diff --git a/elements/ramdisk/README.md b/elements/ramdisk/README.md
index 3cf6d58a3..3b3c7ae4a 100644
--- a/elements/ramdisk/README.md
+++ b/elements/ramdisk/README.md
@@ -10,5 +10,7 @@ and scripts need to be injected into a ramdisk that will fetch and apply a
 machine image to local disks. That tooling/scripting customisation can be
 easily applied in a repeatable and automatable way, using this element.
 
+NOTE: ramdisks require 1GB minimum memory on the machines they are booting.
+
 See the top-level README.md of the project, for more information about the
 mechanisms available to a ramdisk element.
diff --git a/elements/ubuntu/root.d/10-cache-ubuntu-tarball b/elements/ubuntu/root.d/10-cache-ubuntu-tarball
index 99a52da7d..a5d683867 100755
--- a/elements/ubuntu/root.d/10-cache-ubuntu-tarball
+++ b/elements/ubuntu/root.d/10-cache-ubuntu-tarball
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ set -o pipefail
 shopt -s extglob
 
 DIB_CLOUD_IMAGES=${DIB_CLOUD_IMAGES:-http://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/}
-DIB_RELEASE=${DIB_RELEASE:-saucy}
+DIB_RELEASE=${DIB_RELEASE:-trusty}
 BASE_IMAGE_FILE=${BASE_IMAGE_FILE:-$DIB_RELEASE-server-cloudimg-$ARCH-root.tar.gz}
 SHA256SUMS=${SHA256SUMS:-https://${DIB_CLOUD_IMAGES##http?(s)://}/$DIB_RELEASE/current/SHA256SUMS}
 CACHED_FILE=$DIB_IMAGE_CACHE/$BASE_IMAGE_FILE