Docker-boot – Run a system from RAM without LiveCD
How often do you screw up the system so much you have to reformat the disk (without losing data) to fix it? Well, sometimes I do, and sometimes I can't be bothered to burn a live ISO onto a USB stick. There's initramfs, but it's hardly a pleasant environment, with network configuration and all. My go-to solution has typically been to create a chroot with busybox and a few utilities in /tmp, chroot into it, and then kill services that use the solid drive so that I can unmount it. That's an error-prone process, and sometimes systemd itself uses disk, so you can't unmount the drive despite…
In plain words
Docker-boot enables users to run a complete system environment from RAM without needing to create a LiveCD or USB stick. It uses Docker images as a base to create a customizable chroot environment, automatically handling the complex process of shutting down all userland processes to safely unmount the disk. This tool is designed for system administrators and developers who need to perform disk repairs or reformatting while preserving data, offering a simpler alternative to manual initramfs setup.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
In the maker’s words, at launch
How often do you screw up the system so much you have to reformat the disk (without losing data) to fix it? Well, sometimes I do, and sometimes I can't be bothered to burn a live ISO onto a USB stick. There's initramfs, but it's hardly a pleasant environment, with network configuration and all. My go-to solution has typically been to create a chroot with busybox and a few utilities in /tmp, chroot into it, and then kill services that use the solid drive so that I can unmount it. That's an error-prone process, and sometimes systemd itself uses disk, so you can't unmount the drive despite killing all the userland but PID 1. This script improves the UX. It uses a Docker image as the chroot base, which is much easier to tailor to your needs, and automagically commits all the atrocities, such as tearing down all the userland processes, including PID 1, and re-spawning the host system from the container filesystem. It also drives libostree and Nix users mad, because it can be used to try out a new DE or even a whole OS without polluting the host filesystem or spawning a virtual machine. The video in the README shows me trying out KDE + SDDM from a host running GNOME + GDM3.
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