Cannot boot Arch-based iso with Parallels 26

Hello, I am trying to create an Arch Linux VM on the current version of Parallels (26.1.1). I realize it is only partially supported.

Following the Parallels KB article, one cannot get past step 7 because the UEFI boot does not seem to work, you end up stuck in the BIOS screen. Manually selecting the UEFI Arch Linux entry does not actually boot the image, so you do not even get to the GRUB screen.

I have also tried CachyOS (an Arch-based distro) and had the same issue, cannot reach GRUB because I am stuck in the BIOS. I know there is also a KB article for this but that is addressing the reverse problem, which is trying to boot an older MBR .iso with an UEFI BIOS. In any case I did try it out and naturally it did not help.

I also tried booting directly from a USB stick with the contents of the iso, the stick boots fine on my PC in UEFI (I used it to install CachyOS so it is known good and known bootable) but it does not boot inside Parallels 26, same error that I describe above, you end up stuck in the BIOS prior to the actual boot.

Can anyone else reproduce this issue?

In case it makes any difference, here are the exact images I used:
archlinux-2025.11.01-x86_64.iso
cachyos-desktop-linux-250828.iso

 

After some searching I found the issue, the problem is that Parallels 26.1.1 cannot boot x86 or x64 EFI executables. If I use an aarch64 (ARM) UEFI image then it boots just fine.

I was under the impression that Parallels supported x64 emulation on Apple Silicon hardware but perhaps I was mistaken. This seems like a pretty big omission from the Arch KB that you need to use the ARM version of Arch (the url in the article points to the x64 version), so maybe this is a bug after all.