How to mount an ISO file?

Question

I'm running into trouble trying to mount a large iso:

dev@dev-OptiPlex-745:~$ sudo mount -o loop /home/dev/Hämtningar/matlab2011a_64.iso /cdrom
mount: warning: /cdrom seems to be mounted read-only.
dev@dev-OptiPlex-745:~$

Can you tell me how I should do it?

Where is the issue? Can you ls /cdrom? Note that ISO files are by definition read-only hence the warning. — Takkat, Jul 16 '12 at 12:25
Take a look on your desktop or File manager , it may be mounted already as Disk. — atenz, Jul 16 '12 at 12:41
The warning you get about being "mounted read only" is normal! iso files are always mounted read only. you can't modify them. ...(thanks to Anwar Shah down below) — 842Mono, May 28 '14 at 06:35

score 411 · Answer 1 · edited Jan 16 '15 at 13:36

411

Maybe, instead of installing additional software, you can use what the system has to this end:

Create a directory to serve as the mount location:
```
sudo mkdir /media/iso
```

Mount the ISO in the target directory:

sudo mount -o loop path/to/iso/file/YOUR_ISO_FILE.ISO /media/iso

Unmount the ISO:
```
sudo umount /media/iso
```

On your desktop will appear the mounted ISO.

edited Jan 16 '15 at 13:36

Mathieu Rodic

109
4

answered Sep 27 '12 at 12:25

Octávio Filipe Gonçalves

15,825

1

how come that i get message bash: /path/media/external drive/my.ISO: Permission denied? – Nov 17 '12 at 10:51
1

doesn't work sudo mount -o loop smb://server/downloads/disk.iso /media/iso : No such file or directory – waspinator Feb 14 '13 at 19:15
1

@cipricus it appears that the system can't access your ISO's. The simplest way to overcome this would be to copy the iso file to a local directory first. – chobok Aug 14 '13 at 01:00
1

@waspinator try copying the iso file to a local directory first – chobok Aug 14 '13 at 01:01
2

@chobok copying it over to a local directory works, but I don't have a file server set up to copy files to my desktop every time I want to use them. I've gone back to Windows for now until this is sorted out. – waspinator Aug 14 '13 at 13:53
2

@waspinator If you haven't done so already, you could open up new question with your specific issue. – chobok Aug 14 '13 at 20:06
1

@Subv3rsion, this method of yours still makes the mount disk as read-only – Amir Oct 25 '13 at 14:11
1

@Subv3rsion, you wrote "On your desktop will appear the mounted ISO". Actually it's not on the desktop. It's in Nautilus in the left pane. – H2ONaCl Jul 06 '14 at 03:25
getting the error "you must specify the filesystem type" – Kalamalka Kid May 17 '17 at 05:38
2

@waspinator you could first mount your samba share and then you can use it as local filesystem (in aspect of current problem) – wk. Aug 21 '17 at 12:44

score 137 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 24 '15 at 16:08

137

Try mounting it using a GUI.

Navigate to the *.iso file using a file manager, then Right click -> Open with Archive Mounter.

Or you can install the Furius ISO Mount. It is available in the Ubuntu Software Center:

sudo apt-get install furiusisomount

Here are some screenshots:

Furius ISO Mount - Interface

Ubuntu 12.04 mounted ISO

Furius ISO Mount - Project Page

edited Apr 24 '15 at 16:08

Ron Klein

103

answered Jul 16 '12 at 12:21

Akshit Baunthiyal

4,872

1

I think its important to add the case when the ISO file its an UDF image. – Ángel Araya Sep 27 '12 at 12:41
13

Mounting via "archive mounter" is not a very good method, if you want to run file from the iso. (It is only good to view content). Because, we can't execute file from the iso mounted via "Archive mounter" – Anwar Sep 27 '12 at 15:52
3

Installing a new software just for mounting an iso image ? – pylover Feb 09 '15 at 22:06
1

⁺¹ because no root rights required. – Hi-Angel Jan 22 '16 at 14:47

score 29 · Answer 3 · edited Jul 10 '15 at 10:57

29

I found the easiest and fastest way to handle the ISO file in Ubuntu 14.04 was to right click on the ISO file, choose Disk Image Mounter and then simply proceed to the newly opened directory:

In case you don't have installed, you can use this command in terminal to install it:

sudo apt-get install gnome-disk-utility

edited Jul 10 '15 at 10:57

Wilf

30,194
17
108
164

answered Sep 04 '14 at 00:13

Chaz

299

I just realized this exists too! I am a programmer and I like the command line, but this is really the proper, user-friendly, convenient way. – Shahbaz Jan 25 '15 at 16:30
1

Still works in 22.04 btw – Irsu85 Sep 26 '23 at 17:45

score 17 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 16 '12 at 15:29

I really like Furius ISO Mount, it's a simple application for mounting ISO, IMG, BIN, MDF and NG files.

