Suppose I am running Linux booted from a LiveCD using "aufs", would it somehow be possible to eject the CD?

I know that some LiveCD distros offer the possibility to eject the CD at boot time, e g Knoppix 5.1.1 has a 'toram' boot option. This causes the entire CD to be copied to RAM so there is no need for the CD to be mounted once Linux is up and running.

However, right now I am trying out MEPIS (SimplyMEPIS 8.0.06) as a LiveCD and it does not seem to have anything like the Knoppix 'toram' option.

It is my understanding that "aufs" lets me access the entire Linux filesystem as if it were on conventional readwrite storage. If I modify some file which is initially on the CD the modified copy will be placed in RAM.

So, given that I have sufficient RAM it should be possible to

- massively copy all files from the CD to RAM
- disconnect the physical readonly CD from the filesystem
- eject the disk

and the CD writer would be freed for other purposes.

Is there any way to actually do this? This could be a powerful option in `eject', don't you think?