Run any VM anywhere

anyvm is a single-file tool for bootstrapping BSD and Illumos guests with QEMU on Linux, macOS, and Windows. It downloads cloud images, sets up firmware, and starts the VM with sane defaults so you can focus on the guest.

1. Quick launch

• Github CodeSpace:

  

  Enable KVM in Codespaces before running:

  sudo chmod o+rw /dev/kvm

• Google Cloud Shell:

  

2. Quick start (local)

python anyvm.py --os freebsd
python anyvm.py --os freebsd --release 14.3
python anyvm.py --os freebsd --release 14.3 --arch aarch64
python anyvm.py --os openbsd --release 7.5 --arch aarch64
python anyvm.py --os solaris

python anyvm.py --os freebsd --release 14.3 --arch riscv64

# Run a command inside the VM (everything after `--` is sent to the VM via ssh):
python anyvm.py --os freebsd -- uname -a

3. Run in a Docker container

Prefer containers? Use the Dockerized wrapper.

docker run --rm -it ghcr.io/anyvm-org/anyvm:latest --os freebsd

More examples and tags: https://github.com/anyvm-org/docker

4. Guest build matrix (CI)

Guest	Workflow	x86_64	aarch64 (arm64)	riscv64
FreeBSD		✅	✅	✅
OpenBSD		✅	✅	✅
NetBSD		✅	✅	❌
DragonFlyBSD		✅	❌	❌
Solaris		✅	❌	❌
OmniOS		✅	❌	❌
OpenIndiana		✅	❌	❌

5. Host support

Host	x86_64 guests	aarch64 guests	riscv64 guests
x86_64 Linux	✅	✅	✅
aarch64 (arm64) Linux	❌	✅	❌
Apple silicon macOS	✅	✅	❌
Windows x86_64	✅	❌	❌

6. Install dependencies

6.1 Linux (apt-based)

sudo apt-get --no-install-recommends -y install \
  zstd ovmf xz-utils qemu-utils ca-certificates \
  qemu-system-x86 qemu-system-arm qemu-efi-aarch64 \
  qemu-efi-riscv64 qemu-system-riscv64 u-boot-qemu \
  ssh-client

6.2 macOS

brew install qemu

6.3 Windows

• Download QEMU for Windows: https://www.qemu.org/download/#windows or https://qemu.weilnetz.de/w64/
• Or install with MSYS2 pacman:

pacman.exe -S --noconfirm mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-qemu

• Or install with Chocolatey:

choco install qemu

7. Notes

• Hardware virtualization (KVM, HVF, or Hyper-V) is applied automatically when available for best performance.
• Click the quick launch buttons above to start in a ready-to-use cloud environment.