UTM: Run x86 VM on Mac M1

UTM is a full-featured system emulator and virtual machine host for iOS and macOS. It is based off of QEMU.

Typical tasks

• run docker images designed for amd64(or any other including RISC) on Apple Silicon (M1, M2 chips)
• compile code for amd64(or any other including RISC) on Apple Silicon (M1, M2 chips)
• run and test application developed not for on Apple Silicon (M1, M2 chips)

UTM VM setup

Get UTM via brew

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brew install --cask utm

Choose:

• [Option A]: install OS from UTM gallery https://mac.getutm.app/gallery/
• [Option B]: Install OS manually. You need ISO file for desired OS!

Below UTM config works for Ubuntu version 14/16/18/22

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Edit VM:
  - System:
    - Architecture: x86_64
    - System: Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996) (alias of pc-i440fx-7.0)
    - CPU cores: 4
  - QEMU:  
    - Tweaks: RNG Device, Use local time for base clock, Force PS/2 controller
  - Network:
    - Network Mode: Emulated VLAN
    - Emulated Network Cartd: rtl8139
    - Port Forwarding: Host(2022)->Guest(22) 

If port forwarding configured as above user ubuntu:ubuntu can login via ssh

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ssh [email protected] -p 2022

File sharing (!to be tested)

• via Spice drive

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sudo apt install spice-vdagent spice-webdavd

• via SMB

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sudo apt-get install cifs-utils
sudo mount -t cifs //10.0.2.2/shared ~/shared

Performance results (not finished)

Benchmarking software used https://github.com/akopytov/sysbench

Prepared:

• Host: MAC Monterey 12.6.1, M1 pro 10 cores, 32GB RAM

  1	brew install sysbench

• UTM Emulated guest: Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS, 4 cores, 4GB RAM

  1	sudo apt-get install sysbench

CPU Benchmark results

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sysbench cpu --threads=$NUMBER_OF_THREADS --cpu-max-prime=200000 run

Increasing of $NUMBER_OF_THREADS just makes the results worse on HOST and GUEST systems

MEM Benchmark results

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sysbench --threads=$NUMBER_OF_THREADS --test=memory --memory-block-size=1M --memory-total-size=30G run

I/O

Not needed

7zip

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7z b