Fix Ubuntu virtual machine crashing in Parallels Desktop 17 for Mac computers with Apple M1 chips

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Some of you might encounter the issue when an Ubuntu Linux virtual machine (VM) crashes automatically upon clicking on any application or window inside the VM. As a result, you need to start the virtual machine again.

It happens due to Linux kernel 5.4 having some memory management peculiarities with the newly introduced VirGL feature enabled. 

Resolution

1. Create a new Ubuntu virtual machine from the list of Free Systems.

Alternatively, you can try following one of the steps below:

2. Update your Ubuntu kernel from 5.4 to 5.8/5.10.

Note: With Ubuntu 20.04, an update will only be possible if the HWE stack is enabled.

3. Assign 4GB or more RAM to the virtual machine. Find detailed instructions on how to change memory settings in KB 113649. Assigning 6 or 8 GB will make the situation much better.

Note: If you run Parallels Desktop on a Mac with 8 GB RAM, we don't recommend assigning more than 4 GB RAM to the virtual machine since it might affect the performance drastically.

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