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



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).

Is Debian Live the right way to go, or maybe there is a better method to
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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