How to create virtual block devices from file? [duplicate]

After some more research I have found, there are at least two methods to test:

1. According to this post, kpartx is applicable tool.
   • Unfortunately it didn't work on Arch Linux for me
   • It's from AUR: yaourt multipath-tools-git, seems to be not well supported/finished and ended up with errors like:

     device-mapper: reload ioctl on loop0p1 failed: No such device

   • Can be at least used to list the embedded partitions: kpartx -l image
   • EDIT: According to this post, it seems to be obsolete and the preferred method is the following one.
2. According to this post, losetup can be used.
   • Firstly it didn't work: losetup /dev/loop0 image (missing the devices for particular partitions).
   • Trying again using additional -P option did the work: losetup -d /dev/loop0, losetup -P /dev/loop0 image and /dev/loop0pX devices were created.
   • These devices are then mountable as expected, like mount /dev/loop0p3 /mnt/x -t ntfs