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Mac Developer Onboarding: Documenting BPF/BPF+Lima Limitations and VM Workarounds (related to #375) #1465

@AkarshSahlot

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@AkarshSahlot

Hey team!
As part of good first issue #375 on improving developer docs for testing Kmesh, I wanted to flag a major roadblock for users developing on macOS.
What I found:
• Mac users (including myself) trying to run Kmesh in a Lima VM hit a wall with BPF support.
• While Lima can run basic Go tests, as soon as you attempt anything BPF-related (which is essential for real Kmesh dev), it consistently fails or kernel panics.
• I spent several hours on this, and retried on different versions—same outcome.
What works much better:
1. Dual-booting into Ubuntu:
• Everything just works.
• Best performance and reliability.
2. Using UTM to run an Ubuntu VM (ARM64 or x86_64):
• Slightly slower than dual-boot, but almost all Kmesh features (including BPF) work fine.
• No Linux kernel/BPF panics and easier for routine testing.
Suggestion:
I recommend we point Mac contributors/developers away from Lima, and instead strongly suggest UTM or dual-boot for anyone doing serious Kmesh development.
I’m happy to write up a clear warning or onboarding guide for the docs, to help others avoid this headache up front!

Thanks!
Akarsh

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