Pop!_OS on Apple Silicon

I was an early adopter of Apple Silicon, receiving my 13” M1 MacBook Pro on its general release day. Support for familiar software and systems was a bit sparse, which led to the temporary disruption of some of my favorite tools such as Homebrew, Docker, and the ability to run virtual machines.

Over time, Homebrew was updated to work correctly and reliably, and Docker Desktop paved the way for virtualization on Apple Silicon. Tools like Parallels and VMWare Fusion have also been updated to provide support for running virtual machines on Apple Silicon, despite claims that it seemed virtualization would never arrive.

This is a loose guide to getting a Pop!_OS VM up and running on an Apple Silicon Mac and my notes on the process.

Installing a Pop!_OS VM

I have been curious about Pop!_OS for some time. It appears to be the most macOS-like of the Linux distributions, with a reasonable design aesthetic and focus on STEM applications. It unfortunately (as of the time of writing) does not appear to have a functional ARM installer, so getting it up and running on Apple Silicon is very convoluted.

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Based on Pop-OS arm64 on Parallels Installation Guide

Preparation

Download and setup VMWare Fusion Player (free for personal use)

Download an Ubuntu server for ARM installer ISO (make sure to download the 22.04 build): https://ubuntu.com/download/server/arm

Open Parallels and create a new VM, using the following settings:

Select “Install Windows or another OS from a DVD or image file”

Select the Ubuntu Server arm64 iso downloaded previously (you might need to click “Choose Manually”)

Give the new virtual machine a name, and optionally enable “Customize settings before installation” to tweak the amount of memory, CPU cores, and storage that will be assigned to the VM

Installing Ubuntu Server

Note: these steps may change if the Ubuntu Server installer is updated; follow the instructions displayed on the installer itself, rather than this guide, if something does not match

Start the new VM and select the “Ubuntu Server” GRUB entry

Note: during this section, you can safely ignore any “failed to unmount /cdrom” and/or “Firmware bug” errors, if they appear

Select your desired language from the list

If prompted, select “update to the new installer”

Select your device’s keyboard layout

Select “Done” to install the non-minimized Ubuntu Server build

Select “Done” to accept the default network configuration shown

Select “Done” to skip setting up a network proxy

Select “Done” to accept the default Ubuntu mirror

Select “Done” to install to the entire virtual disk

Select “Done” to accept the default partition layout

Select “Continue” to begin installing Ubuntu Server

Enter a username and password for your user

If you want SSH access to the virtual machine, enable “Install OpenSSH server”

Having SSH access will make later parts of this guide easier, as it will allow you to copy-paste commands into the terminal, rather than having to type them manually

Select “Done” to skip installing any server-specific packages

Wait until the installation is complete (including updates), then select “Reboot Now”

Press “Enter” when prompted to remove the installation medium

Installing Pop OS on top of Ubuntu Server

Your virtual machine should have rebooted into a terminal login prompt

If you chose to install an SSH server, you can connect to the VM via ssh (short external guide)

Otherwise, sign in using the username and password entered previously

You may need to press Enter once if an “Ubuntu 21.10” header, but no login prompt, is shown

Remove unnecessary Ubuntu Server-specific packages


sudo apt purge --autoremove ubuntu-server -y

Add the Pop OS ISO signing key


sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys $(curl https://gist.githubusercontent.com/voidrender/626205dcc17f993eab9ceb527ed612d7/raw/b24902c51145040df8fde12a7f72cda4ab7e331e/pop_os_signing_key.txt)

Add the Pop OS APT repositories


sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://apt.pop-os.org/release $(lsb_release -cs) main" -y


sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://apt.pop-os.org/staging/master $(lsb_release -cs) main" -y


sudo apt update -y && sudo apt full-upgrade -y

Install the Pop-OS desktop environment


sudo apt install pop-desktop-raspi -y

Uninstall the Raspberry Pi-specific kernel installed by the previous step


sudo apt purge --autoremove linux*-raspi* -y

This will make Pop-OS use the standard Ubuntu Server kernel; not running this command will cause the VM to not boot, as it will attempt to use the incompatible Pi kernel instead

Fix the Pop-OS APT sources


sudo sed -i 's/Enabled: yes/Enabled: no/g' /etc/apt/sources.list.d/system.sources /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pop-os-apps.sources

Or, alternatively, edit the files /etc/apt/sources.list.d/system.sources and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pop-os-apps.sources, and replace Enabled: yes with Enabled: no in both.

Ensure all packages are up to date


sudo apt update -y && sudo apt full-upgrade -y

Enter reboot to restart the virtual machine

Conclusion

It’s likely that this will get significantly easier and smoother over time, but the process is totally doable today on Apple Silicon. My Pop!_OS installation has survived both minor and major macOS updates, but it’s likely I’ll revisit this guide when I end up replacing my current MacBook Pro.