Arch Linux - rootfs in ram / boot to ram

Arch comes with some simple scripts for booting root fs into ram. liveroot takes only some simple configuration

First, install the package

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yaourt -S liveroot

This puts the required hooks into /usr/lib/initcpio

An example mkinitcpio.conf is placed into /usr/share/liveroot I modified the MODULES line as follows

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MODULES="zram ext2 btrfs overlay"

And to the HOOKS line I added encrypt and oroot - mine ends up looking like this

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HOOKS="base udev encrypt oroot autodetect modconf block filesystems keyboard fsck"

Finally, I added the oroot directive to the kernel options - mine are in refind.conf - I made this an additional option so I can boot normally for updates / adding software etc.

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menuentry "Arch Linux SSD to Ram" {
  loader vmlinuz-linux
  initrd initramfs-linux.img
  options "root=PARTUUID=0bac1068-0c23-4563-835d-7ada1e0ad1f0 oroot=live rw rootflags=subvol=@root add_efi_memmap"
}

To make this work nicely, /home is still mounted onto the disk and you could try mounting /var the same way.