diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index 87943acc..bba941c7 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 livecd-rootfs (1.153) UNRELEASED; urgency=low
 
   * Update default suite in BuildLiveCD to natty.
+  * Use --force-unsafe-io for all dpkg operations.  If we crash we'll just
+    destroy the chroot and start from scratch, so syncing is pointless.
 
  -- Colin Watson <cjwatson@ubuntu.com>  Fri, 03 Dec 2010 16:36:55 +0000
 
diff --git a/livecd.sh b/livecd.sh
index c7bc9b0a..64e8f25a 100755
--- a/livecd.sh
+++ b/livecd.sh
@@ -239,6 +239,11 @@ for FS in "$@"; do
         mount -t tmpfs -o size=8192M tmpfs ${ROOT} && echo using tmpfs
     fi
 
+    mkdir -p ${ROOT}etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg.d
+    cat << @@EOF > ${ROOT}etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg.d/livecd-rootfs
+force-unsafe-io
+@@EOF
+
     mkdir -p ${ROOT}var/cache/debconf
     cat << @@EOF > ${ROOT}var/cache/debconf/config.dat
 Name: debconf/frontend
@@ -719,6 +724,8 @@ Pin-Priority: 550
     # And now that we're done messing with debconf, destroy the backup files:
     rm -f ${ROOT}/var/cache/debconf/*-old
 
+    rm -f ${ROOT}/etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg.d/livecd-rootfs
+
     # show the size of directories in /usr/share/doc
     checkpoint "Checking size of /usr/share/doc"
     echo BEGIN docdirs