Create a bootable usb stick from an ISO with OSX

It’s pretty easy to create a bootable usb stick with Snow Leopard. For example, I’m creating a bootable Ubuntu 10.10 server usb stick.

Plug your usb stick in and use diskutil to list your disks:
$ diskutil list

/dev/disk0 #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.1 GB disk0
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1
2: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD 499.8 GB disk0s2

/dev/disk1
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *2.0 GB disk1
1: Microsoft Basic Data UNTITLED 2.0 GB disk1s1

Now unmount the disk using diskutil and replace the disk number with the id of your usb stick.

$ diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk1

Then use dd to write to the usb stick. DOUBLE CHECK THAT YOU ARE USING THE CORRECT DISK ID!

dd if=/tmp/ubuntu-10.10-server-amd64.iso of=/dev/disk1

Replace if=/tmp/ubuntu-10.10-server-amd64.iso with the path to your iso image