nixos manual: recommend use of dd for writing the image

Unetbootin works by altering the image and placing a boot loader on it.
For this reason, it cannot work with UEFI and the installation guides
for other distributions (incl. Debian and Fedora) recommend against
using it.

Since dd writes the image verbatim to the drive, and not just the files,
it is not necessary to change the label after using it for UEFI
installations.

vcunat: tiny changes to the PR. Close #14139.

1 files changed, 12 insertions, 4 deletions

diff --git a/nixos/doc/manual/installation/installing-usb.xml b/nixos/doc/manual/installation/installing-usb.xml
index 5def6e8753fe..a4b5dafbed16 100644
--- a/nixos/doc/manual/installation/installing-usb.xml
+++ b/nixos/doc/manual/installation/installing-usb.xml
@@ -7,10 +7,18 @@
 <title>Booting from a USB Drive</title>
 
 <para>For systems without CD drive, the NixOS live CD can be booted from
-a USB stick. For non-UEFI installations,
-<link xlink:href="http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/">unetbootin</link>
-will work. For UEFI installations, you should mount the ISO, copy its contents
-verbatim to your drive, then either:
+a USB stick. You can use the <command>dd</command> utility to write the image:
+<command>dd if=<replaceable>path-to-image</replaceable>
+of=<replaceable>/dev/sdb</replaceable></command>. Be careful about specifying the
+correct drive; you can use the <command>lsblk</command> command to get a list of
+block devices.</para>
+
+<para>The <command>dd</command> utility will write the image verbatim to the drive,
+making it the recommended option for both UEFI and non-UEFI installations. For
+non-UEFI installations, you can alternatively use
+<link xlink:href="http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/">unetbootin</link>. If you
+cannot use <command>dd</command> for a UEFI installation, you can also mount the
+ISO, copy its contents verbatim to your drive, then either:
 
 <itemizedlist>
   <listitem>