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Ubuntu Linux virtualized on M1 (success!)

thank you to all contributing to this thread - some great info in here!

unfortunately, im missing 'something' ... I wonder if anyone can point me in the right direction.

I need to be able to (cross) compile for a rPI image based on debian stretch.
so Ive tried to follow a few instruction here, on getting a debian stretch image, copying vmlinuz, initrd and using vftool to run - so far so good.

BUT the debian stretch images are all cd/net install.... so when I boot them up, they just complain about not being able to find cd driver....
however, my assumptioin is this is because for some reason they cannot find the network... which I think they would use if they could find it...

I did try to use one @mikeboss 20. LTS release, which works great
BUT... then when I try to use qemu-debootstrap to load a stretch image... as soon as i try to install qemu-user-static, i get failures due to 'flash-kernel' unsupported architure.

any thougts on a direction to try... so that i can compile for a rPI using stretch?
 
so far I was unable to run debian. the author of vftool somehow managed to get it up and running ->
github.com

GitHub - evansm7/vftool: A simple macOS Virtualisation.framework wrapper

A simple macOS Virtualisation.framework wrapper. Contribute to evansm7/vftool development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com github.com

Screen Shot 2020-12-14 at 21.40.08.png
 
mikeboss said:
so far I was unable to run debian. the author of vftool somehow managed to get it up and running ->
Click to expand...


yeah, I saw this - but Im also not sure which image is being used....
from my (various) attempts, im getting the feeling you cannot bootstrap this thru the netinst, it feels like it works when using 'live images' - however, debian dont have live images for arm64 only x86/amd64

so... im starting to wonder if the note about using debootstrap is, the author is using another linux box to create complete image, that is then just transferred to the mac?
 
hmm, interesting... so I tried your image @mikeboss...
and I also tried Peter's (rossbachp ) walkthru for the cloud image install... and I get the same issue on both

as soon as I try to install anything via apt I get the following error message.

Code: 
Setting up flash-kernel (3.98ubuntu12) ...
flash-kernel: deferring update (trigger activated)
Processing triggers for flash-kernel (3.98ubuntu12) ...
Unsupported platform.
dpkg: error processing package flash-kernel (--configure):
 installed flash-kernel package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 flash-kernel
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
 

@mikeboss​

After connecting with ssh on the machine and complete the previous instruction when arrive on the section Guided storage configuration. The installer gives me this error
Block probing did not discover any disks. Unfortunately, this means that installation will not be possible.
 
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Parallels have released a 'technical preview' of an M1 native VM.
some videos on youtube of people running windows 10 arm on it, but presumably it should be good for linux arm too.
www.parallels.com

Parallels Desktop for Mac with Apple M1 chip

Best way to run Windows on Mac - Parallels Product Blog - Run Windows, Linux, and more on your Mac. Helpful tips and tricks, Apple macOS and Mirosoft Windows news
www.parallels.com

I plan to give it a go soon.
(though recently, Ive actually found I could do most of what I wanted by setting up a new cross-compilation environment - so dont really need a unix host - so priority of this dropped a bit for me :) )
 
MK500 said:
Similar problem here. I created a disk image by doing:
Disk Utility -> File -> New Image -> Blank Image -> Size: 20gb, Format: FAT, Partition: no partition map

Using ubuntu-20.04.1-live-server-arm64.iso I was able to get quite a ways into the installation, and thought it maybe completed. But it rebooted back into the installer.

I can then go to the help menu and access a shell. I see that my 20GB volume is mounted and there are a lot of files there, but unsure why I cannot boot off of it. I was able to pull up an error log from the help menu that seems to have a detailed installation log...but it is HUGE. Not sure where the failure point is.
Click to expand...
I am newbie here. can you show me more specific info about how to mount "extra disk" and "confirm it is mounted" ? thanks a lot!
 
If you're into command line, you could also try out my version: https://github.com/ren-e/vmd . It's based on the OpenBSD vmd/vmctl, but uses the same Apple Hypervisor Framework like SimpleVM and vftool. The purpose is to keep mostly aligned with vmd/vmctl syntax.
 
