VirtualBox on Apple M1

[Bill66912]

Hi everyone -

I'm at a crossroads with my old 2012 MacBook Pro and Apple's latest OS.
Currently I run VirtualBox to use a Win10 VM on my old Intel chipped MBpro (OSx Host).

But from reading various posts, I understand that that VirtualBox may not support Apple's M1 chip on their new machines. The posts I read were from 2020 and 2021.

I wanted to see if this was still the case, or if Oracle had come out with an M1-friendly version of VirtualBox.
As I write this, I'm reading about something called Rosetta in another tab that claims installing Rosetta on an Apple M1 machine allows apps built for Mac with an Intel processor to run. Does anyone know if Rosetta will work to run VirtualBox on an M1 chipped MB Pro?

Thanks very much in advance!
- Bill

[scottgus1]

'Tis still the case. The devs are looking into it, but no announcements yet. You still need an Intel Mac to run Virtualbox.

I have heard of 'Rosetta' mentioned by M1 Virtualbox attempters, but only attempters, not successfully.

[Bill66912]

I appreciate the knowledge/post very much, thank you!

- Bill

'Tis still the case. The devs are looking into it, but no announcements yet. You still need an Intel Mac to run Virtualbox.

I have heard of 'Rosetta' mentioned by M1 Virtualbox attempters, but only attempters, not successfully.

[Bill66912]

Another question on the same topic if I may?

In anticipation of Apple's Rosetta software NOT playing with Virtualbox and having to use another VM Application in the interim, does Virtualbox allow exporting its VMs in formats recognizable by other programs? For example, if I decide to stick with a MAC, can Virtualbox export its VMs to something readable by Parallels or another third party VM?

Thanks in advance again!

[scottgus1]

Virtualbox exports in OVF format. So a Virtualbox export should be compatible with other OVF-compatible hypervisors.

But exporting is only half the problem. M1 is an ARM-processor-based computer. Virtualbox is only based on x86 processors, and passes the x86-processor to the VM's OS. Virtualbox only makes x86-processor-based VMs. And ARM != x86. So the receiving M1 hypervisor also would have to emulate an x86 processor to run the x86 VM OS, not just pass the processor through like Virtualbox does. Emulation of CPU for a modern OS is likely not going to run fast or perform nicely.

On the other hand, if you stick with Intel-based Macs, then everything should be fine.

[fth0]

To give a concrete example for what scottgus1 wrote:

When running on an Intel Mac, Parallels Desktop 17 for Mac only supports Intel-CPU-based guest OSes, and when running on a M1 Mac, it only supports ARM-CPU-based guest OSes (e.g. Windows on Arm Insider Preview): Parallels Desktop for Mac - Technical Documentation. And the M1 support of Parallels Desktop is currently ahead of VMware Fusion and Oracle VirtualBox in terms of availability.

[macandroid]

Try UTM.

{link removed by mod}

There are open-source tools to convert .vdi images to .qcow2 images which can be installed with Homebrew, an open source package manager on macOS. Works on both Intel and M1 Macs. It is even possible to emulate Intel VMs with UTM on M1, but it is very slow.

[mpack]

Discussions on how to convert the disk container format are really irrelevant and off topic. The problem here is the CPU, not the virtual disk format. Executive summary: if you want to run Intel code then get yourself an Intel compatible processor, don't get an ARM.

[abhibeckert]

if you want to run Intel code then get yourself an Intel compatible processor, don't get an ARM.

Docker seems to run x86 Linux perfectly fine under rosetta on an M1 Mac. I don't see why VirtualBox couldn't, at least in theory, do the same.

I totally get that there might not be anyone putting their hand up to do the work (I'm certainly not) but please don't say it can't be done. Because when clearly it can be done and with surprisingly good performance (though obviously ARM linux runs better - and Docker also supports that).

[mpack]

You seem to be reading stuff I didn't write. What I did say was quite simple: if your goal is to run Intel code, buy an Intel compatible CPU.