Mount an ISO file in Linux

This tutorial shows how to mount an ISO file in Linux. In Windows third party tools are required to mount ISO images, but in Linux a simple command is enough to mount ISO images. Before editing the /etc/fstab file please take a backup by following the given instructions. To mount an ISO image use the following command

mount -o loop /location/of/file.iso /mnt/file

Replace /location/of/file.iso with the actual location. The “file” directory inside /mnt must exist. This will mount the iso file for that session. If you want to permanently mount the ISO file modify the /etc/fstab file. Before doing this please backup the fstab file.

cp /etc/fstab{,.bak}

Now edit the /etc/fstab file and add the following line

/location/of/file.iso /mnt/file iso9660 loop 0 0

Save the file and execute the following command to remount all enteries in /etc/fstab

mount -a

This way you can mount as many ISO images you want.