Virtual drives on linux

One of the issues I was facing in my linux migration efforts was how to create and use virtual drives, so that I can mount ISO images of CDs etc.

So here is how to do it..

Virtual devices are achieved in linux using loop devices.
To create a new loop device, we use the losetup command. For eg. say we need to mount the cd image file /temp/varmathe/damn-small-linux.iso ad a cd drive. Here is how to do it.

1. Locate the first available loop device

opensuse103-vm:/temp/varmathe # losetup -f
/dev/loop0

2. Associate this device node to the iso file

opensuse103-vm:/temp/varmathe # losetup /dev/loop0 damn-small-linux-3.4.4.iso

3. Now mount the cd somewhere on our filesystem hierarchy.

opensuse103-vm:/temp/varmathe # mount -t iso9660 /dev/loop0 /mnt/vcd
opensuse103-vm:/temp/varmathe # cd /mnt/vcd
opensuse103-vm:/mnt/vcd # ls
boot  index.html  KNOPPIX  lost+found

Additionally, it might be a wise idea to mount cd/dvd images etc as read only..

4. Use the volume.. (he he :D )

5. Now that we are done and want to unmount the device and release the file

opensuse103-vm:/temp/varmathe # umount /mnt/vcd
opensuse103-vm:/temp/varmathe # losetup -d /dev/loop0

The -d option detaches the file from the loop device

Steps 1,2, and 3 can be combined into a single step as

opensuse103-vm:/home/varmathe # mount -t iso9660 -o loop /temp/varmathe/damn-small-linux-3.4.4.iso /mnt/vcd

While the above single step approach looks like it should have been explained first; I deliberately explained the broken approach for a reason. If you only need the device node, say for eg, to pass that on to a virtual machine; then you don't need to do the mount.. The "losetup" steps alone would do.

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