Getting Started with Multipass: Installing, Creating, and Managing Ubuntu Virtual Machines

Multipass is a lightweight, cross‑platform command‑line tool for managing Ubuntu virtual machines on Linux, Windows, and macOS, offered as a free alternative to paid solutions like VMware.

To begin, download the appropriate installer from the official Multipass website and install it on your operating system (the example uses Windows).

After installation, verify the installed version:

$ multipass version

Find the available Ubuntu images you can launch:

$ multipass find

Image                     Aliases          Version   Description
snapcraft:core18                         20201111  Snapcraft builder for Core 18
snapcraft:core20                         20201111  Snapcraft builder for Core 20
core                     core16           20200818  Ubuntu Core 16
core18                                   20200812  Ubuntu Core 18
16.04                    xenial           20210128  Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
18.04                    bionic           20210129  Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
20.04                    focal,lts        20210223  Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
20.10                    groovy           20210209  Ubuntu 20.10
appliance:adguard-home                  20200812  Ubuntu AdGuard Home Appliance
appliance:mosquitto                     20200812  Ubuntu Mosquitto Appliance
appliance:nextcloud                      20200812  Ubuntu Nextcloud Appliance
appliance:openhab                        20200812  Ubuntu openHAB Home Appliance
appliance:plexmediaserver                20200812  Ubuntu Plex Media Server Appliance

Create a new Ubuntu VM named dg :

$ multipass launch --name dg
Launched: dg

Check the VM’s release information:

$ multipass exec dg -- lsb_release -d
Description:    Ubuntu 18.04.4 LTS

List all running VMs:

Name   State    IPv4          Image
dg     Running  192.168.24.5  Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

View detailed information about the VM:

$ multipass info --all

Name:           dg
State:          Running
IPv4:           192.168.24.5
Release:        Ubuntu 18.04.4 LTS
Image hash:     fe3030933742 (Ubuntu 18.04 LTS)
Load:           0.00 0.00 0.00
Disk usage:     1.5G out of 4.7G
Memory usage:   112.1M out of 985.7M

Enter the VM’s shell:

$ multipass shell dg

Execute a single command inside the VM without entering the shell:

$ multipass exec dg --

Pause and restart the VM:

# pause
$ multipass stop dg
# start
$ multipass start dg

Delete and permanently purge the VM:

# delete
$ multipass delete dg
# purge
$ multipass purge dg

For reproducible environments, use the --cloud-init flag with a YAML configuration file. Example launch with cloud‑init:

$ multipass launch --name ubuntu --cloud-init config.yaml

Sample config.yaml :

#cloud-config

runcmd:
  - curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_12.x | sudo -E bash -
  - sudo apt-get install -y nodejs
  - wget https://releases.leanapp.cn/leancloud/lean-cli/releases/download/v0.21.0/lean-cli-x64.deb
  - sudo dpkg -i lean-cli-x64.deb

The runcmd section runs the listed commands the first time the VM starts.

In summary, Multipass provides a fast way to spin up Ubuntu VMs for testing Linux commands, small database clusters, or other experiments, though it currently supports only Ubuntu images.