KubeVirt does not run on Apple Silicon, so I built KubeSilicon

Description and use

KubeSilicon enables running Linux ARM64 VMs on Apple Silicon Macs, replacing KubeVirt which requires KVM unavailable in macOS.

Problem

KubeVirt requires KVM, which macOS lacks, preventing VM creation on Apple Silicon Macs.

Outcome

KubeSilicon enables running Linux ARM64 VMs on Apple Silicon Macs, achieving VM start times of ~6s and pod ping latency of 1–2 ms.

Workflow

• Create a kind cluster on the Mac
• Install KubeSilicon via make install
• Apply a SiliconVM YAML to the cluster
• The daemon boots the VM and reports status
• Pods can SSH or ping the VM

Evidence

KubeVirt does not run on a Mac with Apple Silicon.

Source

In my tests the VM reaches Running in about 6 seconds once the image is cached, and a busybox pod pings it in 1 to 2 ms.

Source

Early on, guests crashed at random: kernel Oops and SIGILL in 3 of 4 boots with Apple's default disk mode. Switching the disk attachment to cached with fsync gave 0 crashes in 9 boots.

Source