Intel-on-ARM and ARM-on-Intel

Lima supports several modes for running Intel-on-ARM and ARM-on-Intel:

• Slow mode
• Fast mode
• Fast mode 2

Slow mode: Intel VM on ARM Host / ARM VM on Intel Host

Lima can run a VM with a foreign architecture, using QEMU.

For port forwarding, the lima-additional-guestagents package has to be installed on the host.

An example configuration:

• CLI
• YAML

limactl start --vm-type=qemu --arch=x86_64 --plain

# Starting with Lima v2.0, `vmType` has to be expclitly set to "qemu" on non-Linux hosts.
vmType: "qemu"

# Supported architectures:
#   Non-experimental: aarch64, x86_64
#   Experimental:     armv7l, ppc64le, riscv64, s390x
#
# containerd is not automatically installed for the experimental architectures.
arch: "x86_64"

# A slow host may need `plain` to disable mounts, port forwards, and containerd, so as to avoid timeout.
plain: true

base:
- template://_images/ubuntu

Running a VM with a foreign architecture is extremely slow. Consider using Fast mode or Fast mode 2 whenever possible.

Fast mode: Intel containers on ARM VM on ARM Host / ARM containers on Intel VM on Intel Host

This mode uses QEMU User Mode Emulation. QEMU User Mode Emulation is significantly faster than QEMU System Mode Emulation, but it often sacrifices compatibility.

Set up:

lima sudo systemctl start containerd
lima sudo nerdctl run --privileged --rm tonistiigi/binfmt:qemu-v10.0.4-56@sha256:30cc9a4d03765acac9be2ed0afc23af1ad018aed2c28ea4be8c2eb9afe03fbd1 --install all

Run containers:

$ lima nerdctl run --platform=amd64 --rm alpine uname -m
x86_64

$ lima nerdctl run --platform=arm64 --rm alpine uname -m
aarch64

Build and push container images:

$ lima nerdctl build --platform=amd64,arm64 -t example.com/foo:latest .
$ lima nerdctl push --all-platforms example.com/foo:latest

See also https://github.com/containerd/nerdctl/blob/main/docs/multi-platform.md

Fast mode 2 (Rosetta): Intel containers on ARM VM on ARM Host

Rosetta is known to be much faster than QEMU User Mode Emulation. Rosetta is available for VZ instances on ARM hosts.

• CLI
• YAML

limactl start --vm-type=vz --rosetta

vmType: "vz"
rosetta:
  # Enable Rosetta for Linux.
  # Hint: try `softwareupdate --install-rosetta` if Lima gets stuck at `Installing rosetta...`
  enabled: true
  # Register rosetta to /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc
  binfmt: true

Enable Rosetta AOT Caching with CDI spec

Rosetta AOT Caching speeds up containers by saving translated binaries, so they don’t need to be translated again.
Learn more: WWDC2023 video

How to use Rosetta AOT Caching:

• Run a container:
  Add --device=lima-vm.io/rosetta=cached to your docker run command:

  docker run --platform=linux/amd64 --device=lima-vm.io/rosetta=cached ...
  

• Build an image:
  Add # syntax=docker/dockerfile:1-labs at the top of your Dockerfile to enable the --device option.
  Use --device=lima-vm.io/rosetta=cached in your RUN command:

  # syntax=docker/dockerfile:1-labs
  FROM ...
  ...
  RUN --device=lima-vm.io/rosetta=cached <your amd64 command>
  

• Check if caching works:
  Look for cache files in the VM:

  limactl shell {{.Name}} ls -la /var/cache/rosettad
  docker run --platform linux/amd64 --device=lima-vm.io/rosetta=cached ubuntu echo hello
  limactl shell {{.Name}} ls -la /var/cache/rosettad
  # You should see *.aotcache files here
  

• Check if Docker recognizes the CDI device:
  Look for CDI info in the output of docker info:

  docker info
  ...
  CDI spec directories:
    /etc/cdi
    /var/run/cdi
  Discovered Devices:
    cdi: lima-vm.io/rosetta=cached
  

• Learn more about CDI:
  CDI spec documentation