running x86_64 `.ova` VMs on an m1 mac

x86-m1.md

• install homebrew if you have not already

  • /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

• install qemu

  • brew install qemu

• extract the .ova file

  • tar -xvf /path/to/ova

• convert the .ova file to a .qcow2 file

  • qemu-img convert -O qcow2 /path/to/vdmk /path/to/output/qcow2
  • make sure you have the .qcow2 extension in the output path
  • there is no output until the processing is complete. it might take up to 5 minutes

• download utm

• make a new virtual machine in utm

  • click the + icon on the top menu and then "start from scratch"
  • go to the "drives" tab and click "import drive", then select the .qcow2 we just made
  • in some cases you might have to disable uefi booting
    • click on "system", then "advanced settings", and then unselect "uefi booting"
  • by default, preformance is awful. to fix this you should give at least 6gb of RAM, 6 cores and enable mulicore mode
  • click "save"

• start the virtual machine and enjoy x86_64 emulation on your m1 mac!

Does this actually work? Is it performant even if you have at least 8GB dedicated to it?

Does this actually work? Is it performant even if you have at least 8GB dedicated to it?

Yes it works

I had 6gb dedicated to it and it was sluggish but not too awful

i dont see a start from scratch from the + top menu, did it change?

EDIT: think i found it, just go custom and skip ISO boot. then edit and add drive

Hello @Aberdeener I'm new to UTM, I followed your procedure and when I press the + icon it asks me to choose between emulation end virtualization, whatever I choose it brings me to stuck as shown in the image.

Do you (or anyone) have any suggestion?

Thanks

disable UEFI booting in the options

Hey @sadn1ck thank you a ton for the tip, removing that flag actually got me going through the first step, but afterwards the prompt says "no bootable device". I've tried with all the available drive types but no luck, do you think it could be a problem with the image itself? Consider that it's a RHEL 7 OVA (that now I've converted in .qcow2 as suggested by @Aberdeener ) I used to run smoothly on VMware Fusion with Intel CPU.

try removing all other drives and just keep the qcow2 imported one, if that doesn't work - maybe the image itself is the problem. (also disable network booting - I uninstalled UTM since I tried it, so don't remember all the details)

Kudos @sadn1ck and thanks, you hit the target: by removing the default disk created by UTM my image actually started (although for some reason it doesn't work maybe for controllers issue it starts dracut and doesn't proceed further).