Re: is it possible to install a custom initramfs USB bootable system?

I'm not sure why you would need to remove the USB Flash Drive. If your 
not adverse to leaving it plugged in these solutions already exist:

If you are determined to copy into RAM then it would be much easier to 
use a Live persistent Slackware variation such as GoblinX, Zenwalk Live, 
GUFI, Slax which can load into RAM and maintains the ability to save 
changes on a USB drive:
http://www.slax.org - or you can roll your own using the Linux Lived 
Scripts (http://www.linux-live.org).

On the Debian side, I'm still working on getting 5.0 to work with a 
persistent loop file on a USB Flash drive (hopefully I'll get a chance 
to play with it this coming week). However, I have had great success 
with Ubuntu updated editions:
http://on-disk.com/product_info.php/products_id/648


I hope this helps,
Todd


Miernik wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I have a computer with 10 GB of RAM, but no hard disks. I want to
> install Debian to make it work this way:
>
>  1. Debian is installed in RAM (maybe from PXE netboot)
>
>  2. with some command a compressed squashfs image is created of the
>     current system, and saved on an USB flash stick
>
>  3. the next time the system needs to be booted, it is booted from this
>     USB flash stick, fetched and uncompressed totally into RAM, and then
>     this flash stick is removed (it should not be needed for this stick
>     to stay inserted while the system works, only for boot)
>
>  4. when (after) the system is upgraded (in live initramfs), a command
>     (from point 2.) is run again to update the compressed squashfs image
>     on the USB stick
>
> Something similar to
> http://www.gentoo-wiki.info/HOWTO_VERY_small_Portage_Tree_with_SquashFS_and_UnionFS
> for Gentoo portage tree (but for the whole system).
>
> How can I achieve this setup?
>
> I've seen http://wiki.debian.org/DebianLive/Howto/USB
> http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/debian-live-devel/2007-September/002133.html
>
> Is RAMboot something I need to use?
>
> I would also like all programs to be executed in place (with XiP) and
> not copied into another portion of RAM for execution (which would be a
> waste of memory and time).
>
> Pointers for the most efficient way to go apprecieated.
>
>
>
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