--- casper.orig	2008-10-21 11:23:00.590478209 +0100
+++ casper	2008-10-21 10:47:20.653906679 +0100
@@ -383,14 +383,21 @@
 
     # Looking for "${root_persistence}" device or file
     if [ -n "${PERSISTENT}" ]; then
-        cowprobe=$(find_cow_device "${root_persistence}")
-        if [ -b "${cowprobe}" ]; then
-            cowdevice=${cowprobe}
-            cow_fstype=$(get_fstype "${cowprobe}")
-	    cow_mountopt="rw,noatime"
-        else
-            [ "$quiet" != "y" ] && log_warning_msg "Unable to find the persistent medium"
-        fi
+        modprobe usb-storage
+        cow_tries=0
+        while [ $cow_tries -lt 5 ]; do
+            cowprobe=$(find_cow_device "${root_persistence}")
+            if [ -b "${cowprobe}" ]; then
+                cowdevice=${cowprobe}
+                cow_fstype=$(get_fstype "${cowprobe}")
+	        cow_mountopt="rw,noatime"
+                break
+            fi
+            [ "$quiet" != "y" ] && log_warning_msg "Unable to find the persistent medium - trying again in 5 seconds"
+            sleep 5
+            cow_tries=`expr $cow_tries + 1`
+       done 
+       [ "$quiet" != "y" -a "$cowdevice" = "tmpfs" ] && log_warning_msg "Giving up finding persistent medium"
     fi
 
     mount -t ${cow_fstype} -o ${cow_mountopt} ${cowdevice} /cow || panic "Can not mount $cowdevice on /cow"
t