Install Ubuntu Core on a VM
You can try Ubuntu Core without any specific hardware from within a virtual machine using Multipass on Windows, Mac and Linux. Multipass has integrated support for the latest Ubuntu Core images and can launch and run virtual machines from a single command.
If you need to test your own Ubuntu Core images, see Test Ubuntu Core with QEMU. QEMU, is more configurable than Multipass and can boot either a supported image or a custom image, with or without TPM emulation and full disk encryption.
Boot Ubuntu Core with Multipass
If you don’t yet have Multipass installed, see Install Multipass. If it’s installed, the following command will output its current state:
multipass info
List available images
To list which images Multipass currently has available, type multipass find.
The output will include Ubuntu Core images alongside standard Ubuntu images:
Image Aliases Version Description
core20 20230119 Ubuntu Core 20
core22 20230717 Ubuntu Core 22
20.04 ocal 20240129.1 Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
22.04 ammy,lts 20240126 Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
daily:24.04 noble,devel 20240129 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
Ubuntu Core 24: Multipass images for Ubuntu Core 24 are currently being tested. They are available from the edge version of the Multipass snap (snap refresh multipass --edge) and they’ll become available from all stable releases shortly.
Launch an image
To create a new instance and boot your choice of Ubuntu Core image, type:
multipass launch <image-name> -n <instance-name>
For example, the following command will launch and boot core22 with an instance name of mycore22:
multipass launch core22 -n mycore22
The image is downloaded and locally cached when it’s launched for the first time.
Access a running instance
You can connect to a running instance of Ubuntu Core by opening a shell environment on that running instance:
multipass shell mycore22
You are now operating within the Ubuntu Core environment. See First steps with Ubuntu Core for suggestions on what to try.