How to create a larger casper-rw loop file

The following tutorial explains how to create a larger casper-rw loop file for your Ubuntu based flash drive install. For example: Ubuntu, Xubuntu, Kubuntu, Crunchbang or Linux Mint. A larger casper-rw loop file is particularly useful for those who have performed a Linux install to a large thumb drive using a Windows USB tutorial and need more persistent storage space for saving changes. The default casper-rw loop file used in the Windows USB installation tutorials is only 1GB.

Notes: You will need to perform the following steps from a booted Linux system other than the USB Linux installation. I typically boot from the Live CD and then (once the system is up and running)  insert the USB flash drive that contains my Linux install and small casper-rw.

Warning: Block file size must be less than < 4096 MB on a fat32 formatted flash drive due to the 4GB file size limitation of a fat32 partition.

Creating a larger casper-rw loop file for saving changes

1. After your up and running in Linux, insert the flash drive that contains your casper-rw file
2. Type dd if=/dev/zero of=casper-rw bs=1M count=1024
   (replacing 1024 with the "size in MB" you wish to use for saving changes persistently)
3. Type mkfs.ext3 -F casper-rw
4. Copy the new casper-rw file to your USB flash drive
5. Restart your computer, booting from the USB flash drive and enjoy the expanded storage for saving changes

Posted under: Using and Configuring Linux