gnome-disk-image-mounter

gnome-disk-image-mounter [OPTION...] [FILE...]

--help
    Print help information and exit

--version
    Print release version and exit

gnome-disk-image-mounter is a command-line utility from the GNOME Disks suite (gnome-disk-utility) designed to simplify mounting disk image files like ISO, IMG, QCOW2, and similar formats. It automates the creation of loopback devices using the udisks2 backend, mounts the images read-only or read-write as appropriate, and seamlessly opens the mounted volumes in the default file manager (e.g., Nautilus).

This tool is ideal for users needing quick access to installation media, virtual machine images, or backup archives from the terminal without manual losetup or mount commands. It leverages D-Bus for integration with the desktop environment, requiring a graphical session and gvfs-backends for full functionality.

Invoke it with one or more image files, and it handles the rest: loop device attachment, filesystem mounting, and icon appearance on the desktop. Multiple files can be mounted simultaneously, each getting its own loop device. Unmounting is done via the file manager or gnome-disks. It's particularly handy in scripts or for batch mounting.

Security-wise, it uses polkit for privilege escalation if needed, but user-owned images mount without prompts in most cases. Supports sparse files and compressed images transparently.

Requires graphical session, D-Bus, and udisks2; fails in headless/SSH without X11 forwarding. Read-only for most CD/DVD images; root privileges may be needed for raw devices.

gnome-disk-image-mounter ubuntu.iso
gnome-disk-image-mounter *.img

Use file manager eject or gnome-disks; loop devices auto-clean on unmount.

Introduced in GNOME 3.8 (2012) as part of gnome-disk-utility; evolved with udisks2 in GNOME 3.10 for better loop management and multi-image support. Maintained by GNOME Disks team for modern desktops.

gnome-disks(1), udisksctl(1), losetup(8), mount(8)