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

⚠️ Bridged should only be used if required and the local network is compatible. Shared networking is still the recommended option and remains the default.

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.

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 for 386 architecture 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

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