Automount CD-ROM Images

By Chris Lander

Applies to:

• SUSE Linux 10.0
• SUSE Linux Professional 9.2-9.3
• Novell Linux Desktop 9
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9

PROBLEM: You want to automount CD-ROM images to avoid doing it manually.

SOLUTION: Following up on the article “A Little YaST Magic” by Scott M. Morris posted on 6 Jan 2005, where he explains how to mount iso images of the distribution CD-ROMs,it is possible to automatically mount them by making suitable entries in /etc/fstab.

If you have followed Scott’s directory and data structure then add the following lines to /etc/fstab:-

/isos/suse1.iso /suse/1              iso9660      rw,loop=/dev/loop0 0 0
/isos/suse2.iso /suse/2              iso9660      rw,loop=/dev/loop1 0 0
/isos/suse3.iso /suse/3              iso9660      rw,loop=/dev/loop2 0 0
/isos/suse4.iso /suse/4              iso9660      rw,loop=/dev/loop3 0 0
/isos/suse5.iso /suse/5              iso9660      rw,loop=/dev/loop4 0 0

Now when the system boots, or you run the command

# mount -a

the iso images will be mounted under the /suse directory tree, and there will be no need to manually run Scott’s mntimg.sh script before installing software.

EXAMPLE: # Additions to /etc/fstab to mount distribution CD-ROM iso images:

/isos/suse1.iso /suse/1              iso9660      rw,loop=/dev/loop0 0 0
/isos/suse2.iso /suse/2              iso9660      rw,loop=/dev/loop1 0 0
/isos/suse3.iso /suse/3              iso9660      rw,loop=/dev/loop2 0 0
/isos/suse4.iso /suse/4              iso9660      rw,loop=/dev/loop3 0 0
/isos/suse5.iso /suse/5              iso9660      rw,loop=/dev/loop4 0 0