Mount raw dd images using GUI/Nautilus the same way as an ISO file (double-click, no sudo, eject button, etc)

Question

I have some raw partition images created using dd this way:

dd if=/dev/sdXY of=/path/file.img

I know I can mount them using:

sudo mkdir /media/mountpoint
sudo mount -o loop /path/file.img /media/mountpoint

But... is there any easier way? I would like to have the same functionaly and ease-of-use as Nautilus handles .ISO CD/DVD images, which is:

• Double click to mount
• It shows up in Desktop and in Nautilus left panel
• Auto-detects filesystem (as mount does)
• No need of sudo or administrator privileges
• No need to pre-create a mountpoint folder (or to delete it afterwards)
• Handy "Eject" button to unmount

Ive tried renaming the images as .IMG, .BIN, .ISO, with no sucess. Also tried configuring Opwn With > Archive Mounter, and it didnt work.

How can I do that?

Answer 1

Main Answer

There should be the Archive Mounter option. Just right click the image and click "Archive Mounter", this should mount most disk based file systems like ISO 9660 (to left pane of Nautilus and on the Desktop) - however, it mounts images to:

~/.gvfs

Alternative Answer

There's an extremely useful script that has been created, called nautilus-mount-image which should mount most filesystems.

This can be downloaded from here.

This is from Raúl González Duque's PPA; looking at the code, it essentially figures out what type of filesystem the Image has, and attempts to mount it. It supports:

• ISO 9660 (CD's, DVD's, etc), NTFS, EXT2/3/4, HFS, ReiserFS
• And many more...

For general use, you can use this script by right clicking the file that you want to mount, and clicking "Mount image..." like so:

To answer your requests:

• You won't be able to double click to mount
• It should show up on the desktop and the left panel of nautilus
• Auto-detects Filesystem
• Does need user priviledges
• Automatically mounts to folder under /media/ (so don't need to make mount point folder)
• Eject button located in Nautilus or by right clicking original file and selecting Unmount.

Unfortunately, I don't know how this script will react to Images with multiple filesystems. Kittens may burn. You've been warned ;)

Reference:

Nautilus Scripts