integrity", in other words, the Etcher software is falsely triggering this failsafe mechanism Samsung has built into their drives. My experience with this was that it ruined two brand new drives in direct succession attempting to write an Olarila image to them using Etcher software. The sequence is the Etcher throws an error at the end of the writing process, the image appears perfectly fine though on the drive, but the usb is irreversibly write-protected, so you can't edit the EFI partition. I contacted Samsung, and they said they are willing to then replace the drives under warranty, but only if you kept the receipt, which I hadn't. So I suggest you put a link up to an alternative software, and at the very least, warn people against using Samsung USB sticks with your guide.....