I think I’m turning green! 
ahahah 
true.
Dear dalto,
It is indeed fixed. I updated my computers this morning (June 2, 2020) as I always do and everything, including balena-etcher, upgraded correctly.
Thank you very much for your information and help.
Lawrence
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I just installed popsicle (actually popsicle-git).
Obviously it works via the Terminal. But can you tell me exactly how to use it (the syntax to add/select an image file and a USB drive)? Most times, with programs used via the command line, I can figure it out but sometimes I cannot. This looks to be one of those times.
Thanks.
Lawrence
I didn’t even know you could use it via the terminal. I have been using the GUI 
Let me see if I can figure it out.
OK, it is pretty simple via the CLI if you prefer that. It works like this
sudo popsicle /path/to/iso /path/to/device
A practical example might look like this:
sudo popsicle -u ~/Downloads/eos.iso /dev/sdm
The -u tells it to unmount the target device. Probably useful in case it was automounted by something.
Thanks for replying to me about using the program via the command line.
I installed the program but I do not have, nor could I find, any GUI. How would I get that?
Lawrence
It should show up in the menu like any other program.
If it didn’t, try logging out and back in.
https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?sort=&q=etcher&maintainer=&flagged=
There is no package at arch repo 
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Well, it doesn’t. But your instructions show how to use it in the command line. I do not need to flash USB drives very often. When I do, I’ll try to stick with balena-etcher. If I have further trouble with that program at a time when I do need to flash a drive, then I’ll try popsicle via the command line.
Thank you.
Lawrence
You can launch the GUI via the terminal with popsicle-pkexec. That being said, it is odd that it doesn’t show up. Which DE are you using?
2 Likes
I just tried your command and it works perfectly. I am using the standard Xfce DE. My system was installed back in July 2019 and, other than adding (quite a number of) programs and deleting some along the way, I have made no changes to the actual system as it was originally installed.
I update the system once a day, each morning (Eastern Time in North America) and, other than a few relatively minor problems (such as this one with balena-etcher), everything has continued to work perfectly.
I don’t understand why I don’t have a GUI for popsicle in my menu. I even activated alacarte (“Main Menu”) and checked to see if a GUI were hidden within anything but it was not.
Nonetheless, your command and its fine and its easy to use.
Thank you very much for all of your help.
Lawrence
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I installed it as well (just to see what the fuss is about ) and don’t seem to have a related .desktop file as well. It appeares in my app launcher though, under the name USB Flasher (on Plasma).
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Oh! I bet that is the issue. It is in the menu as “USB Flasher” so if you are looking for popsicle you might not see it.
It should be in /usr/share/applications/com.system76.Popsicle.desktop
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HA! That’s it! I’m using the Xfce DE and it appears under Applications/System/USB Flasher.
Thanks very much.
Lawrence
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Ah… Well hidden I wasn’t grepping for capital letters. It’s here, you are right.
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This grep option is quite useful at times.
-i, --ignore-case
Ignore case distinctions in patterns and input data, so that
characters that differ only in case match each other.
Pudge
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So IF i do a sudo pacman -Rsnc etcher
it will remove ALL of etcher’s spyware?
Going to give Popsicle & mintstick a go. Thanks!
Sure, that will solve the problem as long as the name of the package you installed was etcher. It could also be balena-etcher or etcher-bin. Just make sure you don’t end up taking too much by accident.
The only thing it does is that it calls out to a website to get ads which triggers all their tracking stuff. It isn’t like it installs a keylogger. I don’t like what it does and won’t use it as a result but uninstalling it is more than sufficient to solve the problem.
1 Like