Can't make casper-rw loop persistence file greater than 2.0 GB-Ubuntu 9.04

[pi.boy.travis]

OK, yeah, it's a limitation, I think it's been filed as a bug already (I updated one that was saying it wasn't persistent with the reason why). Here's what I've done for my (16GB) flash drive, which I almost like more. I make a two partition flash drive. The first partition is as large as I can make it minus 1.72GB (this is the size that the live portion of the flash drive + 1GB of persistence for settings, programs, etc), and make the 2nd partition 1.72GB. Basically, what this allows me to do is, when I plug my flash drive into a windows computer, as I often do for transferring files, the ~13GB drive mounts properly, and is isolated from the Ubuntu partition (windows can only see the first partition of a flash drive, and this actually kind of works well for us). When you're starting up the PC however, you can still boot to the flash drive, and (for me on a couple of dell machines, at least) it will boot to the 2nd partition, where you will have 1GB persistence as well as full access to the 1st(data) partition. (I haven't played around with it yet, but you could probably even set your account's home directory to be on the data segment, keeping all data there, and all settings/programs in the persistence area). Basically this allows you to have full access to your files anywhere, instead of them being contained in the persistence area.

NOTE: THIS (AS FAR AS I KNOW) ONLY WORKS WITH THE UBUNTU FLASH DRIVE CREATOR. (I KNOW you can't boot to the 2nd partition with the Fedora Live USB creator (regardless if you're putting Ubuntu/Fedora on the drive), and I can't confirm if this works with any other creators.

Max

That is a really fantastic idea! I'll do that until a fix is released. By the looks of the bug page, the install script that the builder uses just has to be tweaked. Too bad I don't know Python. . .

[max.goedjen]

Yeah, it's been working really well for me, better than if I'd have been able to create a 15GB persistence file. It just works like a regular flash drive until you need to boot into it, and even then, easy access to all your files on both ends.

[ljk]

OK, yeah, it's a limitation, I think it's been filed as a bug already (I updated one that was saying it wasn't persistent with the reason why). Here's what I've done for my (16GB) flash drive, which I almost like more. I make a two partition flash drive. The first partition is as large as I can make it minus 1.72GB (this is the size that the live portion of the flash drive + 1GB of persistence for settings, programs, etc), and make the 2nd partition 1.72GB. Basically, what this allows me to do is, when I plug my flash drive into a windows computer, as I often do for transferring files, the ~13GB drive mounts properly, and is isolated from the Ubuntu partition (windows can only see the first partition of a flash drive, and this actually kind of works well for us). When you're starting up the PC however, you can still boot to the flash drive, and (for me on a couple of dell machines, at least) it will boot to the 2nd partition, where you will have 1GB persistence as well as full access to the 1st(data) partition. (I haven't played around with it yet, but you could probably even set your account's home directory to be on the data segment, keeping all data there, and all settings/programs in the persistence area). Basically this allows you to have full access to your files anywhere, instead of them being contained in the persistence area.

NOTE: THIS (AS FAR AS I KNOW) ONLY WORKS WITH THE UBUNTU FLASH DRIVE CREATOR. (I KNOW you can't boot to the 2nd partition with the Fedora Live USB creator (regardless if you're putting Ubuntu/Fedora on the drive), and I can't confirm if this works with any other creators.

Max

Thanks for the advice. I'm not that concerned about using the USB flash drive for anything other than a portable Ubuntu system so I tried again but selected 1.9 GB as the size of the Documents & Settings section, without partioning the drive, but the result was catastrophic.

I'll try once more but I'll follow your workaround to the letter next time.

Thanks.

[67GTA]

I have just found the bug in Launchpad. I am going to try to use one of the suggested workarounds and report back.

Can you give a link for the bug report? This is bugging me also. I wasn't thinking the other day, and tried to download a DVD image (4.2GB) to my Jaunty USB, and it stopped at 3.5GB. Then I remembered the fat32
limitation. It would be better to lets users choose their own filesystem instead of defaulting to fat32.

[pi.boy.travis]

Can you give a link for the bug report? This is bugging me also. I wasn't thinking the other day, and tried to download a DVD image (4.2GB) to my Jaunty USB, and it stopped at 3.5GB. Then I remembered the fat32
limitation. It would be better to lets users choose their own filesystem instead of defaulting to fat32.

No problem. There are a few of them, as there are several bugs that result in this behavior.


https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...or/+bug/352766
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...or/+bug/352766
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...or/+bug/352766

[debernardis]

I make a two partition flash drive.

Great, man! Simple and effective!

This is now the new setup for my Sandisk Extreme Cruzer Contour 16GB drive with Jaunty. It's a very quick stick, advertised as 25MB/s reading, 18 MB/s writing.
I'll update the flash drives I've done for my friends, too.

I have also a small (about 600 megs) partition on that stick, formatted as linux swap, for those MS Win-based host machines without one.