Mount a KVM image (.img) file directly

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This HowTo describes the steps necessary to mount a GNU/Linux virtual machine image file created by "virt-install" and used by KVM.

1) Connect the image as "loop" device:

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$ losetup <image_filename.img>

returns:

Loop device is /dev/loop0

If this doesn't work (for whatever reason), you can do it manually.
Check the next available/free loop device:

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$ losetup -f

For example, on a Ubuntu live distro it will return

/dev/loop2

(Because loop0 and loop1 are taken by the live distro).
Then assign the image to that loop device:

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$ losetup /dev/loop2 <image_filename.img>

2) Map the partitions which are inside the image:

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$ sudo kpartx -av /dev/loop0

returns:

add map loop0p1 (253:0): 0 20967424 linear /dev/loop0 2048

3) Mount the desired partition(s):

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$ mount /dev/mapper/loop0p1 <mountpoint>

Voila!

Unmounting is basically the same in reverse order with "delete" arguments:

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$ unmount /mnt
$ kpartx -dv /dev/loop0
$ losetup -d /dev/loop0

Thanks to Kirk Dougland's article "Mounting a KVM Disk Image" and David Champion's page Mounting a KVM disk image without KVM.