Installation
Requirements
| Operating system | Hardware |
|---|---|
| macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later | Apple Silicon (M1 or newer) |
| Ubuntu 24.04 or later | x86_64 or arm64 with KVM |
| Debian 13 or later | x86_64 or arm64 with KVM |
You need an internet connection, curl, and permission to run sudo.
Linux installation uses apt and requires a systemd user session, KVM access,
and Landlock ABI 6 or later with seccomp enabled. A distribution name alone
does not establish that its installed kernel supports worker confinement.
Intel Macs are not supported.
Install
Run this in a terminal as your regular user:
curl -fsSL https://capsem.org/install.sh | shThe installer selects the stable release for your operating system and
architecture, verifies the package, and installs it using the native package
manager. It downloads the VM runtime assets and registers the background
service to start automatically when you log in. Enter your password if prompted
by sudo, and wait for installation to finish.
You can also download the matching package from the stable release channel:
- macOS: open the
.pkgand follow the installer prompts. - Linux: download the
.debfor your architecture, then runsudo apt install ./capsem_*.debin the download directory.
Check the installation
Open a new terminal and run:
capsem versioncapsem statuscapsem version prints the installed version. In capsem status, check that
the service reports ok and the assets report ready. Resolve any reported
errors before creating your first VM.
Next steps
How to use Capsem walks you through launching and keeping your first VM. You can also go directly to: