Woeusb error 256

Edit 6: a major edit

Now we talk about the github version of woeusb

The github version is at 5.1.3 and works in Ubuntu 20.04.x LTS (and 18.04.x LTS, probably all current versions of Ubuntu, but I have not tested them).

PPA version of woeusb deprecated

Please be aware that the woeusb PPA version at ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8 is deprecated (works in Ubuntu 18.04.x LTS but fails in 20.04.x LTS). Today (2021-11-07) it is at version 3.3.1 (dated 2020-02-13).

Test

• From the WoeUSB github I downloaded and tested woeusb-5.1.3.bash as well as the version in the tarball. They differ only in the line specifying the version. So I used the separate version with explicit version number.

• I used the command line

  sudo ./woeusb-5.1.3.bash --target-filesystem NTFS --device Windows11.iso /dev/sdx
  

• wimlib-imagex was not found, and woeusb quit. It can be installed from the repository universe with the command

  sudo apt install wimtools
  

  It is needed, when installing into a FAT32 file system in order to split the huge install.wim file, but when selecting NTFS, the installation should continue without wimtools. That way the WoeUSB bash shellscript will work without wimtools (but it wants an internet connection in order to get uefi-ntfs.img).

• The USB drive with Windows installer

  • created in 18.04.6 LTS and 20.04.3 LTS
  • boots both
    • in UEFI mode (also with secure boot) and
    • in BIOS mode (alias CSM alias legacy mode).

end of Edit 6

I tested the current woeusb from the PPA (running a persistent live Lubuntu 18.04.1 LTS), and the following command lines work for me.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
sudo apt update
sudo apt install woeusb

sudo woeusb --target-filesystem NTFS --device path/windows.iso /dev/sdx

In my case the iso file was in /media/lubuntu/usbdata/images/ and the target device was /dev/sdb, but in your case check carefully that you will write to the intended drive (avoid destroying valuable data in some other drive),

sudo woeusb --target-filesystem NTFS --device /media/lubuntu/usbdata/images/windows.iso /dev/sdb

Notice that all partitions on the target device must be unmounted.

The created USB boot drive has a small FAT partition (for UEFI boot) and a big NTFS partition with the Windows files. It can install Windows both in BIOS and UEFI mode with woeusb 3.2.10.1 (dated 2018-09-19 (Sept 19 2018) in the PPA).

Using NTFS makes it is possible to use file size > 4 GiB. The size of install.wim is

• smaller than 4 GiB in some of Microsoft’s own iso files, for example in

• Win10_1809Oct_Swedish_x64.iso

       $ <<<'scale=3;4274234443/2^30' bc
       3.980                              # < 4 GiB
  

• greater than 4 GiB for some iso files for particular computers, OEM, but also in several of Microsoft’s own iso files, for example

• Win10_1809Oct_English_x64.iso

       $ <<<'scale=3;4396229344/2^30' bc
       4.094                              # > 4 GiB
  

• Win10_1809Oct_EnglishInternational_x64.iso

       $ <<<'scale=3;4386496792/2^30' bc
       4.085
  

• Win10_1809Oct_German_x64.iso

       $ <<<'scale=3;4401709065/2^30' bc
       4.099
  

• Win10_1809Oct_Spanish_x64.iso

       $ <<<'scale=3;4404104344/2^30' bc
       4.101
  

There is also a GUI version woeusbgui. I don’t think is has the option to create a target drive with a FAT file system for UEFI plus an NTFS filesystem, so I would recommend using the command line version woeusb.

Edit 1:

You can do it yourself with detailed help at

help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/iso2usb/diy/windows-installer-for-big-files

This method works in both BIOS and UEFI mode and also with secure boot. (But in most cases it should be possible to turn off secure boot, use the drive created by woeusb, and turn on secure boot again.)

Edit 2:

Thanks @John for your comment that there should be no space character in the source file name. If there is you can rename the file, and then woeusb works.

Thanks @qbit. This did not solve my problem but your idea of a parsing
error helped me to realize that it does not like having a space in the
source filename. That got me to move one step forward.

Edit 3:

There is a problem in Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.

$ LANG=C sudo apt install woeusb
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 woeusb : Depends: libwxgtk3.0-0v5 (>= 3.0.4+dfsg) but it is not installable
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

Until this problem with woeusb is solved, you can use mkusb-plug according to this link:

help.ubuntu.com/community/mkusb/plug

The tool mkusb-tow of mkusb-plug is now available also via dus (mkusb version 12.5.6). See this link

mkusb 12.5.6 with new installer for Windows

Edit 4:

A set of workaround commands for woeusb in Ubuntu 20.04 LTS is described in the following link,

NTFS partition service issue with creating Windows 10 bootable USB on Ubuntu

Edit 5:

Today (2021-10-16) I tested that mkusb can create working installer drives from a Windows 11 iso file.

