gbos-vm project enables Googlebook OS on Apple Silicon Macs

Developer Skylar Taylor-Barrick has released an experimental open-source project called ‘gbos-vm’, which allows an ARM64-Recovery-Image of the Dell XPS Googlebook to run in a virtual machine on Apple Silicon Macs.

The solution utilizes QEMU in conjunction with the native macOS Hypervisor framework. To ensure hardware compatibility, the project replaces hardware-specific vendor partition elements with virtual components from Google’s Cuttlefish project. This setup enables graphics acceleration through a translation chain involving Vulkan, Venus, MoltenVK, and Apple’s Metal interface.

While the project allows for functional use of applications like the Chrome browser, it remains an experimental developer tool with several known limitations. Current issues include Bluetooth instability, a TPM service crash loop, and a display refresh rate limited to 60 Hz. The project is available on GitHub under the MIT license and uses installation scripts to download official images directly from Google and Dell servers to avoid distributing proprietary binaries.