Running Linux Desktop with Docker on MacOS (ARM)

• Install UTM

• Download Ubuntu Linux Server ISO (ARM) from here

• Create new VM, choose Virtualize then Linux and then select the downloaded ISO file.

• Make sure to follow these setps during Linux installation process:

  • If you added more then 60G disk size, ensure you select the full disk size to be mounted at / otherwise only 59G of the disk size will be mounted.

  • Install Docker as part of the components to be installed by default.

• After Linux server is installed:

  • Make your user execute sudo command without password

    sudo nano /etc/sudoers
    

    add this line to the end of the file, then save it

    # replace $USER with your username
    
    $USER ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL
    

  • Disable systemd-networkd-wait-online.service as it will cause slow boot time, by executing

    sudo systemctl disable systemd-networkd-wait-online
    

  • Fix Docker Permisisons, by default your user will not have permission to call docker without using sudo to fix this, let’s create a docker group and add our user to it and give it permisisons on docker socket.

    # keep $USER as is
    
    sudo groupadd docker
    sudo gpasswd -a $USER docker
    sudo chown $USER:docker /var/run/docker.sock
    

  • Install Ubuntu-Desktop

    $ sudo apt update
    $ sudo apt install ubuntu-desktop
    $ sudo reboot
    

Enjoy!