FreeBSD on Apple Silicon

On macOS, install qemu and curl with homebrew:

brew install qemu curl

Write a script to download and install FreeBSD:

~ % cat bin/qemu_aarch64_install_freebsd.sh
#!/bin/sh -
#
# v1.8 BSD
# depends: curl
#
# Copyright (c) 1996, 2026 Tuco Astrek <tuco@astrek.net>
#
# Permission to use, copy, modify, and/or distribute this software for
# any purpose with or without fee is hereby granted.
#
# THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES
# WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
# MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR
# ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES
# WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN
# ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF
# OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.

URL="https://download.freebsd.org/releases/arm64/aarch64/ISO-IMAGES/"
ARC="RELEASE-arm64-aarch64"

v=`curl -s $URL | \
    grep date | tail -1 | \
    sed 's/^.*title="//; s/">.*//'`

TMPF=$(mktemp) || exit 1
trap "rm -f $TMPF" EXIT

printf "Dowloading FreeBSD %s from mirror...\n" $v
curl -s -o $TMPF -O ${URL}${v}/FreeBSD-${v}-${ARC}-mini-memstick.img
printf "Dowloading SHA512 file from FreeBSD.org\n"
a=`curl -s ${URL}${v}/CHECKSUM.SHA512-FreeBSD-${v}-${ARC} | \
    grep mini-memstick.img | head -1 | awk '{ print $4 }'`
b=`sha512 $TMPF | awk '{ print $4 }'`

echo "Checking image...\n"
if [[ $a == $b ]]; then
    qemu-img create -f qcow2 fbsd_aarch64.qcow2 16G

    qemu-system-aarch64 \
        -machine virt,highmem=on \
        -accel hvf \
        -cpu host \
        -smp 4 \
        -m 4G \
        -nographic \
        -bios /opt/homebrew/share/qemu/edk2-aarch64-code.fd \
        -drive if=virtio,file="$TMPF",format=raw,media=cdrom,readonly=on \
        -drive if=virtio,file=fbsd_aarch64.qcow2,format=qcow2,cache=writeback,discard=unmap \
        -device virtio-rng-pci \
        -netdev user,id=mynet0 -device virtio-net-pci,netdev=mynet0

fi

Execute the script and when the installation is done, shutdown the Virtual Machine.

Start the VM:

qemu-system-aarch64 \
    -machine virt,highmem=on \
    -accel hvf \
    -cpu host \
    -smp 4 \
    -m 4G \
    -nographic \
    -bios /opt/homebrew/share/qemu/edk2-aarch64-code.fd \
    -drive if=virtio,file=$HOME/fbsd_aarch64.qcow2,format=qcow2,cache=writeback,discard=unmap \
    -device virtio-rng-pci \
    -netdev user,id=mynet0,hostfwd=tcp::7922-:22 -device virtio-net-pci,netdev=mynet0

Once started, connect with ssh:

ssh -p 7922 username@127.0.0.1