Is there a GUI tool to see the content of a .iso file?

Discussion
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Hello Friends

Just being curious, in Linux in general (for many distributions)

Is there a GUI tool to see the content of a .iso file?

Consider you have a .iso file of your favorite Linux distribution and …

  • You want see the original content through a GUI (such as “Files”) by either curiosity or to retrieve a file’s content in case you deleted or overridden one by mistake

Not sure if each Linux distribution share its source code in GitHub/GitLab

Thanks for your understanding

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With Windows I use zip7!!!

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Windows 8 and later has native ISO mounting. right-click an .iso file and choose mount. Windows creates a virtual DVD drive in File Explorer. When you’re done, right-click the virtual drive and choose Eject.

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Use a loop mount. That makes the iso file look like a mounted filesystem.
Then you can use the normal GUI File Manager to look at it.
2 steps. … I dont think there is any gui to do the loop mount.

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@Manuel_Jordan

Was speaking of content, not mounting!! I used to take a W10 ISO and W11 ISO, extract with zip7 and delete the install file from the W10 ISO and move the install file from the W11 ISO to the W10 ISO and it would boot and install W11 on unsupported hardware!!!

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On my Ubuntu 24.04 in Gnome - in Nautilus - if I right click on an ISO file - I get the option to “Open With Disk Image Mounter”…

Don’t have a GUI running / installed on any of my other Linux systems…

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So Win iso’s are zip files, or contain zip files.?

Linux isos are a linux filesystem, but one of the files, the one containing Linux, is a squashfs file. The other files are to do with booting, and they are viewable directly. To view the squashfs file, you have to uncompress it… it will uncompress to a complete root filesystem.

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It’s probably more that 7-zip knows how to handle zip files and also knows how to handle ISO files. Not that ISO files are zip files.

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Not quite true - they’re usually an ISO9660 filesystem - same in Microsoft, Apple and UNIX land… I do remember Sun did something non-standard with their O/S ISO images…

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Of course. They only appear as a Linux filesystem, after you loop mount them.
By Linux filesystem, I meant any type of filesystem readable by Linux.

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I run Debian, mate. In the caja file manager right click offers several options to mount or view iso’s.

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Yes, there is. Open the .iso with Ark. (apps.kde.org/ark)

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Huge thanks to all for the replies

Daniel

With Windows I use zip7!!!

Correct, I can navigate through the iso file

pdecker

Windows 8 and later has native ISO mounting. right-click an .iso file and choose mount. Windows creates a virtual DVD drive in File Explorer. When you’re done, right-click the virtual drive and choose Eject.

Correct, I confirmed it in Windows 11

Neville

Use a loop mount. That makes the iso file look like a mounted filesystem.
Then you can use the normal GUI File Manager to look at it.
2 steps. … I dont think there is any gui to do the loop mount.

It worked in peace, in Gnome with “Files”

  • Right click
  • Open With Disk Image Mounter

It is the solution :beer_mug:

Daniel

Was speaking of content, not mounting!! I used to take a W10 ISO and W11 ISO, extract with zip7 and delete the install file from the W10 ISO and move the install file from the W11 ISO to the W10 ISO and it would boot and install W11 on unsupported hardware!!!

Yes, but the mount approach worked right now. The approach with zip7 in Windows let me navigate the iso file and see the content of any file as known extension (.txt .readme)

Dan

On my Ubuntu 24.04 in Gnome - in Nautilus - if I right click on an ISO file - I get the option to “Open With Disk Image Mounter”… Don’t have a GUI running / installed on any of my other Linux systems…

Yes, correct

Neville

Linux isos are a linux filesystem, but one of the files, the one containing Linux, is a squashfs file. The other files are to do with booting, and they are viewable directly. To view the squashfs file, you have to uncompress it… it will uncompress to a complete root filesystem.

Valuable answer, I found the mentioned .squashfs file and it is big more of 2GB (according the Linux installer) … is there another way to see its content? If not, with what app can be uncompressed?

louyo

I run Debian, mate. In the caja file manager right click offers several options to mount or view iso’s.

It seems is the equivalent/same as GNome “Files”

Harrie

Yes, there is. Open the .iso with Ark. (apps.kde.org/ark)

Thanks for the option in KDE world

Again huge thanks to all! :clinking_beer_mugs:

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See the man pages for mksquashfs and unsquashfs

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Understood, two new commands to learn. Huge thanks! :clinking_beer_mugs:

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