Resources and architecture

The [resources] table sets the size of a VM and the architecture of its Linux system. This page covers the settings, how to change them, and what a guest of another architecture needs.

Set resources

limanix.toml

[resources]
arch = "arm64"
cpu = 4
mem = "8GiB"
disk = "40GiB"

Setting	Value	Default
arch	Guest architecture: arm64 or amd64	"arm64"
cpu	Number of virtual CPUs, a positive whole number	4
mem	Memory in whole GiB, as a quoted string such as "8GiB"	"8GiB"
disk	Size of the guest disk in whole GiB, such as "40GiB"	"10GiB"

GiB is the only unit: "8GB", "1.5GiB", "0GiB" and "08GiB" are rejected. A setting you leave out keeps its default: [resources] with only cpu = 2 keeps the default architecture, memory and disk. On an Intel Mac, set arch = "amd64".

disk covers only the guest disk; the managed home and shared folders live on the Mac. Leave room for Docker images and volumes, Kubernetes clusters and build caches. See Files and storage.

Change resources

Edit [resources] and run limanix update --config limanix.toml. The update stops a running VM, applies the new sizes and starts it again; see Changing a VM.

Setting	With update
cpu, mem	Can change
disk	Can grow; a smaller size is rejected
arch	Fixed when the VM is created; create a new VM for another architecture

update compares disk with the disk's actual size, which an earlier failed update may already have grown.

Choose the guest architecture

The guest architecture and your Mac decide how the VM runs:

Mac	arch	Runs with	Network
Apple Silicon	arm64	Apple Virtualization framework	Native NAT
Intel	amd64	Apple Virtualization framework	Native NAT
Apple Silicon	amd64	QEMU	Lima shared network through socket_vmnet
Intel	arm64	QEMU	Lima shared network through socket_vmnet

A guest that matches your Mac needs neither QEMU nor socket_vmnet. LimaNix spells the architectures arm64 and amd64, not Nix's aarch64 and x86_64.

Run a guest of another architecture

Prepare the Mac before you create the VM. Install QEMU, and make the emulator for the guest architecture available in your Mac's PATH:

Guest arch	Executable
amd64	qemu-system-x86_64
arm64	qemu-system-aarch64

Then prepare the network as your regular Mac user, in an interactive terminal:

Mac

limanix network setup

The command checks the existing Lima network setup. When something must be installed, it shows the paths and asks for confirmation before it runs sudo:

Item	Location
Bundled network helper	/opt/socket_vmnet/bin/socket_vmnet
Lima sudoers rules	/private/etc/sudoers.d/lima

An existing sudoers file is backed up before it is replaced. LimaNix and QEMU keep running as your user. limanix create and limanix update of a QEMU guest offer the same installation in an interactive terminal; in a noninteractive run, they report that the setup is required instead.

Use the client for your Mac

Run the limanix binary built for your Mac's hardware: limanix-arm64 on Apple Silicon, limanix-amd64 on Intel. VM commands reject the Intel binary running through Rosetta on Apple Silicon. For an Intel guest on Apple Silicon, use the arm64 client with arch = "amd64".