Last edited:
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Long shot I guess but has anyone managed to get Centos 7 virtualised? :) I need it for work purposes. Tried Parallels, it gets the boot menu ('Install CentOS 7' / 'Test this media & install Centos7') but selecting any option just briefly blanks the screen and returns to the menu. For vftool, I copied the PXEBoot files from the ISO (vmlinuz and initrd.img), un-gzipped the vmlinuz file and tried the following command:

./vftool -k vmlinuz -i initrd.img -c CentOS-7-aarch64-Everything-2009.iso -d centos.img -p 2 -m 4096 -a "console=hvc0 root=/dev/vda1"

The vftool output, once I attach to the tty, suggests things are good:

2021-02-17 10:56:41.261 vftool[30022:1436995] +++ Attaching disc CentOS-7-aarch64-Everything-2009.iso
2021-02-17 10:56:41.262 vftool[30022:1436995] +++ Attaching disc centos.img
2021-02-17 10:56:41.262 vftool[30022:1436995] +++ Configuration validated.
2021-02-17 10:56:41.262 vftool[30022:1436995] +++ canStart = 1, vm state 0
2021-02-17 10:56:41.484 vftool[30022:1437085] +++ VM started

But there's no output on the tty, even after waiting a long while (I figured it might just be quiet while booting).

Anyone got any insights? :) Would love to use my M1 for work purposes - i'm trying to put together a poor-man's Vagrant setup...
 
@teh_mungler

AFAIK some Linux distros don't work because of how they try to allocate memory.
AFAIR you'd have to recompile the kernel to get it working.

quick solution: get the Tech Preview of Docker Desktop for Apple M1:
docs.docker.com

Mac

Install Docker Desktop for Mac to get started. This guide covers system requirements, where to download, and instructions on how to install and update.
docs.docker.com docs.docker.com

"docker pull centos" and you're ready to go...
 
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mikeboss said:
@teh_mungler

AFAIK some Linux distros don't work because of how they try to allocate memory.
AFAIR you'd have to recompile the kernel to get it working.

quick solution: get the Tech Preview of Docker Desktop for Apple M1:
docs.docker.com

Mac

Install Docker Desktop for Mac to get started. This guide covers system requirements, where to download, and instructions on how to install and update.
docs.docker.com docs.docker.com

"docker pull centos" and you're ready to go...
Click to expand...
Thanks, I might look into it but our tech setup is not Docker-native at present, so not sure if that could work. Thanks though!
 
mikeboss said:
@teh_mungler

AFAIK some Linux distros don't work because of how they try to allocate memory.
AFAIR you'd have to recompile the kernel to get it working.

quick solution: get the Tech Preview of Docker Desktop for Apple M1:
docs.docker.com

Mac

Install Docker Desktop for Mac to get started. This guide covers system requirements, where to download, and instructions on how to install and update.
docs.docker.com docs.docker.com

"docker pull centos" and you're ready to go...
Click to expand...
I've been meaning to use Docker to test performance with cross-platform x86_64 in centos. It is fast enough that my simple test didn't really seem to prove much. I'm going to have to go with a more sophisticated test but my I/O test with dd was impressive on a purely emulated platform.

On my M1 MacBook Air (8C/16GB/1TB)
Screen Shot 2021-02-19 at 2.36.58 AM.png
 
jdb8167 said:
I've been meaning to use Docker to test performance with cross-platform x86_64 in centos. It is fast enough that my simple test didn't really seem to prove much. I'm going to have to go with a more sophisticated test but my I/O test with dd was impressive on a purely emulated platform.

On my M1 MacBook Air (8C/16GB/1TB)
View attachment 1732090
Click to expand...
Some more Docker on M1 performance testing. I'm using openssl speed aes-256-cbc benchmark.

First native on the M1 MacBook Air (16GB/1TB):
Screen Shot 2021-02-19 at 3.18.10 AM.png


Then on Docker running ARM64 Centos:
Screen Shot 2021-02-19 at 3.20.15 AM.png


Finally on Docker running x86_64 cross-platform on the M1 in Centos:
Screen Shot 2021-02-19 at 3.27.03 AM.png


Looking at just the 16384 byte tests: native Docker Centos is 255% faster than emulated; Darwin is .4% slower than Docker Centos which is kind of interesting. You don't lose anything by using Docker for this test.

Edit: These are single thread tests. It might be interesting to do a 2 or 4 core test but it is getting late for me.
 
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