How can the ‘toram’ functionality be used ?

[Member naaan]

Hi
I installed antix to a usb with persistance. That usb is slow and has terrible performance. So I wanna run the OS in RAM mode. Googling suggests the ‘toram’ option has to be added somewhere, but I can’t figure out where and how. When I boot with the new USB, do I have to change something on the GRUB screen ?
Please help
Thanks

• This topic was modified 2 years, 4 months ago by naaan.

[Member ModdIt]

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Hi naan, toram is an option,
I have only runit live version in front of me but should be same,
to go in to settings on your boot screen.
Press F4, in the then open options menu you can find a toram enable option button. Press to activate
If you want save that setting, you have an option button for that on boot screen too.

[Member Xecure]

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First make sure there is enough RAM.
If you are using standard dynamic persistence, the changes (persistence file) are being saved in RAM. If apart from that you are loading the whole OS in RAM, you may be find tha, as some point your system will be even slower because RAM is full and it is using swap.

If you are sure there is enough RAM, there are 2 different ways to add the toram option.

1. From the Live Boot screen.
A.If running in Legacy Bios, the screen will look like this:

The F4 menu will give you the toram option. Once selected, you can save the boot parameters with the F8 “Save” menu.
B. If running on UEFI systems, you need to write the boot parameter inside your Custom boot option. Move the selection to the Custom menu entry, hit the ‘e’ key and edit the line containing the boot parameters (third line). You need to add toram and menus=s
It could look similar to:
linux /antiX/vmlinuz quiet splash=v persist_root toram menus=s
When ready, hit F10 key and it will ask you if you want to save the boot changes. Select the “yes” option.

2. From inside the running antiX system.
Depending on if UEFI or Legacy Bios boot, you need to edit (with root privileges)
Legacy Bios: /live/boot-dev/boot/isolinux/isolinux.cfg and /live/boot-dev/boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg (and add the boot parameters there)
UEFI: /live/boot-dev/boot/grub/grub.cfg (and add the boot parameters to the Custom entry)

More info in:
https://antixlinuxfan.miraheze.org/wiki/AntiX_Live_System
https://antixlinuxfan.miraheze.org/wiki/Boot_Parameters

• This reply was modified 2 years, 4 months ago by Xecure. Reason: correcting EUFI keys

antiX Live system enthusiast.
General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.

[Member naaan]

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oh wow wasn’t expecting such fast replies
After installing to usb I only get a grub screen, not the screen to select options from these F4, F6 keys.
I’ll try modifying the boot parameters in the file /live/boot-dev/boot/grub/grub.cfg
Thanks so much

[Member naaan]

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hmm I didn’t find a /live dir . Instead added the ‘toram’ option to /boot/grub/grub.conf . It didn’t seem to have any noticeable effect. Is this not supposed to work with the grub usb install ? Is Live+persistence+toram possible or preferable ?
I have 16GB ram and am running the base version.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 4 months ago by naaan.

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Hi naan,
With 16 RAM you likely have a reasonably powerful device, it might be expedient to use a full version until you have found your way around.
As antiX has so many tools and possibilitys that takes a while.

maybe I have understood what is happening, persistence changes are indeed very slow to write especialy on shutdown more so when updates are done
but no immediate remaster, I would advise to not do too many changes at once without live remastering. On several occasions i managed to kill my stick.
You may get away with more than me as I have 8GB RAM so quicker to run out.

The massive slowdown is the downside of persistence. USB sticks usually slow down very quickly when the write cache is full.
A big factor is USB Stick and port. USB 1 and 2 are painfully slow. A fast writing USB stick is more expensive but makes a huge difference.

When I run live I have found saving files etc to a second stick to be expedient. Any bigger changes like updates or adding or removing packages,
just do a live remaster using the antix tool. The first boot is a bit slower as the root file system is rewritten. Second boot much faster as
nothing to be read from the persist.

