Why can't I mount the Ubuntu 12.04 installer ISOs in Mac OS X?

Question

Over the past few days, I have downloaded both the 32 and 64 bit version of server and desktop to install on an Intel based PC.

It is normal from within OS X to double click on an ISO and it will mount the ISO in the finder as well as within disk utility.

When I attempt to mount any of the Ubuntu ISOs I downloaded, OS X returns the error message The following disk images couldn't be opened. The reason given for the error is no mountable filesystem.

However, I am still able to open the ISO directly from disk utility and burn it to a DVD/CD.

What has changed in this release to cause this? Is there something wrong with the current ISOs?

The OS X machine I am using is only two weeks old and is having no issues with any other ISO.

Solution 1

This is due to a bug (of sorts) in the package used to create the Ubuntu ISOs

• Since 11.10, Ubuntu ISOs have been "hybrid", meaning that the ISO can also be written bit-for-bit to a USB device to make it a working Live-USB, without having to use StartUp Disk Creator, UNetBootin, etc.

  • Note that this "hybrid" is different from the OS X/Disk Utility definition of "hybrid", which simply refers to an ISO readable on both Mac (HFS+) and Windows (ISO9660).

• Ubuntu's hybrid functionality is provided by the isohybrid script in the SysLinux bootloader. It works by encapsulating the standard ISO9660 CD filesystem within a partition, so that it will work unmodified if written to a USB/hard disk.

• This patch/bug report discusses a problem in the way isohybrid sets GPT UUIDs, causing Disk Utility/OS X to fail to recognize the hybrid filesystem and consequently, failing to mount it. Hopefully it will be fixed at some point, making future Ubuntu hybrid ISOs compatible with Disk Utility.

Alternative to extract/explore Ubuntu ISOs on OS X: Keka

• Keka is an open-source OS X frontend to the p7zip package, which is able to view and extract ISOs in addition to a myriad of other archive management features. While it won't let you "mount" the Ubuntu ISO on its own, it should let you view the ISO filesystem and extract what you need.

Solution 2

In case anyone else comes here because they were trying to install ubuntu in Vmware Fusion, but couldn't mount the iso, at least in Vmware Fusion 4, you can "Continue without disc" -- then it'll let you choose an iso on the next screen, so OSX never needs to mount it, and Vmware will mount it just fine.

Solution 3

Maybe because they are now hybrid (DVD/USB) ISOs which can be directly dd'ed to a USB drive and booted.¹

^{1. https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2011-June/033495.html}

Comments

[irrational John]

@EliahKagan The OP appears to be referring to an error message displayed when you attempt to mount any of the 12.04 install ISOs in OS X. I tried mounting validated downloads of ubuntu-12.04-desktop-amd64.iso and ubuntu-12.04-desktop-i386.iso in OS X 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) and verified you do get the error message the OP describes. I also mounted those images with no problems using the Daemon Tools and IsoBuster utilities in Windows 7. It appears to be a problem with how OS X mounts an ISO. But I don't know what it is about the composition of the ISOs which results in this glitch.

[Eliah Kagan]

@irrationalJohn Can you confirm it doesn't happen with an .iso for an earlier version of Ubuntu? If so, then Fufus Rufus's answer about why this is happening is probably correct.

[irrational John]

@EliahKagan I tried what I happened to have available without downloading. Both ubuntu-8.04.4-desktop-amd64.iso and ubuntu-10.04.4-desktop-amd64.iso mounted as expected. ubuntu-11.10-desktop-i386.iso did not. I got the same error message as for the 12.04 ISOs.

[ish]

To the hair-trigger "off-topic" closer: this is an extremely valid and on-topic question. Not every potential Ubuntu user uses Windows.

[ish]

@irrationalJohn - thanks for your experiments confirming the problem, see detailed answer for reason with workaround.

[ish]

Please remember to accept/upvote the best answer to your question (tick/check mark on the left). This way, the question is marked as "answered" and future readers can refer to it knowing the solution works. Thank you...:)

[Fufus Rufus]

@Eliah Kagan I interpreted his post that he could burn and mount but just not as doubleclick action.

[Lorin Hochstein]

The conversion will appear to work, but you won't be able to open the resulting .DMG file.

[jwerre]

hmmm.. worked for me.

[Kem Mason]

didn't work for me

[karel]

Clarify your answer. Explain more fully what you mean by "first be able to load any data at all".

[Mike]

If you need a command-line alternative for extracting isohybrid ISOs, you could try xorriso. Unlike p7zip and its derivatives, it handles Rock Ridge filesystems, and therefore filenames of over 64 characters.

[Ben]

This didn't work for me. So tried xorriso (as described above by Mike. I used xorriso -indev XX-YY.iso -osirrox on -extract / outdoor

[Mark Edington]

This didn't work for me either. It created a .dmg but I get the same "no mountable filesystem" opening that as I do from the source .iso. Using 7zip worked fine to extract the files to disk.

[Roee]

I'm using VMWARE fusion pro 11.0 the behaviour is similar, create new vm open the vm settings instead of autodetect choose the iso from disc using the dropdown

[Greenonline]

Doesn't work, 20.04, and I don't believe that it ever worked for 12.10 either. Gives error no mountable file systems.