How to mount a virtual hard disk?

Solution 1:

According to this wikibooks article:

Linux and other Unix-like hosts can mount images created with the raw format type using a loopback device. From a root login (or using sudo), mount a loopback with an offset of 32,256.

mount -o loop,offset=32256 /path/to/image.img /mnt/mountpoint

For other types of qemu images, you can use qemu-nbd

modprobe nbd max_part=16
qemu-nbd -c /dev/nbd0 image.qcow2
partprobe /dev/nbd0
mount /dev/nbd0p1 /mnt/image

Plus, usually, you can convert image from one format to another.

raw - (default) the raw format is a plain binary image of the disc 
       image, and is very portable. 
       On filesystems that support sparse files, 
       images in this format only use the 
       space actually used by the data recorded in them.
cloop -     Compressed Loop format, mainly used for reading Knoppix 
       and similar live CD image formats
cow - copy-on-write format, supported for historical reasons only and
       not available to QEMU on Windows
qcow - the old QEMU copy-on-write format, supported for 
       historical reasons and superseded by qcow2
qcow2 - QEMU copy-on-write format with a range of special features, 
       including the ability to take multiple snapshots, smaller 
       images on filesystems that don't support sparse files, 
       optional AES encryption, and optional zlib compression
vmdk - VMware 3 & 4, or 6 image format, for exchanging images 
       with that product
vdi - VirtualBox 1.1 compatible image format, for exchanging 
       images with VirtualBox.

I found this solution for (VirtualBox) .VDI when I searched, on this website:

modprobe nbd max_part=16
qemu-nbd -c /dev/nbd0 /path/to/some.vdi
mount -o loop /dev/nbd0p1 /mnt
# do stuff
umount /mnt
qemu-nbd -d /dev/nbd0
rmmod nbd

The same as "Qemu's way" commands. No borders!

Solution 2:

This is on Ubuntu 16.04.

Install and mount using affuse:

sudo apt-get install afflib-tools
sudo affuse /path/file.vmdk /mnt/vmdk

Check sector size:

sudo fdisk -l /mnt/vmdk/file.vmdk.raw

# example

Disk file.vmdk.raw: 20 GiB, 21474836480 bytes, 41943040 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x000da525

Device       Boot Start      End  Sectors Size Id Type
/mnt/vmdk/file.vmdk.raw1 *     2048 41943039 41940992  20G 83 Linux

Multiply sectorsize and startsector. In this example it would be 2048*512:

$ echo 2048*512 | bc
1048576

Mount using that offset:

sudo mount -o ro,loop,offset=1048576 /mnt/vmdk/file.raw /mnt/vmdisk

Disk should now be mounted and readable on /mnt/vmdisk

Solution 3:

You can also use qemu:

For .vdi

sudo modprobe nbd
sudo qemu-nbd -c /dev/nbd1 ./linux_box/VM/image.vdi

if they are not installe you can install them (on Ubuntu is this comand)

sudo apt install qemu-utils

and then mount it

mount /dev/nbd1p1 /mnt

For .vmdk

sudo modprobe nbd
sudo qemu-nbd -r -c /dev/nbd1 ./linux_box/VM/image.vmdk

notice tha I use the option -r that's because VMDK version 3 must be read only to be able to be mounted by qemu

and then I mount it

mount /dev/nbd1p1 /mnt

I use nbd1 because nbd0 sometimes gives 'mount: special device /dev/nbd0p1 does not exist'

For .ova

tar -tf image.ova
tar -xvf image.ova

The above will extract the .vmdk disk and then mount that.

Solution 4:

For vmdk and vhd files, I only got lucky with the kpartx command below:

sudo kpartx -a -v <image-flat.vmdk>

Check the output for the losetup, it should contain loop device /dev/loop0; also check sudo blkid for partition /dev/mapper/loop0p1, then use it in the mount command:

sudo mount -o rw /dev/mapper/loop0p1 /mnt/vmdk

Where /mnt/vmdk is your mount point, to be created with sudo mkdir /mnt/vmdk if non-existent.

source at commandlinefu.com (kpartx and mount command)

Unmount with:

sudo umount /mnt/vmdk
sudo kpartx -d -v <image-flat.vmdk>