Merge pull request #81 from tetrahedras/mount-vm-image

Add instructions for mounting a VM's private storage in another VM

docs/README.md

@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@
 - [restoring 3.2 templates/standalones to 4.0](system/restore-3.2.md)
 - [connect to a VM console](system/vm-console.md)
 - [display reminders to make regular backups](system/backup-reminders.md)
+- [mount a VM's private storage volume in another VM](system/vm-image.md)
 
 `user-setups`
 - [examples of user setups](user-setups/) (templates and VMs used, productivity tips, customizations, ...)

docs/system/vm-image.md

@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+# Mount a VM's private storage in another VM
+
+Useful for data recovery. As per [this Reddit post](https://www.reddit.com/r/Qubes/comments/chgb3h/is_it_possible_to_access_files_inside_a_vm/f8ur03m/):
+
+```
+[dom0] sudo lvcreate --size 1G --snapshot --name tempsnap /dev/mapper/qubes_dom0-vm--untrusted--private
+
+
+[dom0] readlink /dev/mapper/qubes_dom0-tempsnap
+
+
+[dom0] qvm-start --hddisk dom0:/dev/[from previous command] viewervm
+
+(Attaching to a running viewervm was not possible)
+
+
+[viewervm] mkdir -v /tmp/stuff
+
+
+[viewervm] sudo mount /dev/xvdi /tmp/stuff
+```
+If the original VM has more than one partition, have to pick the right one, such as xvdi1 or xvdi2, etcetera.
+
+Could be unmounted, but no commands or options we tried allowed to detach the viewervm until it was stopped. (qvm-block still seems bugged)
+
+Couldn't lvremove until the machine was restarted.