diff --git a/packages/sysutils/busybox/scripts/init b/packages/sysutils/busybox/scripts/init
index 82090c6381..11cfa45283 100755
--- a/packages/sysutils/busybox/scripts/init
+++ b/packages/sysutils/busybox/scripts/init
@@ -55,6 +55,8 @@
   INSTALLED_MEMORY=`cat /proc/meminfo | grep 'MemTotal:' | awk '{print $2}'`
   SYSTEM_TORAM_LIMIT=1024000
 
+  LIVE="no"
+
   # hide kernel log messages on console
   echo '1 4 1 7' > /proc/sys/kernel/printk
 
@@ -129,6 +131,9 @@
       noram)
         SYSTEM_TORAM=no
         ;;
+      live)
+        LIVE=yes
+        ;;
       overlay)
         OVERLAY=yes
         ;;
@@ -491,6 +496,12 @@
   mount_storage() {
     progress "Mounting storage"
 
+    if [ "$LIVE" = "yes" ]; then
+      # mount tmpfs and exit early. disk=xx is not allowed in live mode
+      mount -t tmpfs none /storage
+      return
+    fi
+
     wakeonlan
 
     if [ -n "$disk" ]; then