Automatically Mounts ISO, IMG, BIN, MDF and NRG Image Files.
Automatically creates a mount point in your home directory.
Automatically Unmounts the Image files.
Automatically removes the mount directory to return your home directory to its previous state.
Automatically saves the history of the last 10 images mounted.
Mounts multiple images.
Burn ISO and IMG Files to optical disk.
Generate Md5 and SHA1 checksums.
Automatically retrieves any previously unmounted images.
Automatically generates a log file of all commands needed to mount and unmount images manually.
Localizable (currently Czech, Danish, French, Hungarian, Italian, German, Polish, Slovenian, Spanish and Turkish are available.

enter image description here

If 5 stars from 77 ratings is enough to convince you open up your Ubuntu Software Manager and search for Furius ISO Mount.

Reference Links:

Furius ISO Mount - Project Page

Anwar · Answer 5 · 2012-09-27T16:30:32.037

I'm Assuming your iso file name is matlab2011a_64.iso in the folder /home/dev/Hämtningar/

You can do this to mount the iso file in /cdrom folder or create another folder and mount the iso file in it. I'm going to create a separate folder in your home directory. Open a terminal to do all these things

Create mount point
```
 mkdir ~/mount-point
```
Mount it with
```
sudo mount ~/dev/Hämtningar/matlab1011a_64.iso  ~/mount-point -o loop
```
This will mount the iso file in the newly created folder named mount-point in your home.

Also note, You will be given a warning like mount: warning: /home/dev/mount-point seems to be mounted read-only, It is because the iso file always mounts as read-only. You can't write to the iso file. You should just ignore that message and proceed forward.

But why can't you write to the iso file? Shouldn't you be allowed to make modifications, and then repack the .iso? — landroni, Jan 25 '14 at 18:27

score 10 · Answer 6 · 2012-09-27T16:34:45.850

10

You can quite easily mount an iso using command-line tools:

First create a directory to mount the iso in with:

sudo mkdir /media/myisos

(Usually the loop module that enables an iso type filesystem to be read is automatically added so you shouldn't need to run sudo modprobe loop.)

Now mount your iso by pointing mount to its location:

sudo mount ~/location/of/iso /media/myisos -o loop

It will give you a warning about the iso being mounted read-only, but that is correct.

You can later unmount it with

sudo umount ~/location/of/iso /media/myisos

edited Sep 27 '12 at 16:34

answered Sep 27 '12 at 12:37

1

loop module is loaded automatically as far as I know. Also -t iso9660 is not required anymore in mounting iso file – Anwar Sep 27 '12 at 15:44
I knew this, just a note. – Anwar Sep 27 '12 at 15:53
1

@Anwar Thanks Anwar- I agree it is useful to make a note of it. – Sep 27 '12 at 15:59

PeterM · Answer 7 · 2019-07-19T10:37:29.287

10

There is a GUI tool built-in albeit menu UI is confusing as it looks like a window title;)

Run "Disks" from your dash. Then from "Disks" menu select "Attach disk image...":

edited Jul 19 '19 at 10:37

answered Mar 15 '16 at 08:38

PeterM

694
1
7
22

landroni · Answer 8 · 2014-01-25T18:48:12.097

4

You can use ISO Master, a GUI utility similar to furiusisomount. Simply:

sudo apt-get install isomaster

And then open your *.iso file with ISO Master from your preferred file manager.

From the website:

Use ISO Master to:

Create or customise CD/DVD images

Make Bootable CDs/DVDs

Basically, it allows you to add or remove files from the ISO image, then save the changes.

edited Jan 25 '14 at 18:48

answered Jan 25 '14 at 18:34

landroni

5,941
7
36
58

karlsebal · Answer 9 · 2018-11-08T10:45:49.803

Use udisksctl it is part of the system. It mounts your iso in userspace and does not need to be run as superuser. Your file will be mounted to /media/$USER/ with appropriate permissions.

