Linux mount command to access filesystems, iso image, usb, network drives

In this article I will cover various topics using Linux mount command to perform temporary and permanent mount. We will try to access file system, USB drives, ISO images, network drives using Linux mount command and unmount them using umount command with examples. before you mount USB drive using Linux mount command, you must know how to list USB drives and check USB ports in Linux so you know the connected USB drives in Linux. I will also share some fstab example, explain fstab options and syntax to mount permanently using Linux mount command.

I have used RHEL/CentOS 7/8 to demonstrate the examples from this article on Linux mount command and it’s usage.

Linux Mount Command Scenarios and Examples

Below I will cover various scenarios to access file systems temporarily and permanent using Linux mount command with examples.

Mount File System (ext3, ext4, xfs and so on..)

Using Linux mount command you can mount various types of system file system. But this will be active only for the current session (not reboot persistent). For such requirement you can use /mnt mount point along with Linux mount command.

Syntax to mount file system

# mount [-t fstype] DEVICE DIR

Here,

-t        The argument following the -t is used to indicate the filesystem type.
DEVICE    Here DEVICE is our File System /dev/sdb1
DIR       Here DIR is our target mount point

So we can mount /dev/sdb1 without specifying file system type

# mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt

or with -t option

# mount -t xfs /dev/sdb1 /mnt

To permanently mount file system, you must add device and mount point entry in /etc/fstab

I will create a new mount point directory

# mkdir /mydata

Now we can mount our xfs file system /dev/sdb1 on /mydata mount point.

# mount -t xfs /dev/sdb1 /mydata

But this is again temporary, to mount file system permanently we have to update /etc/fstab in the below fstab format. fstab example from my setup:

# echo "UUID=2c566ef5-fe73-4e1c-aa71-9a8cd77c0b31       /mydata         xfs     defaults        0 0"  >> /etc/fstab

How to get UUID and file system type?

To get UUID of a file system using blkid

# blkid /dev/sdb1
/dev/sdb1: UUID="2c566ef5-fe73-4e1c-aa71-9a8cd77c0b31" TYPE="xfs" PARTUUID="09181a39-01"

In the same output you can see the file system type as XFS

What are the different fstab options?

In /etc/fstab we have 6 different section per column with different possible options. Each row is broken into six fields of data, separated by whitespace. Below are the different fstab options

• The device to mount (Here we have used UUID or you can also use /dev/sdb1).
• The mount point (/mydata).
• The filesystem type (xfs).
• The mount options (defaults).
• Dump level (0). This field is related to the dump command and is rarely used.
• The fsck pass field (0). A value of 0 means “do not run fsck on this filesystem during system boot,” whereas a value of 1 or higher means “run fsck on this filesystem during system boot.”

Mount ISO File

There are two possible scenarios to mount ISO files:

1. Mount ISO File from Virtual Media
2. Mount ISO File DVD

In either scenario to mount ISO file you have to use iso9660 as the file system type along with Linux mount command.

Virtual Media ISO Image

On RHEL/CentOS 7 any ISO File on Virtual media is available under /dev/srX file system. For example my ISO File is available under /dev/sr0 and /dev/sr1

# lsscsi
[0:0:0:0]    cd/dvd  VBOX     CD-ROM           1.0   /dev/sr0
[1:0:0:0]    cd/dvd  VBOX     CD-ROM           1.0   /dev/sr1
[2:0:0:0]    disk    ATA      VBOX HARDDISK    1.0   /dev/sda

To mount ISO file from virtual media on /media using Linux mount command:

# mount -t iso9660 /dev/sr0 /media
mount: /media: WARNING: device write-protected, mounted read-only.

To permanently mount ISO file using /etc/fstab we use similar syntax with below fstab format as we used to mount file system. fstab example from my setup

# echo "/dev/sr0        /media         iso9660         defaults        0 0"  >> /etc/fstab

ISO DVD Image

If you have an ISO DVD Image File available on your Linux system, you can mount ISO file DVD using again iso9660 as the file system type with Linux mount command:

# mount -t iso9660 -o loop /root/rhel-8.1-x86_64-dvd.iso /media/
mount: /media: WARNING: device write-protected, mounted read-only.

Again to permanently mount ISO DVD File use /etc/fstab we use similar fstab format. Below is fstab example from my setup to mount iso image

# echo "/root/rhel-8.1-x86_64-dvd.iso        /media         iso9660         defaults        0 0"  >> /etc/fstab

Mount USB Drive

Before I share the steps to mount USB drive, you must be familiar to check and list USB devices connected to your Linux host and check USB ports. There are various methods and commands available to list USB devices and check USB ports, I will try to share some of them here:

6 commands to list USB devices and check USB ports

Below I will share various commands you can use in Linux to view and list connected USB devices to your Linux host and check USB ports.

