Easy way to try Incus on macOS with Colima

Incus
41

Thanks for the reply, here it is.

→ colima status
INFO[0000] colima is running using macOS Virtualization.Framework
INFO[0000] arch: aarch64
INFO[0000] runtime: incus
INFO[0000] mountType: sshfs

I suppose the command format should be like this.

colima start --nested-virtualization --runtime incus

I have checked the log messages, it is strange.
{“level”:“fatal”,“msg”:“nested virtualization is not supported on this device”,“time”:“2025-05-07T13:35:17+03:00”}
Any idea?

42

How did you start Colima initially?

43

Actually I setup a new machine from TimeMachine backup, so I did not remember. But I have executed colima delete then initialize again like this, colima start --nested-virtualization --runtime incus. Unfortunately, the previous statement appeared in the log again.
Regards.

44

The case has resolved, the actual command line like this.

colima start --nested-virtualization --runtime incus --vm-type vz

Thanks for bear with me.
Regards.

1 Like
45

Hi,
Doing some vm tests in M3, and get those errors most of the time, can you guide me how to debug / analyze the problem in here?

 2025-05-08 09:16:02 ⌚  D0928 in ~
○ → incus shell testubuntu
Error while executing alias expansion: incus exec testubuntu -- su -l
Error: Only running operations can be connected

 2025-05-08 09:16:32 ⌚  D0928 in ~
○ → incus stop testubuntu
Error: Failed shutting down instance, status is "Running": context deadline exceeded
Try `incus info --show-log testubuntu` for more info

P.S.
There is something wrong with the Virtualization.framework, cpu load is over 100 and vm Ubuntu GUI takes too much time to open, very slow.
Regards.

46

What’s your macOS version? Nested virtualization was only introduced in macOS 15.

47

My mac version is 15.4.1, Nowadays I have no problem opening a vm but GUI problem. I have installed a gui environment on Ubuntu 24.04 vm but it stucks and consume too much CPU (over %100). I suppose (but not sure) the problem related with /opt/homebrew/bin/remote-viewer spice+unix:/// (remote-viewer)
Regards.

48

Does Colima support gpu passthrough already?

I would love to host Linux distros, so macOS users can take a quick look at fancy desktop distros that I would prepare.

I figure that I need GPU acceleration for it, since that is needed today for Plasma. Also for Cosmic and Gnome, while I don’t plan on delivering them.

Can GPU support be confirmed, or denied, please?

49

GPU passthrough isn’t very likely as you’d need to have an extra GPU on the host to begin with, then somehow manage to pass that GPU through two level of VMs.

50

Doesn’t Incus somehow support single GPU passthrough, that detaches it from the host, and attaches it to the guest?

51

It does, but Colima runs a VM already which then runs Incus, so for GPU passthrough to work on a Mac, you’d need:

  • MacOS to allow detaching the GPU and attaching it to a VM
  • Colima to support adding such a GPU to its VM
  • Incus in the Colima VM to be able to pass it through to a nested VM

That’s a lot of fun with PCI hotplug, IOMMU and the like, which would be very very surprising if that was at all supported by MacOS.

2 Likes