How to Install balenaEtcher on Ubuntu 24.04 and 22.04

Writing install media with dd works until one mistyped device path wipes the wrong drive. That risk is exactly why many people install balenaEtcher on Ubuntu: its guided three-step workflow and post-write validation make USB and SD card jobs much harder to botch.

The current upstream .deb installs cleanly on Ubuntu 24.04 and 22.04. Ubuntu 26.04 is still blocked by stale dependency metadata in balenaEtcher’s package: the library is present, but the package name in the upstream .deb is still old. You can download the installer from any shell, but the application itself still needs an active graphical desktop session to open.

Install balenaEtcher on Ubuntu

balenaEtcher’s old Ubuntu repository is gone, so the supported Linux path is the official GitHub releases page and its current amd64 .deb package.

balenaEtcher 2.1.4 installs on Ubuntu 24.04 and 22.04. On Ubuntu 26.04, APT rejects the upstream .deb because its control file still asks for libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0. Resolute ships the same library under the renamed package libgdk-pixbuf-2.0-0, so the blocker is the outdated dependency name in balenaEtcher’s package metadata.

Update Ubuntu before installing balenaEtcher on Ubuntu

Refresh package metadata first so APT resolves the local .deb against current Ubuntu libraries.

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

These commands use sudo for tasks that need root privileges. If your account is not set up for sudo yet, follow the guide to add a new user to sudoers on Ubuntu.

Install curl on Ubuntu if it is missing

Ubuntu desktops usually already have curl, but minimal installs and reused virtual machines do not always include it. This workflow only needs curl, not both curl and wget.

sudo apt install -y curl

On Ubuntu 24.04 and 22.04, balenaEtcher also pulls libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0 from the Universe component. If APT later says that package is unavailable, enable Universe and Multiverse on Ubuntu first and then rerun the install.

Download the latest balenaEtcher .deb package on Ubuntu

This command asks GitHub for the newest balenaEtcher release and downloads the current amd64 .deb automatically, so you do not need to edit version numbers by hand.

curl -fsSL https://api.github.com/repos/balena-io/etcher/releases/latest | grep -oE '"browser_download_url": "[^"]+amd64[^"]*\.deb"' | head -n 1 | cut -d '"' -f4 | xargs -I{} curl -fLO --progress-bar "{}"

Confirm that the package landed in your current directory before you install it.

ls -1 balena-etcher_*.deb

balena-etcher_2.1.4_amd64.deb

Install the balenaEtcher package on Ubuntu

APT can install the local file directly and pull the two extra GTK-related packages that balenaEtcher still needs on Ubuntu 24.04 and 22.04.

sudo apt install -y ./balena-etcher_*.deb

The following additional packages will be installed:
  libgdk-pixbuf-xlib-2.0-0 libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  balena-etcher libgdk-pixbuf-xlib-2.0-0 libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0
Setting up balena-etcher (2.1.4) ...
chmod: cannot access '/opt/balenaEtcher/chrome-sandbox': No such file or directory

Verify the balenaEtcher install on Ubuntu

Check the installed version and the launcher path before you switch to the desktop.

apt-cache policy balena-etcher
command -v balena-etcher

balena-etcher:
  Installed: 2.1.4
  Candidate: 2.1.4
  Version table:
 *** 2.1.4 100
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
/usr/bin/balena-etcher

The /var/lib/dpkg/status entry is expected here because balenaEtcher was installed from a local .deb, not from a persistent APT repository.

Open balenaEtcher on Ubuntu

The package can be downloaded and installed over SSH, but the balenaEtcher window only opens from an active graphical session such as GNOME, KDE Plasma, or Xfce.

Open balenaEtcher from the applications menu on Ubuntu

Use your desktop launcher if you prefer to stay out of the terminal after the package is installed.

1. Open Activities or your desktop environment’s main applications menu.
2. Search for balenaEtcher.
3. Select the balenaEtcher icon to open the application.