1. Journalctl or /var/log/messages

You can use journalctl or /var/log/messages to check usb ports and list usb devices which were connected to your Linux machine. below is a snippet of my /var/log/messages on RHEL/CentOS 7/8 node. Observe the highlighted section to list USB devices connected.

Nov 20 22:27:33 centos-8 kernel: usb 1-1: new full-speed USB device number 2 using ohci-pci
Nov 20 22:27:33 centos-8 kernel: usb 1-1: config 1 interface 0 altsetting 0 endpoint 0x81 has invalid maxpacket 512, setting to 64
Nov 20 22:27:33 centos-8 kernel: usb 1-1: config 1 interface 0 altsetting 0 endpoint 0x2 has invalid maxpacket 512, setting to 64
Nov 20 22:27:33 centos-8 kernel: usb 1-1: New USB device found, idVendor=0781, idProduct=5567, bcdDevice= 1.00
Nov 20 22:27:33 centos-8 kernel: usb 1-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
Nov 20 22:27:33 centos-8 kernel: usb 1-1: Product: Cruzer Blade
Nov 20 22:27:33 centos-8 kernel: usb 1-1: Manufacturer: SanDisk
Nov 20 22:27:33 centos-8 kernel: usb 1-1: SerialNumber: 4C531001480518118400
Nov 20 22:27:33 centos-8 kernel: usb-storage 1-1:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
Nov 20 22:27:33 centos-8 kernel: scsi host4: usb-storage 1-1:1.0
Nov 20 22:27:33 centos-8 kernel: usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
Nov 20 22:27:33 centos-8 kernel: usbcore: registered new interface driver uas
Nov 20 22:27:34 centos-8 kernel: scsi 4:0:0:0: Direct-Access     SanDisk  Cruzer Blade     1.00 PQ: 0 ANSI: 6
Nov 20 22:27:34 centos-8 kernel: sd 4:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg4 type 0
Nov 20 22:27:34 centos-8 kernel: sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] 30595072 512-byte logical blocks: (15.7 GB/14.6 GiB)
Nov 20 22:27:34 centos-8 kernel: sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off
Nov 20 22:27:34 centos-8 kernel: sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] Write cache: disabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
Nov 20 22:27:34 centos-8 kernel: sdc: sdc1
Nov 20 22:27:34 centos-8 kernel: sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI removable disk

2. lsusb

You can check usb ports in linux using lsusb. lsusb tool is part of usbutils rpm. So install usbutils to check USB ports in Linux. For example I have a single USB connected on Port 1:

# lsusb -t
/:  Bus 01.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=ohci-pci/12p, 12M
    |__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Mass Storage, Driver=usb-storage, 12M

3. lsscsi

You can list all the devices connected to Linux using lsscsi. So to list USB devices also you can use lsscsi command in Linux. Here my USB drive is mounted on /dev/sdc

# lsscsi
[0:0:0:0]    cd/dvd  VBOX     CD-ROM           1.0   /dev/sr0
[1:0:0:0]    cd/dvd  VBOX     CD-ROM           1.0   /dev/sr1
[2:0:0:0]    disk    ATA      VBOX HARDDISK    1.0   /dev/sda
[3:0:0:0]    disk    ATA      VBOX HARDDISK    1.0   /dev/sdb
[4:0:0:0]    disk    SanDisk  Cruzer Blade     1.00  /dev/sdc

4. lsblk

Use lsblk to show and list usb devices and partition which are connected to your linux machine.

# lsblk  /dev/sdc
NAME   MAJ:MIN RM  SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sdc      8:32   1 14.6G  0 disk
└─sdc1   8:33   1 14.6G  0 part

5. blkid

Use blkid to list usb devices and all the required details. As you can see my USB drive is NTFS file system. If you execute blkid without any arguments, it will list all the connected devices to Linux host.

# blkid /dev/sdc1
/dev/sdc1: LABEL="Deepak-16G" UUID="B48646258645E886" TYPE="ntfs" PARTUUID="2633de4d-01"

6. fdisk

Using fdisk you can list all the connected storage devices. We will use fdisk to list usb devices. If you have multiple drives connected to your Linux machine then the list can be long, you can look towards the end of fdisk -l output, for example

Disk /dev/sdc: 14.6 GiB, 15664676864 bytes, 30595072 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x2633de4d

Device     Boot Start      End  Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/sdc1  *     2048 30595071 30593024 14.6G  7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

As you see this is dos disk with size of 14.6 GB and type as HPFS/NTFS/exFAT so this is most likely our USb drive, you can again confirm this by using lsscsi or any other commands from above list.

