I have a live USB made with the standard Ubuntu disk image creator for 16.04 LTS. In the current state, I can boot to this disk, but it still requires the original USB to run properly at all times.
Attempting to pull the drive and use the system generates a large amount of I/O errors, further suggesting that the USB drive is actually needed for things not already loaded into RAM (For example, Firefox worked without the USB, but I used it once before already. apt, on the other hand, did not.)
Is there a way to copy the entire Ubuntu live disk to RAM, so I can remove the drive and free up a USB slot for other things?
Best Answer
You simply need to add the
toramboot parameter in GRUB.Here is how you can do that, tested (and screenshots taken) with an Ubuntu 16.04 64 bit desktop iso in a VM:
Boot in UEFI mode
Boot from the live DVD/USB and wait for the GRUB menu to appear.
Highlight
Try Ubuntu without installingusing ↑/↓ and then press E to edit the boot script.Search for the line starting with
linuxand add the optiontoramright after (or instead of)quiet splash, as depicted above. Then press F10 to boot the modified script.After Ubuntu has fully booted, you may eject/unmount the live DVD/USB device and continue using the system and all available programs.
Boot in BIOS/Legacy mode
Boot from the live DVD/USB and wait for the language selection boot menu to appear.
Select your language with ↑/↓ and confirm with Enter. The boot menu appears.
Use ↑/↓ to highlight
Try Ubuntu without installing.To make the editable
Boot Optionsline appear, press F6 followed by Esc to close the little pop-up.Then you can navigate the cursor in the
Boot Optionsline using ←/→. Search thequiet splashoptions and add thetoramoption after or instead of them, as depicted above.Boot the modified configuration by simply pressing Enter.
After Ubuntu has fully booted, you may eject/unmount the live DVD/USB device and continue using the system and all available programs.