Installing Arch Linux ARM on macOS Apple Virtualization Framework with UTM App

Virtualization Framework | Apple Developer Documentation

UTM

UTM is an actively developed, open-source virtualization app that supports the Apple Virtualization Framework.

Download and Install UTM | Virtual machines for Mac

Arch linux

Archboot - Additional Arch Linux ISOs And UKIs

curl -O https://archboot.com/iso/aarch64/latest/boot/Image-aarch64
curl -O https://archboot.com/iso/aarch64/latest/boot/initrd-latest-aarch64.img

❯ file Image-archboot-aarch64  initrd-aarch64.img

Image-archboot-aarch64: Linux kernel ARM64 boot executable Image, little-endian, 4K pages

initrd-aarch64.img:     Zstandard compressed data (v0.8+), Dictionary ID: None

The “Image-archboot-aarch64” is the Linux kernel executable image specifically designed for the ARM64 architecture. It is used to boot and run Arch Linux on ARM64-based systems.

The “initrd-aarch64.img” is an initial RAM disk file. It contains a minimal file system that is loaded into memory during the boot process. The initial RAM disk provides necessary drivers and tools to set up the system before the actual root file system is mounted. It is used in conjunction with the kernel image to initialize the Arch Linux installation.

Arch Linux install UTM

Create a new virtual machine
Virtualize
Linux > Use Apple Virtualization > Boot from Kernel image
Use Image-archboot-aarch64 in Uncompressed Linux Kernel
Use initrd-aarch64.img in Uncompressed Linux initial RAM disk
Defined hardware and shared folder properties