OVM

Run ovm-core virtual machine on Apple Virtualization Framework.

Requirements

• macOS 12.3 or later
• Linux image must use ovm core

Usage

Currently, we only provide the option to start via the command line.

Command Line Parameters

-name (Required)

Name of the virtual machine.

-cpus (Required)

The number of CPUs allocated to the virtual machine.

-memory (Required)

The amount of memory allocated to the virtual machine (in MB).

-log-path (Required)

We request to provide a directory to store the logs of the latest 3 instances, for the purpose of troubleshooting.

The format of the log file name is as follows:

• ${name}-ovm.log (latest)
• ${name}-ovm.2.log
• ${name}-ovm.3.log
• ${name}-vfkit.log (latest)
• ${name}-vfkit.2.log
• ${name}-vfkit.3.log
• ...

-socket-path (Required)

During the startup process of the virtual machine, ovm will create some socket files. To facilitate management. Every time ovm starts, it will delete the files in the directory.

-ssh-key-path (Required)

Store SSH public and private keys. You can connect to the virtual machine through here the SSH public key.

Format: ${name}-ovm and ${name}-ovm.pub

-kernel-path (Required)

Path to the kernel image.

Regarding the kernel field, if the system is Mac ARM64 (M series), the kernel file needs to be uncompressed (not bzImage). For more information on this, please refer to: kernel arm64 booting

-initrd-path (Required)

Path to the initial ramdisk image

-rootfs-path (Required)

Path to rootfs image

-target-path (Required)

In order to address the issues that may occur when some files are damaged or other malfunctions happen, the program will first copy the files from the kernel/initrd/rootfs to this directory.

At the same time, ovm will also create tmp.img and data.img in this directory. Where data.img is the data (images, containers, etc.) of the virtual machine.

-versions (Required)

Set versions of the kernel/initrd/rootfs/data

Format: kernel=version,initrd=version,rootfs=version,data=version

When the version number differs from the previous one, the new file will be used to overwrite the previous file.

-bind-pid (Optional)

OVM will exit when the bound pid exited

-power-save-mode (Optional)

Enable power save mode.

Pause the guest when the Mac goes to sleep, resume the guest when the Mac wakes up, and synchronize the time.

-event-socket-path (Optional)

Send event to this socket.

When a socket file is passed to this parameter, the ovm sends the current status to this socket. The sent request is: http://ovm/notify?event=EVENT&message=MESSAGE

For more about this, please see: ipc event

-cli (Optional)

Run in CLI mode.

When this parameter is passed in, the debug parameter of the kernel will also be enabled (in order to display more detailed logs).

-help (Optional)

Show help message.