Mount iso

udisksctl loop-setup -f my.iso

udisksctl will tell you which loop device it is using.

udisksctl mount -b /dev/loopX

where X is the number of the loopdevice your iso is mapped to

Unmount iso

udisksctl unmount -b /dev/loopX
udisksctl loop-delete -b /dev/loopX

where X is the number of the loop device your iso is mapped to. If you forgot you can figure it out by

losetup

score 3 · Answer 10 · edited Jul 21 '14 at 17:30

If you want to get read write permissions for copying files from the mounted ISO and do not want to install something else. Just go into terminal shell, navigate to whereever you mounted your ISO, such as:

sudo mount -o loop /home/username/whatever.iso /mnt/iso

Than copy the entire mounted directory somewhere else:

sudo cp -rf /mnt/iso /home/username/MyMountedISO

You could also use

cd /mnt/iso

Next view the contents

ls

and than:

sudo cp install.img /home/username/MyMountedISO

score 2 · Answer 11 · answered Aug 07 '14 at 16:01

Mounting an iso file is simpler relative to installing it latter. Just to mention that if you want to install latest matlab versions in latest ubuntus, you do not need to mount it the iso, rather extract it there and proceed in installation after making the install and /matlab-extracted-folder/sys/java/jre/glnxa64/jre/bin/java executables.

Tested on ubuntu 14.04 and matlab 2014a.

Cheers,

DanteSparda · Answer 12 · 2016-07-05T01:51:00.317

1

I found Gmount to be very simple to use for mounting. It has a vintage GUI that is very simple to use and straight to the point. gmount GUI

Install Gmount from the software center then launch it. You can then select your iso image file and choose a mount point where you want to launch the iso file from. You will be prompted for a root password in order to complete the action and thats it.

edited Jul 05 '16 at 01:51

answered Jul 05 '16 at 01:17

DanteSparda

11

2

But the question is how would you mount an ISO, perhaps you should add how to do this using Gmount.. – heemayl Jul 05 '16 at 01:23
Install Gmount from the software center then launch it. You can then select your iso image file and choose a mount point where you want to launch the iso file from. You will be prompted for a root password in order to complete the action and thats it. – DanteSparda Jul 05 '16 at 01:37
1

Please add the above to your answer.. – heemayl Jul 05 '16 at 01:42

score 0 · Answer 13 · answered Aug 23 '20 at 23:26

Just double click it, see:
How do I mount an ISO?

PS. And, also try double clicking

/casper/filesystem.squashfs

if the ISO image is an Ubuntu LiveCD ISO etc.

To verify that the functionality IS applicable to these, right click the files to view the options for pertinent operations.

score 0 · Answer 14 · answered Apr 16 '21 at 16:24

You can mount an image (or iso) file as read/write as follows. Set up the loop, then mount with these commands:

losetup -fP your.img
#list loop devices
losetup -a

If the loop device above was set up as /dev/loop0 then mount cmd is:

sudo mount -o loop /dev/loop0 /your/mnt/folder/

After this, if you get an error saying the loop device is read only, you can make it writable with this command:

blockdev --setrw /dev/loop0

If you get an error saying the image is read only, you can remount the image as r/w with this command:

sudo mount -o remount,rw /your/mnt/folder

To remove the mount and loop device:

sudo umount /your/mnt/folder/
losetup -d /dev/loop0

score 0 · Answer 15 · answered May 22 '22 at 00:34

A DECADE LATER and still a common newb question & this result is near the top of search.

It can easily be deduced from the initial question that:

1- the person is new and

2- editing an ISO is the goal

->"add readonly option -r to mount. ->Where is the issue?" ->"iso files are always mounted read only. you can't modify them"

->"The simplest way to overcome this would be to copy the iso file to a local directory first." ->"But the question is how would you mount an ISO, perhaps you should add how to do this using Gmount."

->"I've gone back to Windows for now until this is sorted out."

AND THEN EVEN MORE!

Any person new to Linux could (still) benefit from a SINGLE consolidated solution (my personal experience).

(Providing details) The sum of [these conflicting statements/responses-to-posts-other-than-the initial-question/answers] is not specifically helpful. (reference to several answers)

Not each answer- the SUM of these. Can some one clean up this answer? please...

B/C I've also gone back to Windows for now until this is sorted out and it seems this is a common occurance.

Yea sorry about the rant - feedback is vital when the process has become run-away.

How to mount an ISO file?

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