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Guest OS

1 - Linux

Linux is the default guest operating system.

See also

2 - macOS

⚡ RequirementLima >= 2.1, macOS, ARM

Running macOS guests is experimentally supported since Lima v2.1.

limactl start template:macos

limactl start template:homebrew-macos

The user password is randomly generated and stored in the ~/password file in the VM. Consider changing it after the first login.

limactl shell macos cat /Users/${USER}.guest/password

Difference from Linux guests

  • Password login is enabled
  • Password-less sudo is disabled, except for /sbin/shutdown -h now
  • Several features are not implemented yet. See Caveats below.

Caveats

  • No support for turning off the video display.
  • No support for automatic port forwarding. Use ssh -L to manually set up port forwarding, or, use the vzNAT network to access the guest by its IP.
  • No support for installing custom caCerts

3 - FreeBSD

⚡ RequirementLima >= 2.1

Running FreeBSD guests is experimentally supported since Lima v2.1.

limactl start --mount-none template:freebsd-15

limactl start template:experimental/freebsd-16

Prerequisites:

  • QEMU
  • xorriso (on non-macOS hosts)

Difference from Linux guests

  • Several features are not implemented yet. See Caveats below.

Caveats

  • No support for automatic port forwarding. Use ssh -L to manually set up port forwarding.
  • No support for installing custom caCerts
  • And more

FreeBSD prior to 16

  • No support for mounting host directories. Use limactl cp or limactl shell --sync to share files with the host.