Virtualisation on Apple silicon – The Eclectic Light Company
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Viable – create and run macOS virtual machines on Apple silicon Macs
Takes an IPSW image, available from Apple or downloaded in the app, and creates a virtual machine from it. Runs those virtual machines using your settings for the number or cores (vCPU threads), memory, display resolution, shared folders (macOS 13) and iCloud Drive (macOS 15). Supports HiDPI for crisp images on Retina displays and Sonoma’s autoscaling. Lets you create multiple VMs with set Machine IDs for testing purposes. Runs up to two VMs at a time. Uses macOS lightweight virtualisation, so only provides limited Apple Account support in Sequoia. Beta 12 fixes a bug when restoring a minimised window.
Viable beta 12 (1.0.12) (Apple silicon only app for Monterey, Ventura, Sonoma and Sequoia)
ViableS is a sandboxed and locked-down version, which doesn’t share folders or the clipboard with the host, and is ideal for research. This new version fixes a bug when restoring a minimised window..
ViableS beta 12 (1.0.12) (Apple silicon only app for Monterey, Ventura, Sonoma and Sequoia)
Vimy – double-click to run macOS virtual machines on Apple silicon Macs
The ultimate lightweight utility for running macOS VMs. Just double-click a VM and it opens using its saved settings. Typically uses around 35 MB of memory, plus that allocated to the VM. Settings and its bundle format are written by Viable 1.0.9 and later. It has no interface apart from its Open command. Fourth beta fixes a bug when restoring a minimised window.
Vimy 0.7 (fourth beta) (Apple silicon only app for Monterey, Ventura, Sonoma and Sequoia)
Liviable – create and run Linux virtual machines on Apple silicon Macs
Takes a bootable ISO installer distro and creates a GUI virtual machine from it. Runs those virtual machines using your settings for the number of cores (vCPU threads), memory, and display resolution. Lets you create multiple VMs with set Machine IDs for testing purposes. Runs as many VMs as your Mac can support using macOS lightweight virtualisation, shares folders with the host Mac, and supports Rosetta 2 to run Intel binaries in the VM. Update fixes two bugs, improves menus and has a new Help book.
Liviable beta 5 (1.0.5) (Apple silicon only app for Ventura and Sonoma)
Recommended Linux distros
Debian (11.4.0, 11.5.0) 12.4.0
Fedora Workstation Live (36-1.5, 37-1.7) 39-1.5
Gentoo 20231224
Kali 2023.4
Rocky (9.0, 9.1) 9.3
Ubuntu Jammy Jellyfish 22.04.3.
Example Linux commands for Liviable 1.0b4
Mount standard shared folders:
mkdir /tmp/mountpoint
sudo mount -t virtiofs macdir /tmp/mountpoint
ls /tmp/mountpoint
Mount and enable Rosetta 2:
sudo /usr/bin/apt-get install binfmt-support
mkdir /tmp/mountpoint
sudo mount -t virtiofs rosdir /tmp/mountpoint
sudo /usr/sbin/update-binfmts --install rosetta /tmp/mountpoint/rosetta \
--magic "\x7fELF\x02\x01\x01\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x02\x00\x3e\x00" \
--mask "\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xfe\xfe\x00\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xfe\xff\xff\xff" \
--credentials yes --preserve no --fix-binary yes
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