🔌 qemount

Mount anything by giving the image to an operating system that understands it, then exposing the result over 9P. qemount runs one small guest per image, using real kernels and filesystem implementations instead of reimplementing every format on the host.

✅ STATUS

⚠️ unstable / pre-alpha / experimental ⚠️

🛑 STOP! 🛑

MAKE BACKUPS OF YOUR DISK IMAGES BEFORE USING THIS TOOL.

Currently, there are:

• Linux 2.6, Linux 6.12, NetBSD 10.0 and AROS i386 guests
• 9P2000.U support in both a simple9p server and 9pfuse client
• Platform filesystem discovery: / on POSIX guests and a synthetic root containing mounted DOS volumes on AROS
• A collection of filesystems to play with
• A build system that isolates everything inside containers, so it actually builds easily
• A way to archive everything, inputs, outputs and containers, so the archive.org dumps will work long after the sources go offline

Building

Install podman, fuse, make and qemu; install pigz too if you want to create archival builds. The catalogue exposes individual build targets:

python -m qemount_build outputs
python -m qemount_build build bin/qemu/x86_64-linux/6.12/boot/rootfs.img
python -m qemount_build build bin/qemu/x86_64-netbsd/10.0/boot/boot.img
python -m qemount_build build bin/qemu/i386-aros/boot/aros.iso
python -m qemount_build build bin/x86_64-linux-musl/9pfuse

The guest-selection and launch layer is still under construction, so this is currently a developer workflow rather than a finished one-command mounting tool. Guest-specific operational details and remaining integration work live in the catalogue documentation and project plan.

Format support

These tables describe guest capabilities as exercised by the current qemount integration, rather than every handler that an operating system could support with additional configuration.

Partition tables

Partition Table	Linux 6.12	Linux 2.6	NetBSD 10	AROS i386	Notes
MBR/DOS	✅	✅	✅	❌	Test image stalls AROS startup
GPT	✅	✅	✅	❌	Partitions are not auto-mounted
BSD disklabel	✅	✅	✅	❌	Native BSD partitioning
Apple APM	✅	✅	✅	❌	Classic Mac partition map
Amiga RDB	✅	✅	✅	✅	Real hard-drive image tested
Atari AHDI	✅	✅	✅	❌	Atari ST/TOS
Sun VTOC	✅	✅	❌	❌	Solaris/SunOS
SGI DVH	✅	✅	❌	❌	IRIX disks
LDM	✅	❌	❌	❌	Windows dynamic disks
Minix	✅	✅	❌	❌	Minix subpartitions
UBI	✅	✅	❌	❌	NAND flash volumes (not a PT)
Acorn	✅	✅	❌	❌	RISC OS partition map
AIX	✅	✅	❌	❌	IBM AIX PV headers
Ultrix	✅	✅	❌	❌	DEC Ultrix (VAX/MIPS)
SYSV68	✅	✅	❌	❌	Motorola 68k System V
IBM DASD	❌	❌	❌	❌	S/390 mainframe
PC-98	❌	❌	❌	❌	NEC PC-98 (Japan)
Rio Karma	✅	❌	❌	❌	Portable media player
OSF/1	✅	✅	❌	❌	DEC Alpha / Tru64
HP-UX LIF	✅	✅	❌	❌	PA-RISC / Itanium
QNX4 PT	✅	✅	❌	❌	QNX subpartitions
Plan 9	✅	✅	❌	❌	ASCII partition table
NetWare	✅	✅	❌	❌	Novell
Hybrid MBR	✅	✅	✅	❌	Partitions are not auto-mounted
Protective MBR	✅	✅	✅	❌	Partitions are not auto-mounted
OpenBSD	✅	✅	❌	❌	16-partition disklabel
DragonFly	✅	❌	❌	❌	Disklabel64 variant
NeXT	❌	❌	❌	❌	NeXTSTEP / OPENSTEP
CP/M-86	✅	✅	❌	❌	Digital Research

Filesystems

Filesystem	Linux 6.12	Linux 2.6	NetBSD 10	AROS i386	Notes
ext2	✅	✅	✅	❌
ext3	✅	✅	✅	❌	NetBSD mounts as ext2
ext4	✅	✅	❌	❌
FAT12/16/32	✅	✅	✅	❌	Raw test images are not auto-mounted
exFAT	✅	❌	❌	❌
NTFS	✅ ntfs3	💩 ntfs	💩 ntfs	❌	Raw test image is not auto-mounted
ISO9660	✅	✅	✅	✅	AROS boots and serves its Live CD
UDF	✅	✅	✅	❌	DVD/Blu-ray
HFS	✅	✅	✅	❌	Classic Mac
HFS+	✅	✅	❌	❌	hfsplus
UFS/FFS	💩	💩	✅	❌	Linux UFS is limited
LFS	❌	❌	✅	❌	NetBSD log-structured
XFS	✅	✅	❌	❌
JFS	✅	✅	❌	❌	IBM journaled
Btrfs	✅	✅	❌	❌
F2FS	✅	❌	❌	❌	Flash-friendly
bcachefs	✅	❌	❌	❌
EROFS	✅	❌	❌	❌	Read-only compressed
ReiserFS	✅	✅	❌	❌	Removed in 6.13
AFFS	✅	✅	💩 adosfs	✅	AROS OFS/FFS tested end to end
SFS	❌	❌	❌	✅	RDB volume survives reboot/readback
PFS	❌	❌	❌	❌	Not in the current AROS image
Minix	✅	✅	❌	❌
V7	✅	✅	✅	❌	7th Edition UNIX
SysV	✅	💩	❌	❌	System V; symlinks crash 2.6
SquashFS	✅	✅	❌	❌	Read-only compressed
CramFS	✅	✅	❌	❌	Read-only compressed
RomFS	✅	✅	❌	❌	Read-only
EFS	✅	✅	✅	❌	SGI IRIX
BeFS	✅	✅	❌	❌	BeOS/Haiku
HPFS	✅	✅	❌	❌	OS/2
QNX4	✅	✅	❌	❌
QNX6	✅	❌	❌	❌
ADFS	✅	✅	❌	❌	Acorn
Filecore	❌	❌	✅	❌	Acorn RISC OS
VxFS	✅	✅	❌	❌	Veritas
OMFS	✅	✅	❌	❌	Optimized MPEG FS
NILFS2	✅	✅	❌	❌	Log-structured
GFS2	✅	✅	❌	❌	Red Hat cluster
OCFS2	❌	✅	❌	❌	Oracle cluster
Coda	❌	❌	✅	❌	Distributed FS
BFS	✅	✅	❌	❌	SCO Boot FS
ZFS	❌	❌	✅	❌	OpenZFS (module, not in-kernel)
APFS	❌	❌	❌	❌	Apple macOS 10.13+
ReFS	❌	❌	❌	❌	Windows Resilient FS
HAMMER2	❌	❌	❌	❌	DragonFly BSD native
JFFS2	✅	✅	❌	❌	Flash journaling
UBIFS	✅	❌	❌	❌	UBI Flash FS
High Sierra	✅	✅	✅	❌	ISO9660 predecessor