ISO images are files containing the complete content of optical media (CD/DVD). To taka a look into ISO images you do not have to burn CDs/DVDs. Linux contains all required tools and features to attach ISO images to your Linux system as if you would have inserted an optical medium to your Linux box.

This aticle illustrates how to mount ISO images under Linux.

Overview

Most Linux distributions are installed with auto-mounters precoanfigured. When inserting a DVD it will be mounted automatically and contents of this medium will be made available in your local filesystem.

When trying to access contents of ISO images auto-mounters are of no use, because you do not handle physical media. But if you are running graphical desktop environments there are frontends available, that will mount ISO images on-the-fly or contents of your ISO file will be made accessible by opening the ISO image within archive managers.

When you are running a system without GUI support you have the opportunity to mount ISO images by utilizing the command line.

Mounting ISO Images

Graphical Desktops

The following screenshots illustrate how to open an ISO image by utilizing a graphical desktop environment. They are taken from a desktop powered by Gnome. Other distributions and desktop mangers may integrate the same feature by utilizing similar approaches, e.g. by double-clicking the ISO file.

The utilized Gnome desktop is part of Ubuntu 10.10. To access contents of an ISO file there are a number of opportunties…

First of all open the file manager and go to the directory containing the ISO file.

Then right-click the ISO file and depending on installed system extensions you will get a list of available options. The following context menu contains a number of entries that could be of interest.

• Archive Manager: If you are interested in accessing the ISO file like a ZIP file, then try to use this entry. The Archive Manager opens the file and enables you to browse and extract contents of the ISO file like a file manager.
• Archive Mounter: If you are required to integrate contents of the ISO file into your filesystem you can mount the ISO image. After mounting the ISO file all contents will be made available via a new folder, that has been added to your Desktop automatically.
• Other Application: When there are custom tools available to open the ISO file, then choose this menu item.
• Extract Here: This is your chance to extract all contents of the ISO file and store it to you local filesystem.

Command Line Tools

There are a number of command line tools available to access contents of ISO files. This article will illustrate how to access contents of your ISO file by utilizing two of the major tools. Both of them will mount the ISO files and contents will be made available as part of your local filesystem.

Mount

For mounting filesystems you are required to have administrative privileges available. The following command line statements will mount and unmount ISO files.

# crate a folder to act as mount point$ mount my-mount-point # mount the ISO image$ sudo mount -o loop ubuntu_natty-alternate-amd64.iso my-mount-point/ # take a look into the ISO file$ ls my-mount-point/boot          dists  efi      isolinux    pics  preseed             ubuntucdromupgrade  doc    install  md5sum.txt  pool  README.diskdefines # unmount the ISO image$ sudo umount my-mount-point 

 

Fuse File System

When you do not have root permissions available then you can try to mount the ISO image by utilizing FUSE – if it has been made available by the system administrator. The following command line statements will mount / unmount ISO images.

# mount the ISO image (and create mount point, if it does not exist)$ fuseiso -p ubuntu_natty-alternate-amd64.iso my-mount-point/ # take a look into the ISO file$ ls my-mount-point/boot          dists  efi      isolinux    pics  preseed             ubuntucdromupgrade  doc    install  md5sum.txt  pool  README.diskdefines # unmount the ISO image$ fusermount -u my-mount-point 

Related articles:

• Mount Remote Resources with FUSE

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