Mounting KVM image

[Alex]

Hi,

> Take it a step at a time:
>
>  guestfish -a systmp-img.img --ro
>  ><fs> list-devices
>  ><fs> list-partitions
>  ><fs> lvs
>
> You can then mount the partition(s) that contain data you want to
> read, for example:
>
>  ><fs> mount /dev/vda1 /

For me, this produced:

><fs> mount /dev/vda1 /
libguestfs: error: mount: /dev/vda1 on /: mount: /dev/vda1 already
mounted or /sysroot/ busy
mount: according to mtab, /dev/vda5 is already mounted on /sysroot

Is it referring to the host mtab or the guest one?

> If you want to actually mount the partition(s) as filesystems on the
> host, you need to use another command, guestmount.  This uses FUSE and

I thought this was the whole point of the "mount" commands you
referenced above? If not, what is the difference? Where else would it
mount it, virtually, within guestfish only?

The docs say clearly not to use guestmount to mount partitions on a
live system. What program can be used for this purpose, such as to
perform a backup while the guest is actually running?

I've managed to successfully mount the image using a simple guestmount
command. Is there an option for it to be more verbose while it's
starting, to have it print out information on what it's doing while
booting, particularly for non-kvm-capable systems?

Thanks,
Alex