I had a play with a cheap SSD in an external case as substitute for a usb stick, on a USB 3 port the performance was good. An old BIOS failed to
boot from that drive, my newer box did. Saving big files to that device was a magnitude faster than to any stick or SD card I tried, including san
disk pro. Booting nearly as fast as from internal SSD.

[Member Xecure]

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naaan wrote:

I have 16GB ram and am running the base version.

More than enough.

naaan wrote:

Instead added the ‘toram’ option to /boot/grub/grub.conf

That doesn’t work. Those options are only for installed systems.

naaan wrote:

hmm I didn’t find a /live dir .

You can still do it for the UEFI grub option in the boot screen, as I mentioned here:

Xecure wrote:

B. If running on UEFI systems, you need to write the boot parameter inside your Custom boot option. Move the selection to the Custom menu entry, hit the ‘e’ key and edit the line containing the boot parameters (third line). You need to add toram and menus=s
It could look similar to:

linux /antiX/vmlinuz quiet splash=v persist_root toram menus=s

When ready, hit F10 key and it will ask you if you want to save the boot changes. Select the “yes” option.

The menu is similar to this:

But the second option should be “Custom”. You need to add the parameters toram menus=s as described above.

antiX Live system enthusiast.
General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.

[Member naaan]

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@Xsecure I think I am in the wrong place with respect to the installation, because my boot menu screen is completely different to that picture. Mine looks like a standard grub menu . Like this, except its antix instead of ubuntu:

Here is how I installed. Loading iso into a bootable usb (easyboot). Booted from said USB into antix. Used ‘install’ shortcut to install antix onto another USB. During installation I selected the “install grub” and “enable persistance” options.
Then rebooted into the second USB, where I find the standard grub screen..
What can I do differently ?

[Member Xecure]

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That is not a live install. That is a normal install to a USB. Nothing to do with live or persistence.

To get the best out of the antiX live system, you need to use the live-usb-maker program from a live USB session (for example, with Easy2Boot you boot into antiX and then you use the live USB maker to clone the Easy2Boot live system to the other USB device).

If you have customized your USB install, use the ISO Snapshot (Control Centre > Maintenance > ISO Snapshot) to create a “copy” of your installed system to a live ISO. Make sure you select the option “Preserve accounts (for personal backup)”.
After creating the ISO, if you want to make that installed USB into a live USB, you need to move that iso to a separate usb and reboot using the E2B antiX live USB.

If you don’t want to preserve the changes on your installed USB, boot from your E2B antiX live system and launch Live USB Maker (Control Centre > Disks > Live USB Maker (gui).
Select the USB device where you want to “install” antiX live system and, either select to clone the current E2B live system or the ISO you created in the instructions above.

After finishing the process, if all goes well, reboot into your new live USB and go through the menus options “Customize Boot (text menus)”. Select language, timezone, etc, and most importantly, select the type of persistence you want (I recommend persist_root) and also the toram option when that pops up. Save all changes and then you will be running on a real Live persistence that loads everything to RAM.

Read more:
https://antixlinux.com/the-most-extensive-live-usb-on-the-planet/

antiX Live system enthusiast.
General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.

[Member naaan]

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I am really surprised and happy at the patient help I am getting here. My experience with linux communities hasn’t been great.
Thanks so much guys. I am gonna try the live-usb-maker and get back to you 🙂

[Member ModdIt]

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Hi naaan,
good to see Xecure helped, if you can spare the time some feedback on how you came to do a USB stick
install could help us improve guidance or documentation.

When you have the live stick running I hope you can see what my post was about. AntiX is amazingly
flexible. it does take a while to explore and get the best out of it though.

My experience with linux communities hasn’t been great. Not just you.
Bear with us if you are asked to read some documents or get a link list, that is not a rebuke, just this
is our free time, take it as encouragement to help yourself as far as possible then come back and ask
when you get stuck. That happens to all of us. Time and again 🙂

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