Open balenaEtcher from a terminal on Ubuntu

If you are already inside the desktop session, the same launcher is available from a terminal.

balena-etcher

The window should open with the usual three steps: Flash from file, Select target, and Flash. A plain SSH shell will not show anything graphical until you switch to a local desktop or a remote GUI session.

Flash images safely with balenaEtcher on Ubuntu

balenaEtcher is simple once the image file is ready. Most mistakes come from choosing the wrong target drive or using Windows installation media that needs a different tool.

Confirm the target drive before flashing with balenaEtcher on Ubuntu

Check removable devices in a terminal before you click Flash. The TRAN column should show usb for a typical USB stick.

lsblk -o NAME,SIZE,TYPE,MODEL,TRAN

NAME     SIZE TYPE MODEL         TRAN
loop0      4K loop
loop1     74M loop
loop2  251.7M loop
loop3   16.4M loop
loop4   91.7M loop
loop5   10.8M loop
loop6  531.4M loop
loop7   18.5M loop
loop8   48.1M loop
loop9    576K loop
loop10 254.9M loop
sda      125G disk VBOX HARDDISK sata
├─sda1     1M part
└─sda2   125G part
sr0     1024M rom  VBOX CD-ROM   ata

When your USB stick is attached, you should see one more disk entry with TRAN set to usb. Stop immediately if the size does not match the drive you intend to erase.

Use WoeUSB instead of balenaEtcher for Windows installer media on Ubuntu

balenaEtcher writes images byte-for-byte, which works well for Linux ISOs and appliance images, but many Windows ISOs need extra boot-media handling. If your goal is a Windows installer USB, install WoeUSB on Ubuntu instead.

Troubleshoot balenaEtcher on Ubuntu

The common Ubuntu failures are the unresolved 26.04 dependency, the cosmetic chrome-sandbox warning during installation, and expecting the GUI to open from a plain SSH shell.

Fix balenaEtcher dependency errors on Ubuntu 26.04

The current balenaEtcher package is not ready for Resolute. Check the missing dependency directly.

apt-cache policy libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0

libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: (none)
  Version table:

That empty candidate is why APT refuses the stock package. Ubuntu 26.04 already has the replacement package libgdk-pixbuf-2.0-0, but the upstream .deb still depends on the older package name. The clean fix has to come from an updated upstream package, so for now use Ubuntu 24.04 or 22.04 for the documented install method.

Understand the chrome-sandbox warning when installing balenaEtcher on Ubuntu

APT currently prints this warning during the package setup stage.

chmod: cannot access '/opt/balenaEtcher/chrome-sandbox': No such file or directory

The package still installs chrome-sandbox under /usr/lib/balena-etcher/ and registers the normal /usr/bin/balena-etcher launcher. This warning comes from a stale post-install path reference, not from a failed installation.

Fix a missing balenaEtcher window on Ubuntu

If the command returns without opening a window, start balenaEtcher from an active desktop session instead of a plain SSH shell. Ubuntu 24.04 and 26.04 enable AppArmor’s unprivileged user namespace restriction by default. balenaEtcher does not ship a separate AppArmor profile in the package, so if you later see a sandbox-related terminal error, wait for an upstream fix instead of forcing unsupported --no-sandbox launch flags into the desktop entry.

Update balenaEtcher on Ubuntu

balenaEtcher no longer publishes an Ubuntu repository, so updates mean replacing the local .deb with the newest release. If you do not want to repeat the download command by hand each time, add a reusable updater to /usr/local/bin.

Create a balenaEtcher update script on Ubuntu

This script checks the installed version against the latest GitHub release and only downloads when there is something new. It works in a temporary directory and cleans up after itself.

