Mounting VMDK files (read-only) in Ubuntu

Tested with Ubuntu 20.04 using guestmount 1.40.2

Install libguestfs-tools

sudo apt install libguestfs-tools

Mount VMDK file

guestmount -a "{:VMDKPath:}" -i --ro "{:MountPoint:}"

Troubleshooting

libguestfs: error: /usr/bin/supermin exited with error status 1

If you’re having trouble mounting a VMDK file without superuser privileges try running (credit to here) but please be aware I do not completely understand the consequences of running that command.

sudo chmod +r /boot/vmlinuz-*