This post is a guide to run Ubuntu in QEMU on macOS (Apple Silicon).

The laptop in this post is MacBook Pro (13-inch, M1, 2020).

The OS is macOS 12.4 21F79 arm64.

Prerequisite

  1. ubuntu-22.04-live-server-arm64.iso
  2. QEMU >= 7.0
  3. vde_vmnet >= v0.6.0
  4. macOS >= Monterey (Apple Silicon)

Preparation

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# Download the Ubuntu live cd from the official website.
# https://ubuntu.com/download/server/arm

# Install QEMU by Homebrew.
brew install qemu

# Install vde_vmnet.
git clone https://github.com/lima-vm/vde_vmnet
cd vde_vmnet
git config --global --add safe.directory "$(pwd)"
sudo make PREFIX=/opt/vde install

Test

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ping 192.168.105.1

If the test is failed, try to reload the launch plists manually to make sure the processes (vde_switch and vde_vmnet) are running.

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# Unload
sudo launchctl unload -w "/Library/LaunchDaemons/io.github.lima-vm.vde_vmnet.plist"
sudo launchctl unload -w "/Library/LaunchDaemons/io.github.virtualsquare.vde-2.vde_switch.plist"

# Load (order matters)
sudo launchctl load -w "/Library/LaunchDaemons/io.github.virtualsquare.vde-2.vde_switch.plist"
sudo launchctl load -w "/Library/LaunchDaemons/io.github.lima-vm.vde_vmnet.plist"

Install Ubuntu

  1. Download QEMU EFI.

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    curl -L https://releases.linaro.org/components/kernel/uefi-linaro/latest/release/qemu64/QEMU_EFI.fd -o QEMU_EFI.fd

  2. Create an image.

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    qemu-img create -f raw -o preallocation=full ubuntu.img 40G

  3. Boot QEMU to install Ubuntu.

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    qemu-system-aarch64 \
        -machine virt,accel=hvf \
        -cpu host \
        -smp 8 \
        -m 8G \
        -drive if=virtio,format=raw,file=./ubuntu.img \
        -cdrom <path/to/ubuntu iso> \
        -nographic \
        -bios QEMU_EFI.fd

Boot Ubuntu in QEMU

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qemu-system-aarch64 \
        -machine virt,accel=hvf \
        -cpu host \
        -smp 8 \
        -m 8G \
        -nic vde,model=virtio,sock=/var/run/vde.ctl \
        -drive if=virtio,format=raw,file=./ubuntu.img \
        -nographic \
        -bios QEMU_EFI.fd

Test

Use the command lspci to check whether the network device is ready.

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$ lspci

00:00.0 Host bridge: Red Hat, Inc. QEMU PCIe Host bridge
00:01.0 Ethernet controller: Red Hat, Inc. Virtio network device
00:02.0 SCSI storage controller: Red Hat, Inc. Virtio block device

Configure the networking

  1. Get the name of the network device.

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    $ ip link

1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
2: enp0s1: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 52:54:00:12:34:56 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

    We can see the name of the network device is enp0s1.

  2. Configure the netplan.

    i. Create the configuration file.

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    sudo touch /etc/netplan/enp0s1-config.yaml

    ii. Edit the /etc/netplan/enp0s1-config.yaml using the following content.

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    network:
  version: 2
  ethernets:
    enp0s1:
      dhcp4: false
      addresses: [192.168.105.2/24]
      nameservers:
        addresses: [192.168.105.1]
      routes:
        - to: default
          via: 192.168.105.1

  3. Test the netplan.

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    sudo netplan try

# Ping the gateway.
ping 192.168.105.1

Log into the server by SSH

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ssh 192.168.105.2