Krunkit

Warning “krunkit” is experimental

Krunkit runs super‑light VMs on macOS/ARM64 with a focus on GPU access. It builds on libkrun, a library that embeds a VMM so apps can launch processes in a hardware‑isolated VM (HVF on macOS, KVM on Linux). The standout feature is GPU support in the guest via Mesa’s Venus Vulkan driver (venus), enabling Vulkan workloads inside the VM. See the project: containers/krunkit.

Install krunkit (host)

brew tap slp/krunkit
brew install krunkit

For reference: https://github.com/slp/homebrew-krun

Using the driver with Lima

Build the driver binary and point Lima to it. See also Virtual Machine Drivers.

git clone https://github.com/lima-vm/lima && cd lima

# From the Lima source tree
# <PREFIX> is your installation prefix. With Homebrew, use: $(brew --prefix)
go build -o <PREFIX>/libexec/lima/lima-driver-krunkit ./cmd/lima-driver-krunkit/main_darwin_arm64.go
limactl info   # "vmTypes" should include "krunkit"

Quick start

• Non‑GPU (general workloads)

limactl start default --vm-type=krunkit

• GPU (Vulkan via Venus)
  • Recommended distro: Fedora 40+ (smoothest Mesa/Vulkan setup; uses COPR “slp/mesa-krunkit” for patched mesa-vulkan-drivers).
  • Start from the krunkit template and follow the logs to complete GPU setup.

• CLI
• YAML

# GPU (Vulkan via Venus on Fedora)
limactl start template:experimental/krunkit

vmType: krunkit

# For AI workloads, at least 4GiB memory and 4 CPUs are recommended.
memory: 4GiB
cpus: 4
arch: aarch64

# Fedora 40+ is preferred for Mesa & Vulkan (Venus) support
base:
- template://_images/fedora

mounts:
- location: "~"
  writable: true

mountType: virtiofs

vmOpts:
  krunkit:
    gpuAccel: true

After the VM is READY, inside the VM:

sudo install-vulkan-gpu.sh

Notes and caveats

• macOS Ventura or later on Apple Silicon is required.
• GPU mode requires a Fedora image/template; Fedora 40+ recommended for Mesa/Vulkan (Venus).
• To verify GPU/Vulkan in the guest, use tools like vulkaninfo after running the install script.
• Libkrun and Ramalama(a tool that simplifies running AI models locally) use CPU inferencing as of July 2, 2025 and are actively working to support GPU inferencing. More info.
• Driver architecture details: see Virtual Machine Drivers.