Hint for package maintainers

Starting with v1.1, the official binary packages of Lima are split to two files for the each of the host OS and the architectures to save the disk space:

1. lima-<VERSION>-Darwin-arm64.tar.gz: (Built with make native)

• The core components (bin/lima, bin/limactl, share/lima/templates, ...)
• The guest agent for the native architecture (share/lima/lima-guestagent.Linux-aarch64.gz)

2. lima-additional-guestagents-<VERSION>-Darwin-arm64.tar.gz: (Built with make additional-guestagents)

• The guest agents for emulating non-native architectures (share/lima/lima-guestagent.Linux-{armv7l,ppc64le,riscv64,s390x,x86_64}.gz))

For compatibility reason, make still builds the guest agents for all the architectures by default.

Package maintainers are suggested to split their lima package to lima (make native) and lima-additional-guestagents (make additional-guestagents).

Changes

• Build system:
  • Split lima-additional-guestagents-*.tar.gz from lima-.tar.gz` (#3503)
  • Set CONFIG_GUESTAGENT_COMPRESS=y by default (#3529)
• YAML:
  • Support inheritance (#3072, thanks to @jandubois)
  • Deprecate provision mode ansible (#3451, thanks to @afbjorklund)
  • Add new provision mode data (#3302, thanks to @jandubois)
• QEMU:
  • Support DragonflyBSD hosts (#3356, thanks to @tuxillo)
  • Support S390X guests (#3319)
  • Support PPC64LE guests (#3488)
  • TCG: change the default CPU from qemu64 (x86-64 v1) to max (#3487)
  • Bump up the minimum QEMU version to v8.2.1 on ARM Mac. On Linux/x86_64, QEMU v6.2.0 is still supported. (#3491)
• WSL2: lots of improvements (several PRs, thanks to @arixmkii)
• Port forwarding: enable faster gRPC implementation by default (#3046)
• limactl CLI:
  • Add --yes flag as an alias of --tty=false (#3342, thanks to @suryaaprakassh)
  • Support resizing disk in limactl edit (#3437, #3533, thanks to @songponssw)
  • Add limactl disk import command (#3439, thanks to @songponssw)
• Rootless Containers: Allow UID >= 524288 (#3435)
• nerdctl: Update from v2.0.4 to v2.1.1. (#3483, #3534)
  See also the release notes in v2.0.5 and v2.1.0.
• Templates:
  • ubuntu-25.04: New template (#3445).
    The default template still refers to Ubuntu 24.10, as ubuntu-25.04 needs
    the very recent release of macOS on Intel Mac by default (see the note below).
  • fedora-42: New template (#3434)
  • linuxbrew: New template (#3454)
  • almalinux-kitten-10: New template (#3084, thanks to @afbjorklund)
  • oraclelinux-8: Fix virtiofs support (#3441)

Full changes: https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/milestone/26?closed=1
Thanks to @KGB33 @Nino-K @afbjorklund @alexandear @apachex692 @arixmkii @cakemanny @jandubois @jonas-peter @kairveeehh @liangyuanpeng @nirs @shenki @songponssw @unsuman

Usage

[macOS]$ limactl create
[macOS]$ limactl start
...
INFO[0029] READY. Run `lima` to open the shell.

[macOS]$ lima uname
Linux

The binaries were built automatically on GitHub Actions.
The build log is available for 90 days: https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/actions/runs/15014845820

The sha256sum of the SHA256SUMS file itself is 9819732a0d6b1545a82419c9debc2144a131c33a4df4da8f8a040e16ee96861a .

Release manager: @AkihiroSuda

Changes

• YAML: support inheritance (#3072, thanks to @jandubois)
• QEMU:
  • Support DragonflyBSD hosts (#3356, thanks to @tuxillo)
  • Support S390X guests (#3319)
• WSL2: lots of improvements (several PRs, thanks to @arixmkii)
• Port forwarding: enable faster gRPC implementation by default (#3046)
• limactl CLI:
  • Add --yes flag as an alias of --tty=false (#3342, thanks to @suryaaprakassh)
• Rootless Containers:
  • Allow UID >= 524288 (#3435)
• Templates:
  • Add fedora-42 (#3434). NOTE: known to be incompatible with vz on Intel Mac (#3334)

Full changes: https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/milestone/26?closed=1
Thanks to @KGB33 @Nino-K @alexandear @apachex692 @arixmkii @jandubois @kairveeehh @nirs @suryaaprakassh @tatucosmin @tuxillo @unsuman

Usage

[macOS]$ limactl create
[macOS]$ limactl start
...
INFO[0029] READY. Run `lima` to open the shell.

