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ARM64 VM installer smoke test

Verified 2026-10-13 on the owner's M1 Pro using QEMU 10.2.1/KVM.

Result and limits

The locally built ISO at source 89e959d, SHA-256 ca707f3e959809d27686b2e535c9b165b843694ff86b5a48dd065cf118e02041, booted through AAVMF UEFI to the graphical elementary installer language selection screen. Serial output also reached the elementary OS 9 login prompt and showed LightDM starting. No installer selections or installation were performed. Screenshot: docs/images/os9-arm64-vm-installer.png.

This verifies generic ARM64 UEFI/kernel/initramfs/live-environment startup for that ISO. It does not verify a full Pantheon user session, installation, Apple m1n1/U-Boot, GPU, speakers, suspend, or other Mac hardware behavior. The first tested ISO predates the liveiso overlay-selection fix. The corrected CI artifact was independently verified and tested separately below.

Isolation

  • 4 virtual CPUs, 4 GiB RAM; /dev/kvm accessible to the desktop user.
  • Networking disabled.
  • Only the ISO attached as read-only SCSI CD-ROM; no host disk or writable guest system disk attached.
  • UEFI code read-only; private copied firmware variables file.
  • No host boot/kernel/audio settings changed.

Command used

Create a private output directory and copy AAVMF_VARS.fd there first. Replace the two directory paths below when reproducing; preserve the read-only disk and disabled network settings.

qemu-system-aarch64 \
  -machine virt,accel=kvm -cpu host -smp 4 -m 4096 \
  -drive if=pflash,format=raw,readonly=on,file=/usr/share/AAVMF/AAVMF_CODE.no-secboot.fd \
  -drive if=pflash,format=raw,file=/home/admin/Documents/os9-vm-smoke-20261013/vars.fd \
  -device virtio-gpu-pci -device qemu-xhci -device usb-kbd -device usb-tablet \
  -device virtio-scsi-pci \
  -drive if=none,id=cdrom,format=raw,media=cdrom,readonly=on,file=/home/admin/Documents/os9-local-build-20261013/mkosi.output/elementaryos-9.0-daily-arm64.20261013134230.iso \
  -device scsi-cd,drive=cdrom,bootindex=1 -nic none -display none \
  -serial file:/home/admin/Documents/os9-vm-smoke-20261013/serial.log \
  -qmp unix:/home/admin/Documents/os9-vm-smoke-20261013/qmp.sock,server=on,wait=off

The actual test ran in transient user service elementary-os9-vm-smoke-20261013.service. Its framebuffer was captured with QMP screendump after UEFI boot. The VM was then stopped; the serial log, firmware variables, and screenshot remain in the private test directory.

Corrected CI image — verified October 13

Source 32877a7b8a07d2a16d6bef978e5071a983953b8a, run 38410538372. Downloaded ISO elementaryos-9.0-daily-arm64.20261013140741.iso passed sha256sum -c INSTALLER-SHA256SUMS independently on this Mac: 066147b211909347e3499463419a39ba66326aa0fbd277985c7957b6fcfc59ab. The CI actual-payload test passed before upload.

Repeated the same isolated QEMU/KVM command above, replacing ISO path with /home/admin/Documents/os9-corrected-38410538372/elementaryos-9.0-daily-arm64.20261013140741.iso and output directory with /home/admin/Documents/os9-corrected-vm-20261013. Reached the graphical installer language screen and serial login prompt. Screenshot: docs/images/os9-arm64-corrected-vm-installer.png. No installer selections or installation were performed. User service elementary-os9-corrected-vm-20261013.service was stopped after capture.

This corrected generic-kernel image now has checksum, payload and VM startup evidence. It does not test the separately compiling enhanced Fairydust Debian kernel or Apple hardware boot, firmware, GPU, speakers or suspend.

