Linux distribution

openSUSE Leap VMs on Apple Silicon Macs

Run mvz create opensuse dev and MacVisor downloads openSUSE Leap 16.1's Minimal VM cloud image for aarch64 from download.opensuse.org, checks it against its SHA-256 file, and makes a VM with your account and SSH keys. All four container runtimes MacVisor offers work on it, with SELinux left on.

Apple Silicon (M1 or later)
macOS 27 on the Mac
openSUSE Leap 16.1, ARM64

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A stylised MacVisor window with an openSUSE Leap VM's terminal running zypper.

Create an openSUSE Leap VM

In the app, choose New VM → Linux → Cloud Image → openSUSE Leap 16.1. From Terminal:

mvz create opensuse dev                     # openSUSE Leap 16.1 (aliases: opensuse, leap)
mvz shell dev --start

The image is Leap-16.1-Minimal-VM.aarch64-Cloud.qcow2 from download.opensuse.org, checked against the .sha256 file beside it. The catalogue tracks openSUSE's newest build under that name, and mvz images pull opensuse fetches it for later VMs.

What you get

Your account has your Mac user name and UID, your SSH keys, bash and sudo without a password. The MacVisor Agent, Rosetta and automatic port forwarding are set up on the first boot.

Leap shares its base with SUSE Linux Enterprise. Use it to build or test for SUSE servers, to work with zypper and SUSE's package layout, or to check that an install script handles more than the apt and dnf families.

Containers

All four runtimes work on Leap 16.1.

mvz create opensuse web --runtime docker
mvz create opensuse pods --runtime podman

Docker is openSUSE's docker package, with Compose and Buildx where openSUSE has them, and your account in the docker group.
Podman is openSUSE's package, rootless, with podman.socket on for your account and forwarded to the Mac.
containerd is a rootless nerdctl setup with BuildKit, from MacVisor's cache on the Mac after the first VM.
k3s is a single node. Give it at least 4 GiB of memory.

SELinux on openSUSE 16

openSUSE 16 switched to SELinux, and its policy stops cloud-init's setup from entering your user session or creating transient units. MacVisor runs its per-user setup as a oneshot system service instead, with the script under /usr/local/libexec/macvisor, where the policy lets it run. You get rootless Podman and containerd without changing the policy.

Quirks

zypper's lock on first boot. openSUSE refreshes its repositories right after boot. Runtime installs wait for the lock, up to 10 minutes.
Mirrors. download.opensuse.org redirects each download to a mirror. One that hasn't synced the file yet answers 404, so MacVisor tries again and may get a different mirror.
Templates from an earlier build still count. A Leap template you pulled under an older, build-tagged file name is used for mvz create opensuse until you pull again.

FAQ

Common questions

More in the documentation and known limitations.

Which openSUSE release is in the MacVisor catalogue?

openSUSE Leap 16.1, as opensuse-leap-16.1 with the aliases opensuse and leap. It's the Leap 16.1 Minimal VM image built for clouds. Tumbleweed isn't in the catalogue; install it from its ARM64 ISO or add its image yourself.

Do Docker and Podman work on openSUSE Leap 16.1?

Yes. MacVisor installs Docker Engine and Podman from openSUSE's own packages, and containerd as a rootless nerdctl setup. k3s works too. A Docker or Podman VM's API is forwarded to the Mac as the docker context macvisor-<vm>.

Why does the first boot of an openSUSE VM take a while?

zypper refreshes its repositories on a fresh boot and holds the package lock while it does. MacVisor's runtime install waits for that lock, up to 10 minutes, instead of failing.

Does MacVisor turn SELinux off in openSUSE?

No. openSUSE 16 uses SELinux, and MacVisor runs its setup within the policy. Rootless runtimes are set up through a system service, which the policy allows.

Also with MacVisor

Guest OS Linux VMs on Apple Silicon Macs Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Rocky, Alma, Oracle, CentOS Stream, openSUSE and Alpine from one command. Linux distribution Fedora VMs on Apple Silicon Macs Fedora Cloud 44 and 43, with Podman in the image and SELinux on. Linux distribution Debian VMs on Apple Silicon Macs Debian 13 trixie and 12 bookworm, a lean base for servers and builds.