Running an OpenBSD VM using VMWare Fusion on Apple silicon

This repository can be used to create a very basic OpenBSD (arm64) VM using VMWare Fusion on a MacOS Ventura (Apple silicon) host (should also work on Monterey).

1. Getting Started

1.1. Prerequisites

We need homebrew to be installed and configured correctly:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

1.2. Install the required packages using homebrew

brew install curl coreutils qemu packer vmware-fusion git

1.3. Get the latest version of this repo

git clone https://github.com/xoro/OpenBSD-VM-at-AppleSilicon.git

1.4. Run the build script

cd OpenBSD-VM-at-AppleSilicon
./build.sh

1.5. Overseve the VM creation process

Tail the packer log file:

cd OpenBSD-VM-at-AppleSilicon
tail -f log/packer.log

View the build process via VNC. Just access vnc://127.0.0.1:5987

Just type the following on the command line:

open vnc://127.0.0.1:5987

Now just leave the password empty and hit the "Sign In" button.

2. Start the created VM

After the build process finished successfully you can open and start the VM using VMWare Fusion (File→Open And Run…​→OpenBSD-VM-at-AppleSilicon/output-openbsd-packer/packer-openbsd-packer.vmx).

3. Tips/Hints

The section variables in the section "# Variables passed to packer" can be used to adopt the build and created VM to your needs.