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Old 11-01-2016, 11:35 PM   #1
zvivered
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x86 - running on RAM only


Hello,

I'm using vanilla 3.18.24 with busybox 1.24.2

Currently the grub, root file system (+bzImage) are burned on the SSD disk.

After boot completion, Linux can write\read from the SSD.

Is it possible to keep only the kernel and compressed image of root file system that will be extracted to RAM ?

Thank you,
Z.V
 
Old 11-02-2016, 04:33 AM   #2
business_kid
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Plenty of live distros can do that, although most would prefer a ramdisk as a root drive.

Tomsrtbt is/was a floppy distro that runs purely in ram. Tails likewise never writes to the root drive.
 
Old 11-02-2016, 08:55 AM   #3
IsaacKuo
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I have a blog tutorial explaining how to do this with Debian 8 Jessie:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...-jessie-37165/

The only things that are required on the boot drive are:

1) grub bootloader in MBR

2) ext2/3/4 partition with the following files:

grub.cfg
initrd.img-ramboot
vmlinuz-ramboot
image.tar.gz

How much RAM do you have? Depending on what software you wish to run, it would be best to have at least 2GB of RAM with this specific technique. This technique extracts the entire image.tar.gz into RAM in an uncompressed state - for simplicity and sheer speed.
 
Old 11-10-2016, 03:23 PM   #4
replica9000
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I've done this before in Debian. The method I used only required a small modification to the initrd, but the filesystem wasn't compressed in RAM.
 
Old 01-28-2017, 03:19 PM   #5
Xeratul
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Quote:
Originally Posted by zvivered View Post
Hello,

I'm using vanilla 3.18.24 with busybox 1.24.2

Currently the grub, root file system (+bzImage) are burned on the SSD disk.

After boot completion, Linux can write\read from the SSD.

Is it possible to keep only the kernel and compressed image of root file system that will be extracted to RAM ?

Thank you,
Z.V
compile your kernel and put live boot (debian/ubuntu)
do put the necessary modules, overtherweise it wont work.
and you can put into grub "live" and "toram" to tell the kernel you will load the "live" scripts for toram
 
Old 01-29-2017, 04:57 AM   #6
fatmac
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Frugal install is what you mean, I think, so check out any howtos about that.

(It's a long time since I've done it, so too rusty to describe the details.)
 
Old 01-30-2017, 01:02 PM   #7
Xeratul
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fatmac View Post
Frugal install is what you mean, I think, so check out any howtos about that.

(It's a long time since I've done it, so too rusty to describe the details.)
Frugal Install is only a single or two distro specific.

You probably mean toram or live, which are passed over boot parameter, isn't it?
 
Old 01-30-2017, 08:08 PM   #8
jefro
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There are a few terms to get either boot time option or full time for this ram running ability and some the documentation is not easy to find.

Not sure the OP even cares anymore.
 
Old 02-07-2017, 03:14 PM   #9
Xeratul
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jefro View Post
There are a few terms to get either boot time option or full time for this ram running ability and some the documentation is not easy to find.

Not sure the OP even cares anymore.
It is not that hard to do at all.

Linus made its kernel suited for this.

There is anyhow this package on Debian that you may keep in mind whiel compiling:
https://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=live-boot
 
  


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