I tried to run REMnux VM with the following settings:

• Macbook pro (M2)
• Mac OSX Sonoma
• UTM 4.4.5 (brew installed; brew install --cask utm)
• Downloaded the REMNux VM (from https://remnux.org/#distro)

References

1. https://www.technomancer.com/archives/568
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krGvTMq29gA

Convert the format of the REMNux disk image

$ qemu-img convert -p -f vmdk -O vhdx REMnuxVM.vmdk REMnuxVM.vhdx * -p: indicates the conversion progress. * -f: indicates the source image format. * $ qemu-img convert -p -f vmdk -O qcow2 REMnuxVM.vmdk REMnuxVM.qcow2 works as well.

Import the converted disk image

1. run UTM
2. on the Welcome windows, choose “Create a New Virtual Machine”
3. on the Start window, choose the slow “Emulate” (not “Virtualize”)
4. on the Operating System window, choose “Other” (not “Windows” nor “Linux”)
5. on the Other window,
   • check “Skip ISO boot”
6. on the “Hardware”, leave the default options (must be like below:
   • Architecture: x86_64,
   • System: Standard PC(Q35 + ICH9, 2009) (alias of pc-q35-7.2) q35
   • Memory: 4G
   • CPU Cores: Default)
7. on the “Storage” window, specify the size as “1GB”
8. on the “Shared Directory” window, just proceed to the “next” step leaving nothing checked
9. on the “Summary” window, name the VM and check the “Open VM Settings”
10. On the setting menu, I adjusted a couple of options to make the VM less-useless
    • System
      • Check “Force Multicore” and assign more cores (4 in my case)
    • QEMU
      • Uncheck “UEFI Boot”
      • Uncheck “RNG Device” (especially, in case of Linux VM)
11. There are two IDE Drives displayed on the left menu
    • You can leave the CD/DVD drive if exists
    • Select the IDE Disk Image drive, and “Delete”
    • Create a “New…” drive
      • Interface: IDE
      • Press “Import” and choose the converted “.vhdx” (or .qcow2) disk image
    • “Save” all the changes
12. Wait for a while. The emulated VM will work but must be very slow. Be patient.

Notes

• Where VM disk images are located: ~/Library/Containers/com.utmapp.UTM/Data/Documents
• How to install the Ubuntu Server with the (amd64) Emulation option: https://docs.getutm.app/guides/ubuntu/
  • You can install the desktop environment later at your preference