Running Ubuntu ARM Virtual Machines on macOS with QEMU + SSH Access

When using an Apple Silicon Mac, running virtual machines can be tricky, especially when you want a full Linux environment with working networking and SSH access. Fortunately, QEMU, combined with macOS’s lightweight HVF (Hypervisor Framework) acceleration, makes this possible and surprisingly smooth.

In this guide, we will:

• Set up QEMU for ARM virtualization

• Create and install Ubuntu on a raw disk image

• Run the VM with proper hardware configs

• Fix SSH networking when the VM initially has no external access

• Successfully SSH into the VM via port forwarding

Why QEMU?

QEMU isn’t just an emulator on Apple Silicon, it can use Apple’s HVF (Hypervisor Framework) for near-native virtualization performance.

And unlike GUI tools, QEMU gives you full control over networking which is important when you want SSH and cluster communication.

Prerequisites

Make sure QEMU is installed:

brew install qemu

This includes:

• QEMU binaries (qemu-system-*)

• Virtual device drivers

• UEFI firmware for ARM

Also download:

• Ubuntu ARM Server ISO (ubuntu-24.04.3-live-server-arm64.iso)

• UEFI firmware for ARM (QEMU_EFI.fd) — usually packaged inside QEMU:

find /opt/homebrew -name QEMU_EFI.fd

Step 1: Create a Disk Image

We will create a 15GB raw disk:

qemu-img create -f raw ubuntu-latest.raw 15G

This will act as your VM’s virtual hard drive.

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Step 2: Install Ubuntu Using QEMU

Boot with installation ISO:

qemu-system-aarch64 \
  -monitor stdio \
  -M virt,highmem=off \
  -accel hvf \
  -cpu host \
  -smp 4 \
  -m 3000 \
  -bios /path/to/QEMU_EFI.fd \
  -device virtio-gpu-pci \
  -display default,show-cursor=on \
  -device qemu-xhci \
  -device usb-kbd \
  -device usb-tablet \
  -device intel-hda \
  -device hda-duplex \
  -drive file=ubuntu-latest.raw,format=raw,if=virtio,cache=writethrough \
  -cdrom ubuntu-24.04.3-live-server-arm64.iso

Then proceed through the installer normally, and enable OpenSSH Server when prompted.

After installation, shutdown the VM.

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Step 3: Start the VM (First Run)

You may try running the VM normally first:

qemu-system-aarch64 \
  -monitor stdio \
  -M virt,highmem=off \
  -accel hvf \
  -cpu host \
  -smp 4 \
  -m 3000 \
  -bios /path/to/QEMU_EFI.fd \
  -device virtio-gpu-pci \
  -display default \
  -device qemu-xhci \
  -device usb-kbd \
  -device usb-tablet \
  -device intel-hda \
  -device hda-duplex \
  -drive file=ubuntu-latest.raw,format=raw,if=virtio,cache=writethrough

Inside the VM, check your IP:

ip a

You'll likely see:

10.0.2.15

This means NAT networking is enabled, but SSH access from host → guest is not yet exposed.

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Step 4: Add SSH Port Forwarding

We restart QEMU with networking flags:

qemu-system-aarch64 \
  -monitor stdio \
  -M virt,highmem=off \
  -accel hvf \
  -cpu host \
  -smp 4 \
  -m 3000 \
  -bios /path/to/QEMU_EFI.fd \
  -drive file=ubuntu-latest.raw,format=raw,if=virtio,cache=writethrough \
  -netdev user,id=net0,hostfwd=tcp::2222-:22 \
  -device virtio-net-pci,netdev=net0

Now SSH should work through port 2222:

ssh -p 2222 username@127.0.0.1

But wait… sometimes it doesn’t. Instead, you may see:

kex_exchange_identification: read: Connection reset by peer

This means the VM’s network interface is not configured correctly.

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Step 5: Fix the VM Network Interface

Inside the VM:

ls /etc/netplan

You will see something like:

50-cloud-init.yaml

Edit it:

sudo nano /etc/netplan/50-cloud-init.yaml

Replace contents with:

network:
  version: 2
  ethernets:
    ens3:
      dhcp4: true

Apply changes:

sudo netplan apply

Your network now comes up correctly.

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Step 6: SSH Works Now!

From macOS:

ssh -p 2222 <your-username>@127.0.0.1

Success!

I needed ssh to work because it was not directly possible to share the clipboard between my machine (macOS) and the Qemu VM.

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Summary

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Final Thoughts

This setup provides:

• Native-speed ARM virtualization on macOS

• A clean, reproducible Ubuntu VM workflow

• SSH access that works reliably

• Ready environment for Kubernetes nodes, labs, or development clusters