Добрый вечер, при создании загрузочной флешки Windows 10 в Woeusb под Linux Mint 20.2 Uma выдаёт ошибку. Насколько я понял, ошибка состоит в том, что на носителе недостаточно свободного места в связи с чем преждевременно заканчивает создание загрузочного диска, но при этом флешку использую объёмом 64 Гб. Вот текст ошибки:

Installation failed!
Exit code: 256
Log:
WoeUSB v3.3.1
==============================
Mounting source filesystem…
Wiping all existing partition table and filesystem signatures in /dev/sdc…
/dev/sdc: 2 байта стёрто по смещению 0x000001fe (dos): 55 aa
/dev/sdc: calling ioctl to re-read partition table: Выполнено
Ensure that /dev/sdc is really wiped…
Creating new partition table on /dev/sdc…
Creating target partition…
Making system realize that partition table has changed…
Wait 3 seconds for block device nodes to populate…
Cluster size has been automatically set to 4096 bytes.
Creating NTFS volume structures.
mkntfs completed successfully. Have a nice day.
—2021-10-29 22:06:40— https://github.com/pbatard/rufus/raw/master/res/ue…
Распознаётся github.com (github.com)… 140.82.121.4
Подключение к github.com (github.com)|140.82.121.4|:443… pulse
соединение установлено.
HTTP-запрос отправлен. Ожидание ответа… pulse
302 Found
Адрес: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pbatard/rufus/ma… [переход]
—2021-10-29 22:06:40— https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pbatard/rufus/ma…
Распознаётся raw.githubusercontent.com (raw.githubusercontent.com)… 185.199.110.133, 185.199.111.133, 185.199.108.133, …
Подключение к raw.githubusercontent.com (raw.githubusercontent.com)|185.199.110.133|:443… pulse
соединение установлено.
HTTP-запрос отправлен. Ожидание ответа… pulse
200 OK
Длина: 1048576 (1,0M) [application/octet-stream]
Сохранение в каталог: ««/tmp/WoeUSB.rUdbeU.tempdir/uefi-ntfs.img»».
0K ………. ………. ………. ………pulse
. ………. 4% 727K 1s
50K ………. ………. ………. ………. …..pulse
….. 9% 848K 1s
100K ………. ………. ………. ………. ………. 14% 2,96M 1s
150K ………pulse
. ………. ………. ………. ………. 19% 4,04M 1s
200K ………. ………. ………. ………. ………. 24% 1,36M 1s
250K ………. ………. ………. ………. ……pulse
…. 29% 5,65M 0s
300K ………. ………. ………. ………. ………. 34% 6,05M 0s
350K ………. ………. ………. ………. ………. 39% 6,69M 0s
400K ………. ………. ………. ………. ………. 43% 7,87M 0s
450K ………. ………. ………. ………. ………. 48% 7,82M 0s
500K ………. .pulse
……… ………. ………. ………. 53% 1,91M 0s
550K ………. ………. ………. ………. ………. 58% 10,1M 0s
600K ………. ………. ………. ………. ………. 63% 11,1M 0s
650K ………. ………. ………. ………. ………. 68% 10,0M 0s
700K ………. ………. ………. ………. ………. 73% 11,4M 0s
750K ………. ………. ………. ………. ………. 78% 11,5M 0s
800K ………. ………. ………. ………. ………. 83% 11,6M 0s
850K ………. ………. ………. ………. ………. 87% 10,3M 0s
900K ………. ………. ………. ………. ………. 92% 11,6M 0s
950K ………. ………. ………. ………. ………. 97% 11,9M 0s
1000K ………. ………. …. 100% 13,3M=0,3s
2021-10-29 22:06:41 (3,38 MB/s) — «/tmp/WoeUSB.rUdbeU.tempdir/uefi-ntfs.img» сохранён [1048576/1048576]
dd: запись в ‘/dev/sdc2’: На устройстве не осталось свободного места
1025+0 записей получено
1024+0 записей отправлено
524288 байт (524 kB, 512 KiB) скопирован, 0,0682348 s, 7,7 MB/s
The command «dd if=»${download_directory}/uefi-ntfs.img» of=»${uefi_ntfs_partition}»» failed with exit status «1», program is prematurely aborted
Unmounting and removing «/media/woeusb_source_1635534382_5428″…
You may now safely detach the target device

Пожалуйста помогите решить проблему. Заранее спасибо