Mounting and Un-mounting ISO Images in Arch Linux
You need to do this as root or use sudo. There are ways to set up your system to allow users to mount images rather having to su or sudo but I’m not talking about that at this time.
Create a folder where you’ll mount the ISO image. Once mounted you’ll be able to look at the contents of the image in Thunar or Nautilus or from the CLI.
# mkdir /path/to/mount/point
Then mount the ISO image file:
This works for me:
# mount /path/to/the/iso/file.iso /path/to/mount/point
But I’ve seen some references to using -o switch and calling loop. I’ve found that I do not need to do that. I’ve added the loop daemon to /etc/rc.conf so that it loads on boot up. If you don’t do this you may have to modprobe loop first and then mount.
# mount -o loop /path/to/the/iso/file.iso /path/to/mount/point
You should get confirmation that it mounted, most likely as readonly. And now you can go to the folder and check out the files.
And to un-mount the ISO first list the current mounts. There are a few ways to do this. At the CLI do one of the following:
The command df -H will list the mounts. The newly mounted file.iso should be loop0. If you have other images already mounted then it might be something like loop1 or loop2 etc. Basically each iso.file you mount will get its own loop. Also note that Truecrypt uses loop so it might be a good idea to list the mounts prior to mounting any image files so that you know what you’re un-mounting when the time comes. Typically Truecrypt you’ll see something like /dev/mapper/truecrypt1 for the mount point. So I most likely there won’t be any confusion but I’m not sure how other distributions do this.
# df -H /dev/loop0
Or
# mount /path/to/the/iso/file.iso on /path/to/mount/point
Then to un-mount it just:
# umount /dev/loop0
Or
# umount /path/to/the/iso/file.iso
If you get an error when trying to un-mount it try the force switch (-f):
# umount -f /dev/loop0
Or
# umount -f /path/to/the/iso/file.iso
Christian Coder 