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!

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).