Top all-time · #6944
Mykola’s blog
Personal blog · khronokernel.comsecuritysystems
Mykola’s blog is a personal blog at khronokernel.com about security and systems. Since 2024, 12 different Hacker News readers have linked it 12 times, most often “Apple Silicon and Virtual Machines: Beating the 2 VM Limit”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2025-06-20, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (9) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Mykola's blog for technical write-ups on macOS virtualization, including the two-VM limit on Apple Silicon and converting old 5K iMacs into external monitors.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 9 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Blog formerly dedicated to my rambles, including reverse engineering macOS internals, OS modding and documenting my cursed work.
Most-linked posts?
- Apple Silicon and Virtual Machines: Beating the 2 VM Limit6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2024-06-11
What Hacker News says?
This may help: https://khronokernel.com/macos/2022/03/01/5K-MONITOR.html https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Convert+an+iMac+Intel+27-Inch+E... https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256802134515555.html https://blog.lewislovelock.com/turning-an-5k-imac-into-a-mon... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/203666708700?var=504097344943 https://mschmitt.org/blog/convert-5k-27-imac-external-displa... https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256802548599…
Comment linking /macos/2022/03/01/5K-MONITOR.html
on “New iMac with M4”Submitted System Integrity Protection: The misunderstood (macos) setting as a story · 1 points
HN discussionThey are basically the same between Apple Silicon Macs and iDevices. https://khronokernel.com/apple/silicon/2021/02/07/BOOT.html https://github.com/AsahiLinux/docs/wiki/SW:Boot
Comment linking /apple/silicon/2021/02/07/BOOT.html
on “Virtualizing iOS on Apple Silicon”Submitted Apple Silicon and Virtual Machines: Beating the 2 VM Limit as a story · 1 points
HN discussionRealistically you can run more than 2 VMs with some work[0], but legally companies that provide CI and other virtual solutions can't buy 1 mac then get a license to run 100 virtual macs. 0: https://khronokernel.com/macos/2023/08/08/AS-VM.html
Comment linking /macos/2023/08/08/AS-VM.html
on “M4 Macs can't virtualise older macOS”Submitted macOS PackageKit Privilege Escalation as a story · 1 points
HN discussion> It's a real shame there's nothing like Wine for the late PPC/early Intel era of OS X. That entire galaxy of apps basically just no longer have anything to run on. PPC apps run great in QEMU/UTM on Apple silicon: Run Tiger, Leopard, or any Mac OS X PowerPC version on M1 https://tinyapps.org/docs/tiger-on-m1.html Intel emulation works too, but is not nearly as performant at present: Virtualizing OpenCore and x86 mac…
Comment linking /apple/silicon/2021/01/17/QEMU-AS.html
on “Show HN: A new native app for 20 year old OS X”If you're OK with unsupported means, there are ways of bypassing that limit. See https://khronokernel.com/macos/2023/08/08/AS-VM.html .
Comment linking /macos/2023/08/08/AS-VM.html
on “macOS Sequoia to Allow iCloud Logins in Virtual Machines on ARM Macs”It's more the former. I'm assuming though that Background Security updates are basically the same thing as "Rapid Security Responses" was, which on the Mac I can recall being used once , 13.3.1(a) released the same day as 13.4 as an RSR. Basically, the amount of stuff Apple can realistically change on the fly without restiching an entirely new system volume snapshot into place is quite small, so unless the stars ali…
Comment linking /macos/2023/04/18/RSR.html
on “iOS 26.3 and macOS 26.3 Fix Dozens of Vulnerabilities, Including Zero-Day”You need to provide details as you're specifically talking about macOS virtual machines and the licensing limit Apple imposes. The answer is no. https://khronokernel.com/macos/2023/08/08/AS-VM.html https://kb.parallels.com/128867 https://github.com/utmapp/UTM/issues/5563
Comment linking /macos/2023/08/08/AS-VM.html
on “M3 Ultra with 512GB memory and 2 VM limit”To create an ephemeral (docker-like) MacOS VM on a Mac with full performance and access (e.g. GPU) you have to use a virtualization API provided by Apple. For most CI use, you can choose between: Anka, a "contact-us for pricing" closed-source projet, where you have to pay expensive license (easy 3000 USD/yr per machine) or tart, which is a lightweight wrapper around the official Apple API. But you have to know that…
Comment linking /macos/2023/08/08/AS-VM.html
on “Cirrus Labs to join OpenAI shut down Circus CI on Monday, June 1, 2026”Correct, Containerization APIs are Linux VMs specific. There's a kernel-level check in the Hypervisor framework that enforces the 2 VM limit, and bypassing it violates Apple's EULA. Nice technical deep-dive on the how here: https://khronokernel.com/macos/2023/08/08/AS-VM.html
Comment linking /macos/2023/08/08/AS-VM.html
on “Show HN: Lume 0.2 – Build and Run macOS VMs with unattended setup”