Opt-in Fairydust image — verified October 13

Source 4c0cdb92663c01900f9eac719b829f2c5ca540c4, run 38432118320 completed successfully. The ARM64 CI job built the pinned Fairydust + USB4 Debian kernel package after installing the required Rust source component; the image job verified all package hashes, built the Fairydust profile, passed test-image-wiring.py, and uploaded the ISO.

Downloaded installer elementaryos-9.0-daily-arm64.20261013170336.iso (size 7,481,829,376 bytes) passed the artifact build-record checksum: 14184dfc351b23e7db3f7712d5c0bad5b62bb9abd75cbfd25fcb4337d8b21c1e. The ISO's live filesystem package database lists linux-image-7.1.13-elementary-fairydust-usb4, m1n1, and u-boot-asahi as installed. The CI build log also confirms a 79.7 MB Fairydust UKI and module initrd were generated.

Booted the ISO in QEMU/KVM with 4 virtual CPUs and 4 GiB RAM, networking disabled, read-only ISO media, and no writable guest system disk. It reached the elementary live login prompt. The GRUB live entry starts /casper/vmlinuz and /casper/initrd, so this smoke test booted the generic live kernel; it did not boot the Fairydust UKI. The Fairydust kernel is bundled in the image for installed-system testing, but its actual boot has not yet been qualified. The m1n1/U-Boot packages and generated UKI do not mean that the required Apple m1n1 ESP payload is assembled. No Mac hardware, USB4, GPU, audio, or suspend behavior is qualified by this test.

Direct Fairydust kernel smoke test — October 13

Rebuilt the locally packaged Fairydust kernel with built-in ARM PL011 console support, then ran mseries/fairydust/debian/vm-kernel-smoke-test.sh against the package linux-image-7.1.13-elementary-fairydust-usb4_7.1.13+elementary.usb4.3_arm64.deb. Package SHA-256: 6047f67c33c78fd4c614adadb619aa612919e151497d3941fe8949ae08e084f3.

QEMU/KVM ran with two vCPUs and 1 GiB RAM, attached only the kernel and a temporary BusyBox initramfs, with no disk or network. Serial output confirmed kernel 7.1.13-elementary-fairydust-usb4 startup on QEMU's linux,dummy-virt device tree, execution of /init, the FAIRYDUST_KERNEL_USERSPACE_HANDOFF_OK marker, and orderly poweroff. The test script has a 45-second bound plus a 5-second forced-stop limit.

This directly boots the compiled kernel and verifies generic ARM64 kernel startup through userspace handoff. It does not test the installed-system initramfs or bootloader, any Apple DTB or m1n1/ESP payload, Mac hardware, GPU, USB4, audio, suspend or a full desktop session. Keep the distinction between this direct-kernel test and the separate generic live-ISO boot above.

Latest CI artifact boot — October 13

Downloaded artifact from CI run 38479577898. The ISO elementaryos-9.0-daily-arm64.20261013230825.iso is 7,482,648,576 bytes; its SHA-256 89c74fa25ac72dd8f20f7eb42e456c929ed828f791f77af3edb6f5ce1b7b259d matched the artifact's INSTALLER-SHA256SUMS after download.

QEMU 10.2.1/KVM (4 vCPUs, 6 GiB RAM, AAVMF) booted the ISO to the graphical installer language screen. Serial output reached the elementary OS 9 login prompt. Only a read-only SCSI CD-ROM was attached; no writable guest or host disk was attached. Screenshot: os9-ci-38479577898-installer.png.

The ISO's live entry uses /casper/vmlinuz and /casper/initrd; this verifies the generic live-kernel installer path, not the Fairydust kernel packaged for an installed system. The separate direct-kernel test above verifies only generic ARM64 startup through a BusyBox initramfs. Neither test verifies the installed-system initramfs, Apple DTB selection, m1n1 boot on hardware, GPU, USB4, audio, suspend, or a full desktop installation. No host ESP or boot configuration was changed. The temporary artifact ZIP and signed download URL were removed; the verified ISO and screenshot remain in the local test directory and repository evidence folder, respectively.