# Lima v2.2.0-rc.0

- Product: Lima (https://whatsnew.fyi/product/lima)
- Vendor: Lima Project
- Date: 2026-07-16
- Version: v2.2.0-rc.0
- Original notes: https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/releases/tag/v2.2.0-rc.0
- Permalink: https://whatsnew.fyi/product/lima/releases/v2.2.0-rc.0
- Labels: Pre-release; Platforms: macOS, Linux

What's New is an index, not a publisher: every entry below links to the vendor's own release notes, which are the authoritative source. Entries are labelled where they are hand-curated sample data, pre-releases, or drawn from a secondary source such as a developer blog.

Reuse: the summaries, labels and curation here are © What's New. Quote freely with attribution and a link back; wholesale republication of the corpus is not permitted — terms: https://whatsnew.fyi/terms. The vendors' own release notes remain their publishers'.

---

- **added** — Experimentally support Windows Server 2025 guests
- **added** — Experimentally support Windows 11 guests
- **added** — Experimentally allow opting out from password-less sudo
- **changed** — Change the default VM driver from wsl2 to qemu on Windows host
- **added** — Add LaunchDaemon support for headless macOS servers
- **changed** — Update VM driver infrastructure API
- **added** — Implement TPM emulation in QEMU
- **added** — Implement virtio-sound interface in VZ
- **added** — Add limactl screenshot command
- **added** — Accept limactl edit flags in limactl restart
- **added** — Accept --shell flag in limactl create, edit, and start
- **changed** — Limit socket_vmnet access from %everyone to the %admin group
- **changed** — Move almalinux-kitten template to experimental/
- **added** — Support --plain flag in alpine template
- **added** — Support --image-variant=nocloud in debian template
- **added** — Support RISC-V 64 in fedora template
- **added** — Support --image-variant=minimal in ubuntu template
- **added** — Support version and registry parameters in k8s template
- **changed** — Point experimental/ubuntu-next template to ubuntu-26.10

Highlights:
- 🪟Experimentally support Windows server 2025 guests
- 🪟Experimentally support Windows 11 guests
- 🐧Experimentally allow opting out from password-less sudo

##### Changes
- Windows guest support:
  - Experimentally support Windows server 2025 guests (#5138, thanks to [LFX mentee](https://lfx.linuxfoundation.org/tools/mentorship/) @mie313)
  - Experimentally support Windows 11 guests (#5164 #5185 #5244, thanks to [LFX mentee](https://lfx.linuxfoundation.org/tools/mentorship/) @mie313)

- Linux guest support:
  - Experimentally allow opting out from password-less sudo (#5109 etc., thanks to @Aneesh-Hegde)

- Windows host support:
  - Change the default VM driver from `wsl2` to `qemu` (#4788)

- macOS host support:
  - Add LaunchDaemon support for headless macOS servers (#4984, thanks to @resker)

- VM driver infrastructure:
  - Update API (#4877, thanks to @unsuman)

- QEMU:
  - Implement TPM emulation (#5148, thanks to @mie313)

- VZ:
  - Implement virtio-sound interface (#5016, thanks to @Aneesh-Hegde)

- `limactl` CLI:
  - Add `limactl screenshot` (#5098, thanks to @trodemaster)
  - Accept `limactl edit` flags in `limactl restart` (#5076, thanks to @itsme-ranger)
  - Accept `--shell` flag in `limactl (create|edit|start)` (#5194, thanks to @unsuman)


- Networking:
  - Limit `socket_vmnet` access from `%everyone` to the `%admin` group (#5190, thanks to @ekalinin)

- Templates:
  - `almalinux-kitten`: Move to `experimental/` (#4736)
  - `alpine`: Support `--plain` (#3057)
  - `debian`: Support `--image-variant=nocloud` (#5159, thanks to @Nachiket-Roy)
  - `fedora`: support RISC-V 64 (#5201)
  - `ubuntu`: Support `--image-variant=minimal` (#5159, thanks to @Nachiket-Roy)
  - `k8s`: Support version and registry parameters (#4872 #5200, thanks to @afbjorklund)
  - `experimental/ubuntu-next`: point to `ubuntu-26.10` (#5214)

Full changes: https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/milestone/70?closed=1
Thanks to @Aneesh-Hegde @Nachiket-Roy @SABITHSAHEB @afbjorklund @arixmkii @bitalizer @ciderale @coulof @ekalinin @gaurav0107 @itsme-ranger @jandubois @kavirakesh14 @loncharles @mie313 @pirate @resker @trodemaster @unsuman

##### Usage
```console
$ limactl create
$ limactl start
...
INFO[0029] READY. Run `lima` to open the shell.

$ lima uname
Linux
```

- - -
The binaries were built automatically on GitHub Actions.
The build log is available for 90 days: https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/actions/runs/29470510152

The sha256sum of the SHA256SUMS file itself is `6c4fc48f1b415461272bac7082c8c6564f714638533e9e58b9e9f0846f51376b` .
- - -
Release manager: @AkihiroSuda