DEV Community

Cover image for Mount a Linux image on Windows and access to it from File Explorer with WSL2
Stefano Giraldi
Stefano Giraldi

Posted on • Edited on

Mount a Linux image on Windows and access to it from File Explorer with WSL2

#wsl #powershell #linux

Requisites

A Windows system with WSL2 and an installed distro.

1. Downlaod linux distro image 

wget __linux_image_url
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

2. Run wsl console 

$ wsl
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

3. Check disk image sectors 

$ partx --show __linux_image_filepath__
NR  START     END SECTORS SIZE NAME UUID
 1   8192  532479  524288 256M      9730496b-01
 2 532480 3661823 3129344 1.5G      9730496b-02
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

3. Calculate offset 

$ bc
bc 1.07.1
Copyright 1991-1994, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2012-2017 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
For details type `warranty'.
> 532480 * 512
> 272629760
> quit
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

4. Mount Image

Create mounting point

$ sudo mkdir /mnt/other
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Mount image

$ sudo mount -v -o offset=272629760 -t ext4 /_path_to_file_image/__filename__.img /mnt/other
mount: /dev/loop0 mounted on /mnt/other.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Check mounted image

$ ls /mnt/other
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

5. Access to Filesystem through File Explorer

  1. Open File Explorer
  2. Type \\wsl$ in the address bar
  3. Installed distros will be shown up. Click on it and navigate in the file system into the mounted path.

References

Photo Credit Dorolein

Top comments (0)

Read next

sudhanshuchaurasia19 profile image

Linux Kernel and Boot process for Beginner

sudhanshu chaurasia -

imkrunalkanojiya profile image

File Management in Bash : Commands and Examples

Krunal Kanojiya -

dev-charodeyka profile image

Debian Secure Boot: To be, or not to be, that is the question!

Anna -

0xkoji profile image

Install Zellij on WSL

0xkoji -