lima-vm/lima v2.0.0-beta.0

on GitHub

Highlights:

• Experimental plug-in subsystem for VM driver infrastructure.
  This will help implementing third-party plugins without modifying the code base of Lima.
  Thanks to GSoC 2025 contributor @unsuman .
• Experimental krunkit VM driver for supporting GPU acceleration (#4137, thanks to @unsuman) [New in v2.0.0-beta.0]
• Experimental integration for Model Context Protocol (MCP) (#3744). i.e., Lima can be now used as a sandbox for Gemini, etc.
• Add limactl (start|restart) --progress flag to show the progress of provisioning (#3846, #3915, thanks to @olamilekan000 @norio-nomura)
• Add limactl shell --preserve-env flag to propagate env vars from the host to VM (#3830, thanks to @olamilekan000)

Other notable changes:

• /tmp/lima is no longer mounted by default (#3951)
• SSH port is no longer hard-coded to 60022 for the "default" instance (#3780)
• Forward UDP ports by default (#4054)
• Support CLI plugins (#3834, #4009, thanks to @olamilekan000)
• Support custom URL scheme plugins (#3937, thanks to @jandubois).
  template://default is now recommended to be written as template:default. The old form is still supported.

Changes

• VM driver infrastructure:

  • Experimental plug-in subsystem for VM driver infrastructure (multiple PRs, thanks to @unsuman)

• krunkit:

  • Experimental krunkit VM driver for supporting GPU acceleration (#4137, thanks to @unsuman) [New in v2.0.0-beta.0]

• VZ:

  • Support Rosetta AOT Caching with CDI (#3858, thanks to @norio-nomura)
  • Support accelerating SSH using AF_VSOCK (#3979, thanks to @norio-nomura)

• QEMU:

  • Fallback to TCG when KVM is not available on Linux hosts (#4204) [New in v2.0.0-beta.0]

• MCP:

  • Experimental integration for Model Context Protocol (MCP) (#3744). Lima now provides MCP tools for reading, writing, and executing local files using a VM sandbox. Known to work with Google Gemini CLI.

• limactl CLI:

  • Add limactl (start|restart) --progress flag to show the progress of provisioning (#3846, #3915, thanks to @olamilekan000 @norio-nomura)
  • Add limactl (create|start|edit) --port-forward flag for static port forwarding (#3699, thanks to @Horiodino).
    Usually not needed, but useful for instances created with --plain.
  • Add limactl (create|start|edit) --ssh-port flag (#3791)
  • Add limactl (create|start|edit) --mount-only flag (#3947).
    Similar to --mount, but overrides the existing mounts. Useful for mounting $(pwd).
  • Support specifying --set multiple times in limactl (create|start|edit) (#4197, thanks to @AndiDog) [New in v2.0.0-beta.0]
  • Add limactl shell --preserve-env flag to propagate env vars from the host to VM (#3830, thanks to @olamilekan000).
    See also LIMA_SHELLENV_ALLOW and LIMA_SHELLENV_BLOCK.
  • Support CLI plugins (#3834, #4009, thanks to @olamilekan000)
  • Support custom URL scheme plugins (#3937, thanks to @jandubois).
    template://default is now recommended to be written as template:default. The old form is still supported.
  • Add limactl copy --backend=rsync flag as an alternative to scp backend (#3143, thanks to @olamilekan000)
  • Add limactl list--yq and limactl info --yq flags (#3998, thanks to @jandubois)
  • Add limactl rename OLD NEW (#4207) [New in v2.0.0-beta.0]

• YAML:

  • Migrate cpuType to vmOpts.qemu (#3500, thanks to @unsuman)
  • Add yq provision mode (#3892, thanks to @norio-nomura)
  • Prohibit relative paths in YAML (#3950).
    Relative paths were never intended to be supported,
    but they were accidentally allowed due to a regression in v1.1.0.
    The CLI command limactl (create|start|edit) --mount DIR still supports relative paths.

• Default template:

  • Remove /tmp/lima mount (#3951)
  • Stop hardcoding SSH port 60022 (#3780)

• Port forwarding:

  • Support port forwarding in plain mode (#3699, thanks to @Horiodino)
  • Support host sockets in gRPC port forwarder (#4008, thanks to @norio-nomura)
  • Forward UDP ports by default (#4054)
  • Eliminated 3-second delay for detecting ports (#4066)
  • Removed iptables watcher for sudo nerdctl run -p ... (#4107).
    sudo nerdctl run -p ... now requires nerdctl v2.1.6 or later.
  • Improved performance of gRPC forwarder (#4247, thanks to @balajiv113) [New in v2.0.0-beta.0]
  • Support UDP in Kubernetes (#4233) [New in v2.0.0-beta.0]
  • Change default of guestIPMustBeZero to true when guestIP is 0.0.0.0 (#4221, thanks to @jandubois)[New in v2.0.0-beta.0]

• nerdctl:

  • Update from v2.1.3 to v2.1.6 (#3971, #4099, #4107)
    • Changelogs: v2.1.4, v2.1.5, v2.1.6

• Build system:

  • Remove Kconfig and config.mk, in favor of Makefile variables (#3732)
  • Support Fedora, RHEL, and relevant host distributions (#4228, thanks to @valdela1) [New in v2.0.0-beta.0]

• Templates:

  • alpine, alpine-iso: update to Alpine 3.22 (#4184, #4190, thanks to @jandubois) [New in v2.0.0-beta.0]
  • debian: update to Debian 13 (#4029, thanks to @unsuman)
  • docker, docker-rootful: Enable containerd image store (#3941, thanks to @norio-nomura)
  • fedora: update to Fedora 43 (#4255) [New in v2.0.0-beta.0]
  • opensuse: update to openSUSE Leap 16 (#4203) [New in v2.0.0-beta.0]
  • oraclelinux: update to Oracle Linux 10 (#4236, thanks to @valdela1) [New in v2.0.0-beta.0]
  • ubuntu, default: update Ubuntu to 25.10 (#4202) [New in v2.0.0-beta.0]
  • k0s: New template (#3728, thanks to @plandem)

• Project:

  • Invite Ansuman Sahoo (@unsuman) as a Reviewer (#4003, thanks to @jandubois)
  • Promote from CNCF Sandbox to Incubating (#4201) [New in v2.0.0-beta.0]

Full changes: https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/milestone/59?closed=1

Thanks to @AndiDog @Horiodino @afbjorklund @alexandear @ashwat287 @balajiv113 @bonifaido @dharsanb @gnawhleinad @iamleot @jandubois @muchzill4 @ningmingxiao @norio-nomura @olamilekan000 @plandem @stek29 @unsuman @valdela1 @vax-r @vishalanarase @zyfy29

Usage

$ limactl create
$ limactl start
...
INFO[0029] READY. Run `lima` to open the shell.

$ lima uname
Linux

The binaries were built automatically on GitHub Actions.
The build log is available for 90 days: https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/actions/runs/18926746087

The sha256sum of the SHA256SUMS file itself is 75cee3e4649e41406080f5b3df8e459ec73d696e45b75b6cdc61b0cc240f355b .

Release manager: @AkihiroSuda