--- title: Running netlab and BGP Labs on Apple Silicon «... description: A step-by-step guide for running netlab and BGP labs on Apple Silicon (ARM) Macs using Multipass to spin up an Ubuntu VM. The setup uses FRRouting (FRR) ARM... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/running-netlab-and-bgp-labs-on-apple-silicon-ipspace-net-blog-p4uqc5rwx twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Running netlab and BGP Labs on Apple Silicon « ipSpace.net blog | daily.dev og:description: A step-by-step guide for running netlab and BGP labs on Apple Silicon (ARM) Macs using Multipass to spin up an Ubuntu VM. The setup uses FRRouting (FRR) ARM... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/running-netlab-and-bgp-labs-on-apple-silicon-ipspace-net-blog-p4uqc5rwx og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/P4UQC5rWx.png og:image:alt: Running netlab and BGP Labs on Apple Silicon « ipSpace.net blog og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Running netlab and BGP Labs on Apple Silicon « ipSpace.net blog **[ipSpace.net Blog](https://daily.dev/sources/ipspace)** · 3 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A step-by-step guide for running netlab and BGP labs on Apple Silicon (ARM) Macs using Multipass to spin up an Ubuntu VM. The setup uses FRRouting (FRR) ARM containers via Containerlab, since most vendor images lack ARM support. The guide covers installing Multipass, configuring the Ubuntu VM with adequate disk/CPU/RAM, installing netlab and its dependencies, and handling common issues like pip's externally-managed-environment error and missing Linux kernel drivers. Comments also mention alternative approaches using Lima or Colima, and note that Arista cEOS and Nokia SR Linux ARM containers are also supported. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Can I run netlab on Apple Silicon (M1/M2 Mac)? Yes, netlab can run on Apple Silicon by using Multipass to create an Ubuntu VM and deploying FRRouting (FRR) ARM containers via Containerlab. Most vendor network images lack ARM builds, so FRR is the primary supported option, though Arista cEOS and Nokia SR Linux ARM containers also work. The VM needs at least 10 GB disk, 4 CPUs, and 8 GB RAM for reliable operation. _Network engineers setting up labs on Apple Silicon track compatible container options on daily.dev._ ### How do I fix the pip3 externally-managed-environment error when installing networklab on Ubuntu 22.04 or 24.04? Add the --break-system-packages flag to the pip3 install command, or use a Python virtual environment: create one with python3 -m venv .venv, activate it with . .venv/bin/activate, then run pip3 install networklab inside it. Ubuntu 22.04 and 24.04 restrict system-wide pip installs by default under PEP 668. _Developers hitting Python packaging friction on Ubuntu find workarounds like this faster through daily.dev._ ### What Multipass commands do I need to resize disk and increase CPU/RAM for a netlab Ubuntu VM? Stop the instance first with multipass stop primary, then set disk with multipass set local.primary.disk=10G, CPUs with multipass set local.primary.cpus=4, and memory with multipass set local.primary.memory=8G. Restart with multipass restart primary before reconnecting. These resource increases are necessary to run Containerlab and network simulation workloads reliably. _Engineers provisioning network lab VMs find configuration tips like these on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [BGP-Free Core with SR-MPLS « ipSpace.net blog](https://daily.dev/posts/bgp-free-core-with-sr-mpls-ipspace-net-blog-h7kronzy3) · ipSpace.net Blog · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#bgp](https://daily.dev/tags/bgp), [#networking](https://daily.dev/tags/networking) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/running-netlab-and-bgp-labs-on-apple-silicon-ipspace-net-blog-p4uqc5rwx) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Running netlab and BGP Labs on Apple Silicon « ipSpace.net blog","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/running-netlab-and-bgp-labs-on-apple-silicon-ipspace-net-blog-p4uqc5rwx","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/running-netlab-and-bgp-labs-on-apple-silicon-ipspace-net-blog-p4uqc5rwx"},"datePublished":"2026-08-11T08:52:43.102Z","dateModified":"2026-10-14T02:33:14.940Z","description":"A step-by-step guide for running netlab and BGP labs on Apple Silicon (ARM) Macs using Multipass to spin up an Ubuntu VM. 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