how can I create and mount a ram drive?

first create a ram drive using dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/ram0 count=2048( 1Meg size ) then format it using your fs, for eg mke2fs -m0 /dev/ram0 Then mount you ram drive on any directory say /rd using the command mkdir /rd mount /dev/ram0 /rd -o loop That should do it

Or, if you have tmpfs compiled into your kernel (or as a module) use mount -t tmpfs tmpfs /mnt/wherever This will create a ramdisk with half of you physical memory (but it doesn't get used until you copy stuff there). You can change this though, look at the mount manpage for tmpfs options. I use tmpfs as my /tmp, by putting this line in fstab tmpfs /tmp tmpfs defaults 0 0 I find it works very well, and even speeds up compiles a little. If you do this, (I think) tmpfs can't be a module, but now that I mention it, I might be wrong..., and in fact I think I am!