[macOS]$ lima uname
Linux

The binaries were built automatically on GitHub Actions.
The build log is available for 90 days: https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/actions/runs/14506898171

The sha256sum of the SHA256SUMS file itself is faf7231bcd9b7fd715074dbd18b9b970e72c503e9f61a2fcc9a36bbfb1c67f1c .

Release manager: @AkihiroSuda

Changes

• YAML: support inheritance (#3072, thanks to @jandubois)
• QEMU:
  • Support DragonflyBSD hosts (#3356, thanks to @tuxillo)
  • Support S390X guests (#3319)
• WSL2: lots of improvements (several PRs, thanks to @arixmkii)

Full changes: https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/milestone/26?closed=1
Thanks to @arixmkii @jandubois @kairveeehh @nirs @tatucosmin @tuxillo @unsuman

Usage

[macOS]$ limactl create
[macOS]$ limactl start
...
INFO[0029] READY. Run `lima` to open the shell.

[macOS]$ lima uname
Linux

The binaries were built automatically on GitHub Actions.
The build log is available for 90 days: https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/actions/runs/14009233192

The sha256sum of the SHA256SUMS file itself is 714584d76674e24df765bb6ac88af1f7332c5b2f73c9796d6dca49c9b363e6d3 .

Release manager: @AkihiroSuda

Changes

• nerdctl: update to v2.0.4 (#3373)
• WSL2: lots of improvements (several PRs, thanks to @arixmkii)
• Makefile: allow setting KEEP_SYMBOLS=1 (#3236)
• go.mod: experimental integration of gomodjail (library sandbox) (#3238, #3260)

Full changes: https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/milestone/57?closed=1

Thanks to @alexandear @arixmkii @jandubois @kairveeehh @mook-as @rfay

Usage

[macOS]$ limactl create
[macOS]$ limactl start
...
INFO[0029] READY. Run `lima` to open the shell.

[macOS]$ lima uname
Linux

The binaries were built automatically on GitHub Actions.
The build log is available for 90 days: https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/actions/runs/14009229801

The sha256sum of the SHA256SUMS file itself is 59f4e8a5b40e6477849ac2dc343b33c9b1c30538516ef44530873d401da7e646 .

Release manager: @AkihiroSuda

QEMU:

• Revert "Restrict pessimization of M4 arch to macOS 15.2"; upgrade Cortex-A72 to Cortex-A76 (#3227)

YAML:

• Support customizing user shell (#3207, thanks to @afbjorklund)

Full changes: https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/milestone/56?closed=1

Thanks to @afbjorklund @alexandear @kairveeehh

Usage

[macOS]$ limactl create
[macOS]$ limactl start
...
INFO[0029] READY. Run `lima` to open the shell.

[macOS]$ lima uname
Linux

The binaries were built automatically on GitHub Actions.
The build log is available for 90 days: https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/actions/runs/13297347764

The sha256sum of the SHA256SUMS file itself is 8e241d4ac136423afab65452e1501b2252f84757d7f9385e3d2bdbece0fe5242 .

Release manager: @AkihiroSuda

Changes

• limactl CLI:
  • Fix start command: return error early when instance already exists (#3144, thanks to @jandubois)
• DNS:
  • Fix a regression containers/gvisor-tap-vsock#466 (#3189)
• QEMU:
  • Enable SME on macOS 15.3 running on M4 (#3197, #3203, thanks to @jandubois)

Full changes: https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/milestone/55?closed=1
Thanks to @alexandear @arixmkii @jandubois @msgilligan @olamilekan000 @rfay @s1gnate-sync

Usage

[macOS]$ limactl create
[macOS]$ limactl start
...
INFO[0029] READY. Run `lima` to open the shell.

[macOS]$ lima uname
Linux

The binaries were built automatically on GitHub Actions.
The build log is available for 90 days: https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/actions/runs/13195714188

The sha256sum of the SHA256SUMS file itself is d31365f1da7802a63c86b1e1609a19c1ce92244a4e6824d924a896b6c12810b0 .

