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For a couple of months I have used Xubuntu 20.10 wich i boot from a Live USB. I have a computer with Windows 10, and some days I use hardware that only works in Windows so I need the hard drive for Windows. I do feel Xubuntu is a better OS when I need to use internet, so I made a live USB with Xubuntu 20.10 but created it from the "tool" Rufus wich i ran from Windows 10. That USB with Xubuntu 20.10 have worked very well, and to speed up the system and to increase life time for my USB-memory i often boot and use the parameter /( or boot option "toram" ). I did actually switch the expression "quiet splash" to the word "toram" and I could see that files was copied from the USB-memory to computers RAM. There was also a third good thing with this, The fact that I could use the USB-port for something else. I have now downloaded Xubuntu 21.04 and used Rufus to make a live USB with Xubuntu 21 ( just like I did with Xubuntu 20.10 ). But when i try too boot from the USB with Xubuntu 21 it never works with the option / parameter "toram". However it works to run Xbuntu 21 from this USB-memory without copying to RAM, i did try different ways to create the new live USB. First i told Rufus to write the iso with option iso, and then i tried the option dd, but none of them gave a USB-memory that worked with "toram".

Is there something I could do different when creating this USB that could give better chance to create a USB that also works with "toram" parameter, or is it meant that Xubuntu 21.04 should no longer work for live-sessions started with the "toram" boot-option ??? ( I have used this method successfully more than hundred times when I started Xubuntu 20.10 from a Live-USB, and with the same computer ).

Jh Hild
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  • FYI: I just booted a Ubuntu 21.04 media & tested toram (I grabbed the wrong thumb-drive), then did the same with Xubuntu 21.04 media & booted, ensured the thumb-drive was unmounted then ejected it. The system is still reliably working (I can open libreoffice draw or any other app without my media inserted) so it works. I can't recall how I wrote these thumb-drives, but it's usually mkusb or a dd command. Note: I removed quiet splash & the --maybe-ubiquity so I wasn't bothered by that. – guiverc Apr 25 '21 at 23:06
  • There is no Xubuntu 21; Ubuntu (and flavors) use yy releases only for snap based releases, and Xubuntu is a deb based system so uses the yy.mm format, ie. I tested Xubuntu 21.04 as there is no Xubuntu 21 (no snap only release). To this point in time, all desktop releases are yy.mm in format, as snap based releases are intended for headless operation (though a GUI/desktop can be installed as GNOME exists as a snap) – guiverc Apr 25 '21 at 23:07
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    My understanding is that it is not necessary to use toram with Xubuntu, that it boots to RAM by itself. https://askubuntu.com/questions/1291291/how-to-know-whether-xubuntu-is-running-on-ram-or-the-live-usb/1291350#1291350 – C.S.Cameron Apr 26 '21 at 01:44
  • I question that @C.S.Cameron .. I think you're mistaking cache with toram as I just booted Xubuntu 21.04 on a box, and I can't umount the drive (tons of open files exist to it as evidenced by lsof) and yanking it out is causing errors in dmesg [IO] I QA-test on boxes with RAM as little as 2GB yet it operates on those devices just as it does with larger ram boxes (same results for lsof) so I think you're mistaking cache with toram. (I must admit I get more apps opening than I expected.. so it's pre-loaded heaps into what I'm referring to as cache, maybe RAM size dependent?) – guiverc Apr 26 '21 at 02:06
  • @guiverc I did my experimenting with Xubuntu 20.04, my copy of 21.04 just finished downloading this morning. Did you read sudodus' conclusion? – C.S.Cameron Apr 26 '21 at 02:14
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    Thanks @C.S.Cameron .. with hirsute the media check occurs in the background.. so that would still pull the whole squashfs into RAM for testing (where it'll remain if you have enough RAM). The results likewise differ on box & RAM available... Thanks! – guiverc Apr 26 '21 at 02:22
  • @guiverc I am trying 21.04 now and notice that there is no file check every boot and thus every program is not initialized for RAM. I will try booting with fsck.mode=force to see if that makes a difference. – C.S.Cameron Apr 26 '21 at 04:21
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    The integrity check still occurs @C.S.Cameron but hirsute doesn't have the user wait for it to complete (many were skipping but then filing bugs due to squashfs errors still) ; it runs in the background as the user does things (background task). The integrity check is now 'hidden' unless the user really looks for it. – guiverc Apr 26 '21 at 04:23
  • I just booted with splash off and did not see anything, but it did take a while to boot. I wonder if adding fsck.mode=skip still keeps it from running? – C.S.Cameron Apr 26 '21 at 04:29
  • I have no idea sorry – guiverc Apr 26 '21 at 05:25

1 Answers1

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Rufus with 21.04

I understand Rufus 3.14 Beta is required with 21.04, it can be downloaded here: https://github.com/pbatard/rufus/releases .

I gave 21.04 a try with Ventoy and toram worked okay, but grub.cfg is not so easy to edit with Ventoy.

Rufus 3.14 worked for me with toram and default settings and Rufus' grub.cfg can be easily modified.

For more info see: error: symbol 'grub_register_command_lockdown' not found when installing Ubuntu 21.04 in BIOS mode

C.S.Cameron
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