⚡ Spark

Flash OS images to SD cards & USB drives — fast, clean, zero telemetry.

Download · Features · Build · Contribute

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What is Spark?

Spark is a fork of balenaEtcher with all telemetry, marketing and auto-update pings completely removed. It's built for sysadmins and power users who flash drives every day and want a tool that respects their privacy.

Spark vs balenaEtcher

	balenaEtcher	Spark
Sentry crash reporting	✅ ON	❌ Removed
Mixpanel analytics	✅ ON	❌ Removed
Marketing webview (64% of window)	✅ Shown	❌ Removed
Auto-update pinging home	✅ Every 5 min	❌ Removed
Works offline	❌ Hangs	✅ Fully offline
Ubuntu 24.04 .deb install	❌ Broken	✅ Fixed
Cancel confirmation	❌ Instant	✅ Asks first
SHA256 checksum verification	❌	✅ Auto-detect
Keyboard shortcuts	❌	✅ Ctrl+O, Ctrl+,
zstd image support	❌	✅
Modern dark UI	❌	✅

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✨ Features

Core 🔥 Flash .img .iso .gz .xz .bz2 .zst .zip and more 🎯 Multi-target — write to several drives at once ✅ Byte-for-byte verification after every flash 🔐 SHA256 checksum — auto-detects .sha256sum files 🗂️ Drive cloning — copy one drive to another ⚡ Blockmapping — skip empty blocks for faster writes

Quality of life 🎨 Modern dark theme — deep navy with amber accents ⌨️ Keyboard shortcuts — Ctrl+O, Ctrl+,, Esc 🔇 Zero network traffic — fully offline 🔔 Desktop notifications on completion ⏱️ Elapsed time on the finish screen 🛡️ Cancel dialog prevents accidental abort ⚙️ Rich settings — 7 toggles organized in sections

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📥 Install

Windows

1. Download Spark-3.0.0 Setup.exe from Releases
2. Run the installer
3. Launch Spark from the Start Menu

Windows may show a SmartScreen warning for unsigned builds — click More info → Run anyway.

Linux

# Debian / Ubuntu
sudo apt install ./spark_3.0.0_amd64.deb

# Portable (any distro)
unzip Spark-linux-x64-3.0.0.zip -d spark && cd spark && ./spark

macOS

1. Download .dmg from Releases
2. Drag Spark to Applications
3. First launch: right-click → Open to bypass Gatekeeper

→ All downloads →

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⌨️ Keyboard shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+O / ⌘O	Open image file
Ctrl+, / ⌘,	Open settings
Esc	Close dialog / settings

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🔧 Build from source

Requirements: Node.js ≥ 20, npm, git

git clone https://github.com/sparkflash-dev/spark.git
cd spark
npm install

Command	What it does
npm start	Dev mode with live reload
npx electron-forge make	Build installer for current platform
npx electron-forge make --targets @electron-forge/maker-zip	Portable ZIP only

Tip: After pulling new changes, run rm -rf .webpack before npm start to clear the webpack cache.

Output lands in out/make/.

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🗺️ Roadmap

✅ Done (v2.1.4 → v3.0.0)

• Remove all telemetry, analytics, marketing webviews
• Complete rebrand — Spark logo, colors, all strings
• Modern dark theme (deep navy #1a1a2e, amber/red accents, Inter font)
• SHA256 checksum auto-verification from .sha256sum files
• Improved error messages with troubleshooting tips
• Keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl+O, Ctrl+,, Esc)
• Expanded settings panel (7 options in 3 sections + shortcuts reference)
• Cancel confirmation dialog
• Elapsed time on finish screen
• zstd / .zst image support
• Fix Ubuntu 24.04 .deb install
• Fix requestMetadata race condition (#4150)
• WebSocket input validation & XSS fixes

🔜 Next (v3.1+)

• Bundle size reduction (target < 100 MB)
• Faster writes — direct I/O, parallel verification
• Resume interrupted writes
• Windows ISO support (MBR/GPT, UEFI/Legacy)
• Persistent storage for Linux live USBs
• CLI mode — spark flash --image ubuntu.iso --drive /dev/sdb
• Drive backup / clone to .img file
• Multi-boot (Ventoy-style)
• Localization — Japanese, Korean, German, French, Spanish, Russian

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🤝 Contributing

Contributions welcome — bug fixes, translations, tests, features.

git checkout -b fix/my-bug-fix
# Make changes, then:
npx tsc --noEmit   # must pass
npm run prettify    # auto-format
# Open a pull request against main

See CONTRIBUTING.md for the full guide.

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📜 License

Apache 2.0

Original work © 2016–2023 Balena Ltd Modifications © 2024–2026 Spark contributors

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Made with ⚡ by the Spark community