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First of all, I am not sure if my question should be here as I couldn't find a place to shoot it. So please direct me to the right site, if I am barking at the wrong tree..

Question : In our normal PCs/laptops we have the ability to install 3rd party softwares to create a virtual CD/DVD drive and mount .iso files to it.

For the sake of mobility, (as I am on the go 90% of the time) I want to buy a tablet. So I am wondering if I could do the same in either Asus or Samsung tablet 8.0?

If above tablets can't perform this function, can someone point out why and which tablets would do it?

Izzy
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aspiring
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  • Why exactly do you want to mount ISO images? That's a rather unusual request; perhaps we can suggest something else just as good if we knew why. Generally it's more efficient to rip the content to another kind of file than mount an entire disc. – Logos Sep 15 '13 at 11:29
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    I am on the go always. And my current laptop is rather heavy. Plus DVD rom is external. So I want to get a tab that can play DVDs from .iso's being mounted on virtual DVD rom. Most of my part time study materials come in CD/DVD format. Anything that goes better than this, would be appreciated too. – aspiring Sep 16 '13 at 15:18
  • @Logos I have the .iso. ill mount them in my laptop to a virtual rom n rip them as .mp4...last resort though – aspiring Sep 19 '13 at 19:07
  • @Logos, to answer your question why you would want to mount ISO images; suppose you go on a vacation, take 10000 digital pictures, copy them to your computer; on linux you can use genisoimage to put a set of files/dirs in a single iso file;on windows you can use infrarecorder(free) to do that;so you have for example,a trip contained in a single iso file,and keep track of 1 file instead of 10000 and it is easier to move around etc;so if you can mount it, you can view the images without having to extract them,as you'd have to from a zip file;so ISOs are great to organize files you don't modify – jmarina Feb 05 '14 at 07:54
  • @jmarina I guess what you mentioned is much better. I will try it out – aspiring Feb 06 '14 at 02:48

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Underneath Android is Linux kernel. So if you install a custom rom with a custom kernel on any of tablets you can do that. The kernel should have loop device support + CONFIG_ISO9660_FS module or built-in. Then you will need root+busybox. Install some terminal emulator and type this commands:

  1. su
  2. cd /sdcard
  3. mkdir mountpoint
  4. mount -t iso9660 image.iso mountpoint -o ro,loop

Also if your iso contaions UDF file system you will need kernel UDF support.

Nazar554
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  • Appreciate your answer. But I can't try this until I buy a tablet can I?. :) I just want to make sure I buy the right device, so the experiments I do won't explode the entire device, coz I am not good with Linux scripting. Just the basics. I guess I also have to give the correct path to .iso file. It would be great if Samsung/Azuz or any tablet giant can really clarify these features of the device. Because tablet doesn't anyway have a DVD ROM. So how can we play DVDs from a tablet? – aspiring Sep 16 '13 at 15:22
  • @aspiring I don't know any tablet manufacturer who makes tablets with ISO mounting support out of the box. Even the Cyanogenmod(one of the best custom ROMS) doesn't have CONFIG_ISO9660_FS in the default kernel. But as long you understand the commands and have the right kernel built for your device you should be able to do it. After that you can just open .vob files with MX Player in the VIDEO_TS directory inside your mount point. – Nazar554 Sep 17 '13 at 16:03
  • Now assuming I am all set for your suggestion, yet when I went to the above mentioned product centres they said you shouldn't mess with kernal. If anything goes wrong we won't repair. That was not well... how can I make sure the tablet has the ability before buying? Or else ill have to convert the .iso to a .mp4.. – aspiring Sep 19 '13 at 19:04
  • @aspiring Any tablet you buy won't have ability to mount ISO files out of stock. You will have to use custom kernel. That usually means that you will use your warranty. However you can make a backup of original kernel and install it back if you would want to repair it. But it is possible that they will notice that kernel was changed and they would refuse to repair it. – Nazar554 Sep 20 '13 at 14:28
  • Now that I was forced to get to know Android sdk, ADB commands, I will surely try these one of these days, given my phone comes back live :$ – aspiring Nov 27 '13 at 16:35