Following your comments and reports, I’m delighted to offer the fifth beta-release of my lightweight Linux virtualiser for Apple silicon Macs, Liviable.

This version addresses two bugs in the previous release:

• It fixes a crash that could occur when trying to overwrite an existing VM bundle. Currently, it does this using a temporary method. While you may be offered the ability to overwrite that bundle, if you try to Liviable will now politely refuse.
• It fixes saving and using display resolution and other settings. In the previous version those wouldn’t be saved when you first created a VM, only when you ran it another time. Liviable now writes the VM’s settings file to the bundle when it’s first created, and uses it thereafter provided that those settings aren’t overridden.

In addition to those, I have updated its features to match more closely those of the current release of Viable:

• Its menus have been revised and should be fully functional, with commands that duplicate button functions.
• Its previous styled text Help document has been replaced by a full 13-page PDF Help book.

I’m aware that some have suggested integrating Liviable with Viable, which virtualises macOS. I’m reluctant to do that for several reasons, not least of which is that Linux and macOS VMs are handled quite differently, and have different features. For example, Rosetta 2 has to be enabled as an extra for Linux VMs, and requires the VM to install additional software and run commands; in contrast, it comes standard and free in macOS VMs, so is always enabled and requires no further configuration in the VM. This makes controls and settings in the main window very different, and would increases interface complexity. I also want to keep the app’s footprint to a minimum, so you can use your Mac’s resources for the VMs you run.

Liviable 1.0.5 (beta 5) is available from here: liviable1b5
from Downloads above, and from its Product Page, where there’s an extensive compilation of useful articles and other information about virtualisation on Apple silicon Macs.

I hope you find this a worthwhile improvement.