This is on a ZimaBoard 2.
I was able to d/l the ZVM for Mint but when I try to run it it hangs at the Grub screen.
I’ve seen enough posts by people using a ZVM that I figured it would be a walk in the park to set up, but that has not been my experience so far. Comments, anyone?
I believe what you’re running into is a mix of two known limitations with ZVM on ZimaOS right now.
First, the official ZVM image library is still quite limited. Debian and Ubuntu images are not always available or may fail to download depending on region/mirror availability. At the moment, there isn’t an official alternate download source for prebuilt ZVM images outside what ZimaOS provides.
Second, the Mint image hanging at GRUB is a known issue. It’s usually related to VM boot mode / compatibility rather than the image itself. ZVM can be a bit sensitive with certain distros and kernel configs.
What I suggest:
• Instead of relying on the built-in ZVM templates, upload a standard ISO (Ubuntu or Debian) and install it manually inside ZVM
• Use a minimal ISO (server version works best) to avoid boot issues
I’ve seen much more consistent results going the manual ISO route rather than using the prebuilt images.
Also worth noting, ZVM is still evolving, so setup isn’t quite “plug and play” yet, especially on ZimaBoard hardware.
If you can share a screenshot of the GRUB screen or your VM settings, we can narrow it down further
That explains a lot. It’s a big help. Thanks! I’ll give Ubuntu server a try and see how it goes.
Further on this.
As it turns out I am able to do everything I want to using the command line so, for the time being, I don’t need a VM.
Essentially I’m using the ZimaBoard 2 to host existing ZFS pools that are on drives from another server. Initially ZimaOS’s read-only FS threw me for a loop, until you suggested using /DATA for the mount point. After that importing the ZFS pools was straightforward. And then making the Samba shares with R&W permission in ZimaOS was only a couple clicks.
I can read the shares without issue. But I am unable to write to them. I was wondering if you have any insights that might help me here. With thanks.
Nice, you’re basically there.
If you can read but not write, it’s almost always permissions.
Quick checks:
1. Ownership
ls -ld /DATA/your-zfs-mount
If it shows root root, fix:
chown -R 1000:1000 /DATA/your-zfs-mount
2. Permissions
chmod -R 775 /DATA/your-zfs-mount
3. ZFS readonly (important)
zfs get readonly yourpool/dataset
If on:
zfs set readonly=off yourpool/dataset
4. Quick test (this tells you exactly where the issue is)
touch /DATA/your-zfs-mount/testfile
That’ll narrow it down fast.
That fixed it. Thank you so much. It was the permissions that was the problem.
Unfortunately that’s not the end of it. When the ZimaBoard is restarted the ownership and permissions go back to how they were before. Does that make any sense to you?
Ahh yep, that makes sense.
What you fixed earlier is correct, but ZFS is overriding it on reboot. It’s not losing your changes, it’s reapplying its own dataset permissions every time it mounts.
This usually happens when the dataset comes from another system like TrueNAS, where ZFS ACLs are enabled. Those ACLs take priority over normal Linux permissions, so your chown/chmod gets reset.
ZimaOS being Buildroot doesn’t affect this. ZFS handles permissions itself, so you can still switch the dataset to standard Linux permissions without any issue.
Right now your changes are just temporary. To make it stick, you need to disable the ZFS ACL layer and use normal Linux permissions instead.
Once that’s done, your ownership and permissions will persist after reboot
same issue
Yeah sounds like you’re hitting the exact same thing.
If it works after fixing permissions but resets after reboot, that’s ZFS overriding it, not ZimaOS.
Most likely the dataset has ACLs enabled (common if it came from another system), so any chown/chmod you do just gets wiped on mount.
So the behaviour is:
Nothing broken, just how ZFS handles permissions.
You’ll need to either switch the dataset to standard Linux permissions or properly set the ACLs for your user, otherwise it’ll keep resetting every boot.
ok i will do this
thanks
That’s it. Running setfacl -b -R on the directory I’m mounting the ZFS pools to corrected the issue. Thanks again for all the help.
ISO’s still a problem - I noticed that first respons on this was oct. 2025 but it still hasn’t been fixed now 6 months later.
I tried grabbing a noble-mini-iso to install the ubuntu server - it downloads - but says it does not have enough space - even though I configured the zvm with 4 threads, 4GB RAM and 100GB space..
I even purchased ZimaOS+ to have it replace my server OS - but it is still very buggy I see 
I installed apps ( pihole and Uptime Kuma ) both are old versions and with no choice to update ) - oh - and I added the support of old SMB (as I have an old NAS that I want add) - but add lan device shows nothing..
I might soon regret buying this OS