If you would like to install extra packages on OpenWrt, but you have run out of space on your router’s internal flash memory, then this tutorial is for you.

The plan is to copy the OpenWrt’s root filesystem onto an external USB flash drive, and tell the router to switch to that when it boots up.

All you need is a standard USB flash drive, a USB capable router running OpenWrt, and about 30 mins.

Intro

If you’ve read some of the other articles on the site, you may have gathered that I have three RasPis doing useful things around my home:

• Pi #1 is running Raspbmc, an XBMC media centre port for the Raspberry Pi.
• Pi #2 is running this website plus an email server.
• Pi #3 is running the Dropbox replacement OwnCloud.

All three of these ran reasonably quickly out of the box, but because the Pi is such a low powered device, every little performance boost helps.

Having said that, this is no small improvement, and the performance gain is instantly apparent.