Colima Files

Highlights

This is a new release with several fixes and new features.

New Features

Bridged network

This has been a long requested feature and it is finally here. A new --network-mode flag has been introduced. Valid options are shared and bridged with the default being shared.

colima start --network-address --network-mode bridged

Persistent Disk

This applies only to newly created instances.

Colima now uses a separate virtual machine disk for container data as a means to guard against accidental loss of data. A deleted instance would not delete the container data disk, and a subsequent colima start would attempt to reinstate the data.

Supported for Docker, Containerd and Incus runtimes. Kubernetes however is not yet support.

To delete all data, the --data flag should be passed to colima delete.

:::sh
colima delete --data # delete instance and container data

⚠️ While it works reliably, there are no guarantees against loss of data. It should be used as a disaster recovery mechanism.

Fixes

• The previous behaviour with templates has been reinstated. i.e. Colima would load config from template file if present. It can still be disabled by passing --template=false to colima start.
• DNS resolution for host.docker.internal has been improved and now works fine in Docker, Containerd and Kubernetes containers.
• /tmp/colima has been removed as a default mount due to issues caused when Colima is being run by multiple users on macOS.
• Port forwarder is now configurable between ssh and grpc with the --port-forwarder flag. Defaults to ssh.
• Fix i386 emulation when Rosetta is enabled.
• Introduction of --network-preferred-route flag to use the network address interface as the default route when network address is enabled. This resolves networking issue for some users.
• The size of the default storage pool for Incus runtime is now synced on startup to align with the available disk space on the virtual machine.

Runtime version bumps

NOTE: container runtime versions can be updated manually by running the colima update command.

• Docker version updated to v28.4.0
• Nerdctl version updated to v2.1.4
• Incus version updated to v6.16
• K3s version defaults to v1.33.4+k3s1

Commits

• k3s: retry ip address retrieval during setup by @Nevon in https://github.com/abiosoft/colima/pull/1374
• build(deps): bump actions/download-artifact from 4.3.0 to 5.0.0 by @dependabot[bot] in https://github.com/abiosoft/colima/pull/1377
• build(deps): bump actions/checkout from 4.2.2 to 5.0.0 by @dependabot[bot] in https://github.com/abiosoft/colima/pull/1378
• chore: replace net.ParseIP("0.0.0.0") with net.IPv4zero by @alexandear in https://github.com/abiosoft/colima/pull/1375
• chore: remove tmp mount by @abiosoft in https://github.com/abiosoft/colima/pull/1379
• cli: default template flag to true. by @abiosoft in https://github.com/abiosoft/colima/pull/1380
• net: use internal dnsmasq by @abiosoft in https://github.com/abiosoft/colima/pull/1381
• net: add support for bridged mode by @abiosoft in https://github.com/abiosoft/colima/pull/1382
• misc: improve password prompt message for network setup by @abiosoft in https://github.com/abiosoft/colima/pull/1383
• vm: make port forwarder configurable by @abiosoft in https://github.com/abiosoft/colima/pull/1384
• chore: fix default value for portForwarder by @abiosoft in https://github.com/abiosoft/colima/pull/1385
• core: update disk images by @abiosoft in https://github.com/abiosoft/colima/pull/1387
• chore: update start command k3s-args example by @jessegonzalez in https://github.com/abiosoft/colima/pull/1386
• vm: enable 386 emulation regardless of rosetta by @abiosoft in https://github.com/abiosoft/colima/pull/1388
• config: consider MountPoint in checkOverlappingMounts by @sakkyoi in https://github.com/abiosoft/colima/pull/1391
• net: add option to make vmnet the default route by @sakkyoi in https://github.com/abiosoft/colima/pull/1392
• build(deps): bump actions/setup-go from 5.5.0 to 6.0.0 by @dependabot[bot] in https://github.com/abiosoft/colima/pull/1394
• docs: add contribution instructions. by @abiosoft in https://github.com/abiosoft/colima/pull/1396
• vm: use external disk for container runtime by @abiosoft in https://github.com/abiosoft/colima/pull/1397
• core: update disk images by @abiosoft in https://github.com/abiosoft/colima/pull/1398
• vm: fix service clash with runtime disk mount by @abiosoft in https://github.com/abiosoft/colima/pull/1399
• vm: fix runtime disk mount directories for containerd by @abiosoft in https://github.com/abiosoft/colima/pull/1400
• vm: validate container runtime for the runtime disk by @abiosoft in https://github.com/abiosoft/colima/pull/1401
• vm: improve container runtime disk by @abiosoft in https://github.com/abiosoft/colima/pull/1404
• docs: add how to edit colima default template file to README by @olamilekan000 in https://github.com/abiosoft/colima/pull/1405
• Improvements to dedicated runtime disk by @abiosoft in https://github.com/abiosoft/colima/pull/1408
• chore: code cleanups by @abiosoft in https://github.com/abiosoft/colima/pull/1409
• incus: fix unavailable storage pool on restart by @abiosoft in https://github.com/abiosoft/colima/pull/1410
• Pre release cleanup by @abiosoft in https://github.com/abiosoft/colima/pull/1411
• incus: rework runtime disk by @abiosoft in https://github.com/abiosoft/colima/pull/1412
• expose configuration for root disk size by @abiosoft in https://github.com/abiosoft/colima/pull/1413
• Disk Cleanups by @abiosoft in https://github.com/abiosoft/colima/pull/1414
• incus: sync size of the default pool on startup by @abiosoft in https://github.com/abiosoft/colima/pull/1415

New Contributors

• @jessegonzalez made their first contribution in https://github.com/abiosoft/colima/pull/1386
• @sakkyoi made their first contribution in https://github.com/abiosoft/colima/pull/1391

Full Changelog: https://github.com/abiosoft/colima/compare/v0.8.4...v0.9.0