8

I have a machine with 10 GB of RAM, and I would like to run Ubuntu on it (Debian also OK if its easier), fully in RAM in such a way: I boot from a compressed image on an USB flash disk, that is uncompressed into RAM, and then I can remove the disk from the USB slot, and use the system only with RAM, without any permanent disk.

Whenever I make any changes that I want permanent, I would put the flash disk back into the USB slot (possibly not the same one as I used initially to boot, as I would like to keep many versions of the boot flash disk), and run some command that would save the current state into a compressed image on the disk.

How can I set this up?

3
  • 1
    Heh I asked about this last year but didn't get anywhere. At this rate PCI-E x16 SSDs are going to be here and affordable before I've managed this.
    – Oli
    Nov 4, 2010 at 13:46
  • If you are still interested in this look into Casper, or Live-boot. Jul 4, 2014 at 21:05
  • Can you confirm that the answer works?
    – William
    Sep 3, 2015 at 19:21

2 Answers 2

8

It is not possible using the Ubuntu desktop CD to do this without keeping the USB disk inserted the entire time. However, given that you have a sufficient amount of RAM, you can use the toram casper option to copy the contents of the desktop CD into memory (by using a tmpfs).

Startup Disk Creator Startup Disk Creator will get you most of the way there. Just be sure to use the "stored in reserved extra space" option. Next, edit syslinux/txt.cfg in the resulting USB disk and put toram just before the -- in every append line except the one for "Check CD for defects."

0

Well, aren't live cds doing this already? I use finnix, which is debian based, a lot to do mainteinance, it can boot from CD (or USB), load itself completely into RAM and free the CD slot for use.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .