Ubuntu – Instruct Ubuntu to boot to RAM from flash drive using unetbootin

bootlive-usbunetbootin

I have used UNetbootin to create an installable / live bootable flash drive from Ubuntu 12.04. However that didn't preserve the normal Ubuntu boot menu which allows to me to enter advanced options. It has a custom menu that I can pick from predefined choices like "Install Ubuntu" and "Try Ubuntu without installing". What I would like is to be able to boot from the USB flash drive, but then be able to remove it from the computer once the desktop has loaded. The laptop I would like to use this on does not have an optical (CD/DVD) drive – nor do I have a USB version available.

What do I need to modify on the flash drive to add an option to "Try Ubuntu (RAM)" that passes the TORAM=yes parameter to the initrd options? Are their other things I need to touch/change as well? Is it even possible? I am not restricted to version 12.04 if that makes a difference.

Bonus: I would guess the answer would also allow for other options like acpi=off as well, but if it is different I would appreciate having that answer too.

Best Answer

I hit tab and replaced quiet splash with toram. Do not use TORAM=yes, just use toram. This worked for both Ubuntu and Mint, although some versions of Mint needed toram -- toram. Hope this helps as I am doing some modifications along these lines.

Example of my modded syslinux.cfg:

initrd=/ubninit file=/cdrom/preseed/linuxmint.seed boot=casper toram --

You may add whatever other flags between toram and --, but keep in mind some may crash your system.

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