Write the script to /usr/local/bin/update-balena-etcher.

sudo tee /usr/local/bin/update-balena-etcher > /dev/null <<'SCRIPT_EOF'
#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail

API_URL="https://api.github.com/repos/balena-io/etcher/releases/latest"
WORK_DIR=$(mktemp -d "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/balena-etcher-update.XXXXXX")
trap 'rm -rf "$WORK_DIR"' EXIT

for cmd in curl grep head cut sed apt-get sudo mktemp dpkg-query; do
  if ! command -v "$cmd" >/dev/null 2>&1; then
    echo "Missing required command: $cmd"
    exit 1
  fi
done

CURRENT_VERSION=$(dpkg-query -W -f='${Version}\n' balena-etcher 2>/dev/null || echo none)
DEB_URL=$(curl -fsSL "$API_URL" | grep -oE '"browser_download_url": "[^"]+amd64[^"]*\.deb"' | head -n1 | cut -d '"' -f4)

if [ -z "$DEB_URL" ]; then
  echo "Could not find the latest balenaEtcher amd64 .deb."
  exit 1
fi

DEB_FILE=${DEB_URL##*/}
LATEST_VERSION=$(printf '%s\n' "$DEB_FILE" | sed -E 's/^balena-etcher_([0-9.]+)_amd64\.deb$/\1/')

if [ -z "$LATEST_VERSION" ]; then
  echo "Could not parse the latest balenaEtcher version."
  exit 1
fi

echo "Installed version: $CURRENT_VERSION"
echo "Latest version: $LATEST_VERSION"

if [ "$CURRENT_VERSION" = "$LATEST_VERSION" ]; then
  echo "balenaEtcher is already up to date."
  exit 0
fi

cd "$WORK_DIR"
echo "Downloading $DEB_FILE..."
curl -fLO --progress-bar "$DEB_URL"

echo "Installing $DEB_FILE..."
sudo apt-get install -y "./$DEB_FILE"

NEW_VERSION=$(dpkg-query -W -f='${Version}\n' balena-etcher)
echo "balenaEtcher is now at version $NEW_VERSION."
SCRIPT_EOF

Make it executable so you can call it by name.

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/update-balena-etcher

Run this script manually whenever you want to check for a newer balenaEtcher release. Do not schedule it with cron or a systemd timer, because unattended package installs can interrupt desktop sessions or conflict with other APT operations.

Verify the balenaEtcher update command on Ubuntu

Because the updater lives in /usr/local/bin, you can run it from any directory once the shell can see that path.

command -v update-balena-etcher

/usr/local/bin/update-balena-etcher

Later, run update-balena-etcher as your regular user. The script only uses sudo for the final APT install step.

Remove balenaEtcher from Ubuntu

Remove the package first, then let APT clean up the small dependency set it added for balenaEtcher.

sudo apt remove -y balena-etcher

If APT marks libgdk-pixbuf-xlib-2.0-0 and libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0 as no longer needed, let autoremove clean them up.

sudo apt autoremove

Find balenaEtcher user data on Ubuntu before deleting it

balenaEtcher did not create any user-data directories before first launch on the validated SSH hosts, so check your own account for real leftovers instead of deleting a guessed path.

find "$HOME/.config" "$HOME/.cache" "$HOME/.local/share" "$HOME/.var/app" -maxdepth 1 -iname '*balena*' 2>/dev/null

Delete only the exact paths that the find command prints. If it prints nothing, balenaEtcher has not created per-user data for that account and there is nothing else to remove.

Verify balenaEtcher is removed from Ubuntu

Check that the package entry is gone after removal.

dpkg -l | grep balena

No output means the balenaEtcher package itself has been removed.

balenaEtcher on Ubuntu FAQ

Conclusion

balenaEtcher on Ubuntu 24.04 and 22.04 gives you a safer USB-writing workflow for Linux ISOs and IMG files, with validation built in after each flash. Keep WoeUSB on Ubuntu around for Windows installer media, and install GParted on Ubuntu if you also want to inspect or resize partitions after you write the drive.