USB Drive with NTFS File System

Now that you can list USB devices and check USB ports, to mount USB drive with NTFS file system type using Linux mount command we need ntfs-3g driver in Linux. If you attempt to mount USB drive without ntfs-3g driver then mount will fail

# mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sdc1 /mnt
mount: /mnt: unknown filesystem type 'ntfs'.

ntfs-3g is an NTFS driver, NTFS supports several filename namespaces: DOS, Win32 and POSIX. While the ntfs-3g driver handles all of them, it always creates new files in the POSIX namespace for maximum portability and interoperability reasons

# yum -y install ntfs-3g.x86_64

Create a mount point

# mkdir /mnt/usb

Now try to mount USB drive using Linux mount command

# mount -t ntfs /dev/sdc1 /mnt/usb

Mount is successful

# df -h /mnt/
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sdc1        15G  364M   15G   3% /mnt/usb

Use similar fstab format as used in above examples to permanently mount usb drive with ntfs file system type. Below is fstab example to mount usb drive with ntfs file system.

# echo "UUID="B48646258645E886"       /mnt/usb        ntfs    defaults        0 0" >> /etc/fstab

USB Drive with FAT32 or vFAT File System

You will list USB devices, check USB ports and use blkid to check the file system type, as you see the file system type of this USB drive is vFAT. To mount USB drive with vfat file system type using Linux mount command we need vfat module.

# blkid /dev/sdc1
/dev/sdc1: LABEL="DEEPAK-16G" UUID="5E92CAC292CA9E41" TYPE="vfat" PARTUUID="2633de4d-01"

Check if vfat module is loaded on the system:

# lsmod | grep vfat 
vfat                   17411  0
fat                    65913  1 vfat

If the vfat is not loaded, load it by running:

# modprobe vfat

Next to mount USB drive with FAT32 or vFAT file system using Linux mount command:

# mount -t vfat /dev/sdc1 /mnt

Similar to NTFS file system type use same fstab format, use below fstab example to mount usb drive permanently using /etc/fstab

# echo "UUID="5E92CAC292CA9E41"       /mnt/usb        vfat    defaults        0 0" >> /etc/fstab

Mount Network Drive

I have a NFS server available at 192.168.0.121 and have shared /mydata directory on this server. To mount network drive from NFS

Syntax:

mount -t <fstype> -o vers=<version> <nfs_server>:<shared_path_on_nfs_server> <mount_point_on_localhost>

Mount NFS Network Drive using NFSv4

# mount -t nfs -o vers=4  192.168.0.121:/mydata /mnt

Mount NFS Network Drive using NFSv3

# mount -t nfs -o vers=3  192.168.0.121:/mydata /mnt

To mount network drive permanently use /etc/fstab the fstab format will remain the same, except the first column you have to give NFS server details and the source path. Below is fstab example from my NFS share (/mydata) on 192.168.0.121

# echo "192.168.0.121:/mydata   /mnt    nfs   defaults    0 0" >> /etc/fstab

How to unmount file system and other removable devices?

Use umount command to unmount any type of file system, usb drives, network drives or iso images.

umount <mount_point>

So if my file system is mounted on /mnt

# umount /mnt

You may face error “umount: /mnt/usb: target is busy” some times while truing to umount file system. This means that the file system is in use, this error is similar to the error we see in Windows while trying to eject a USB drive “The device is currently in use”

In such case you can use lazy umount using “-l”

# umount -l /mnt/usb

which means as soon as /mnt/usb is not used by any other process, it will unmount itself

Or alternatively you can look for processes which is using /usb/mnt using lsof

# lsof /mnt/usb/
COMMAND   PID USER   FD   TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
bash     7033 root  cwd    DIR   8,49     4096    5 /mnt/usb
lsof    12636 root  cwd    DIR   8,49     4096    5 /mnt/usb
lsof    12637 root  cwd    DIR   8,49     4096    5 /mnt/usb

Then you can decide to kill those process (kill -9 <PID>) but remember by doing so any ongoing task or operation will be killed.

Lastly I hope the steps from this article on Linux mount command to mount ISO file, USB drive, network drive and file systems, list USB devices, check USB ports, understanding fstab options, fstab format and examples were helpful. So, let me know your suggestions and feedback using the comment section.