Darwinix is a flake designed for quickly spawning VMs on aarch64-darwin systems.
Darwinix supports the following Linux distributions:
| OS | Version | Command | ISO Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| NixOS | 25.11 (Minimal) | nix run "github:matteo-pacini/darwinix#linux-vm" -- nixos-25-11 |
Downloaded at runtime from NixOS |
| Ubuntu | 25.10 (Desktop) | nix run "github:matteo-pacini/darwinix#linux-vm" -- ubuntu-25-10 |
Downloaded at runtime from CDImage |
| Fedora | Workstation 42 | nix run "github:matteo-pacini/darwinix#linux-vm" -- fedora-workstation-42 |
Downloaded at runtime from Fedora |
| Fedora | Workstation 43 | nix run "github:matteo-pacini/darwinix#linux-vm" -- fedora-workstation-43 |
Downloaded at runtime from Fedora |
| Gentoo | Minimal | nix run "github:matteo-pacini/darwinix#linux-vm" -- gentoo |
Downloaded at runtime from Gentoo |
You can spawn a VM by specifying the distribution name as an argument. For example, to create a NixOS VM:
nix run "github:matteo-pacini/darwinix#linux-vm" -- nixos-25-11
This command will create the necessary VM files locally if they are not found (e.g., EFI, EFI varstore, disk, etc.) and then start the VM.
Note: On first run, the EFI firmware files will be automatically downloaded from edk2-nightly. All distribution ISOs (including NixOS) are downloaded at runtime on first use. An internet connection is required for the initial setup.
Faster Downloads: ISOs are downloaded using aria2c with multiple concurrent connections, which significantly speeds up the download process.
You can pass additional arguments directly to QEMU after the distribution name. For example:
nix run "github:matteo-pacini/darwinix#linux-vm" -- nixos-25-11 -cdrom "/path/to/image.iso"
VMs come with internet access, audio support, and clipboard sharing between your Mac and the VM.
You can customize the VM configuration using environment variables. To see all available options, run:
nix run "github:matteo-pacini/darwinix#linux-vm" -- --help
Example:
CORES=2 RAM=4 nix run "github:matteo-pacini/darwinix#linux-vm" -- nixos-25-11
Use the DISK_SIZE environment variable to set the initial disk size (default: 512G). This only applies when creating the disk for the first time:
DISK_SIZE=1T nix run "github:matteo-pacini/darwinix#linux-vm" -- nixos-25-11
Note: Once the disk is created, changing DISK_SIZE won't affect it. If you want a different size, delete the disk.qcow2 file and run the command again.
Contributions are welcome! Please open an issue or submit a pull request on GitHub.
Darwinix is released under the MIT License.