Release manager: @AkihiroSuda

Changes

• network:
  • Use MAC address as dhcpd identifier (#3123, thanks to @nirs)
  • Updated gvisor-tap-vsock to v0.8.2 to fix a DNS issue (#3133)
• YAML:
  • Un-deprecate non-strict YAML (#3104, thanks to @jandubois)
• nerdctl:
  • Updated from v2.0.1 to v2.0.3 (#3134)
• Templates:
  • Updated to the latest revisions (#3134)

Full changes: https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/milestone/54?closed=1
Thanks to @afbjorklund @alexandear @jandubois @nirs @olamilekan000 @paulinek13

Usage

[macOS]$ limactl create
[macOS]$ limactl start
...
INFO[0029] READY. Run `lima` to open the shell.

[macOS]$ lima uname
Linux

The binaries were built automatically on GitHub Actions.
The build log is available for 90 days: https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/actions/runs/12899702091

The sha256sum of the SHA256SUMS file itself is 05b809c6e23fa411fd6987c4fab1ceccb8efda36241130cc5269ba746a2a7762 .

Release manager: @AkihiroSuda

Changes

• QEMU:
  • Support Apple M4 (#3032)
• gRPC port forwarder:
  • Improvements on stability (#2971, #2985, etc. thanks to @nirs @balajiv113)
• Templates:
  • archlinux: allow 9p again (#3048)
  • centos-stream-10: New template (#3023, #3047, thanks to @afbjorklund)
  • opensuse: disable virtiofs due to the lack of the kernel module in the default installation (#3056)
  • Updated to the latest revisions (#3043)

Full changes: https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/milestone/52?closed=1
Thanks to @PascalBourdier @afbjorklund @alexandear @balajiv113 @cpick @jandubois @nirs @olamilekan000

Usage

[macOS]$ limactl create
[macOS]$ limactl start
...
INFO[0029] READY. Run `lima` to open the shell.

[macOS]$ lima uname
Linux

The binaries were built automatically on GitHub Actions.
The build log is available for 90 days: https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/actions/runs/12517401436

The sha256sum of the SHA256SUMS file itself is 69423d9f9044fc9264925d24cd38c1d0efb4367cfb46c568313f53d6f0ed7ee2 .

Release manager: @AkihiroSuda

Changes

• DNS:

  • Fixed the host resolver regression in v1.0.0 #2939 (#2964)

• limactl create:

  • Fixed races during parallel downloads (#2903, thanks to @nirs)
  • Optimized qcow2-to-raw conversion for vz mode (#2933, thanks to @nirs)

• limactl start-at-login:

  • Fixed the support for Linux hosts (systemd) (#2943, thanks to @kachick)

• nerdctl:

  • Updated to v2.0.1 (#2966)

• Templates:

  • Updated to the latest revisions (#2936 #2953, thanks to @tcooper)

• Web site:

  • Added an example of running Lima on GitHub Actions to run commands on non-Ubuntu (#2954): https://lima-vm.io/docs/examples/gha/

• Project:

  • Invite Nir Soffer (@nirs) as a Reviewer (#2916, thanks to @jandubois)

Full changes: https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/milestone/51?closed=1
Thanks to @SpiffyEight77 @alexandear @jandubois @kachick @nirs @norio-nomura @tamird @tcooper

Usage

[macOS]$ limactl create
[macOS]$ limactl start
...
INFO[0029] READY. Run `lima` to open the shell.

[macOS]$ lima uname
Linux

The binaries were built automatically on GitHub Actions.
The build log is available for 90 days: https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/actions/runs/12134682585

The sha256sum of the SHA256SUMS file itself is 02ef78494c498ca4180915ba78d5e2fc471ed401f63dfb2b5864c3711f3c0fb2 .

Release manager: @AkihiroSuda

Reverted the default port forwarder from gRPC to SSH for the stability reason (#2864).
This reversion fixes several regressions related to docker run -p in Lima v1.0.0 (#2859).

Although the gRPC forwarder is faster and has an advanced feature (UDP support), it turned out to be still immature.
Set LIMA_SSH_PORT_FORWARDER=false to opt-in to the gRPC forwarder.
See https://lima-vm.io/docs/config/port/.

Full changes: https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/milestone/50?closed=1
Thanks to @alexandear @jandubois @norio-nomura

Usage

[macOS]$ limactl create
[macOS]$ limactl start
...
INFO[0029] READY. Run `lima` to open the shell.

[macOS]$ lima uname
Linux

The binaries were built automatically on GitHub Actions.
The build log is available for 90 days: https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/actions/runs/11735352652

The sha256sum of the SHA256SUMS file itself is f5c12d003e25dc46291803a8acae9e9d325a45eca0c1f9f40bd6852ec8ed9be1 .

Release manager: @AkihiroSuda