Archives For November 30, 1999

Oracle virtualbox

Oracle announced the 4.3.24 release of VirtualBox this Monday which improves stability and fixes regressions.

For Linux users, VirtualBox 4.3.24 fixes the Kernel 4.0 building issue for guest additions and virtual screens deactivation problem. Below is the full change log:

  • VMM: emulation fix for the ENTER instruction under certain conditions; fixes Solaris 10 guests (VT-x without unrestricted guest execution)
  • VMM: fix for handling NMIs on Linux hosts with X2APIC enabled
  • NAT/NAT Network: fix connection drops when the host’s DHCP lease was renewed (4.3.22 regression; Windows hosts only)
  • NAT: don’t crash on an empty domain list when switching the DNS host configuration (4.3.22 regression; Mac OS X hosts only)
  • PXE: re-enable it on Windows hosts (4.3.22 regression; Windows hosts only)
  • Shared Folders: fixed a problem with Windows guests (4.3.22 regression)
  • Audio: improved record quality when using the DirectSound audio backend
  • VBoxManage: when executing the controlvm command take care that the corresponding VM runtime changes are saved permanently
  • Windows Installer: properly install the 32-bit version of VBoxRes.dll on 32-bit hosts
  • Linux hosts / guests: Linux 4.0 fixes
  • OS/2 Additions: fixed mouse integration (4.3.22 regression)
  • X11 Additions: fixed a sporadic failure to deactivate virtual screens

Install / Upgrade VirtualBox in Ubuntu:

Either install the VirtualBox package available at:

VBox Linux Download Page

Or add VBox repository via below command and then upgrade it through Software Updater:

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian $(lsb_release -cs) contrib" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/virtualbox.list'

Oracle virtualbox

Oracle has released a new maintenance release for VirtualBox 4.3 series. For Linux Guests, X.Org server 1.17 now is supported, guest additions do not build with 3.19 kernel issue is fixed.

Full changes in VirtualBox 4.3.22:

  • VMM: refined measurement of TSC frequency on the host, improves timekeeping for guests
  • VMM: decreased CPU load resulting from guest MMIO writes to the virtual APIC
  • VMM: fixed interception of debug exceptions, observed while using the dbx debugger on Solaris guests (VT-x only)
  • GUI: 3D overlay window positioning code improved, fixed potential misplacement of 3D accelerated guest graphics content
  • GUI: fixed accident SSL authentication failures during update check on Windows hosts
  • GUI: never send the “ACPI power” keyboard scancode to the guest, we have the ACPI power button for that
  • GUI: was unable to properly restore seamless mode VM from snapshot/saved-state under some circumstances
  • VBoxHeadless: don’t crash if 3D is enabled in the VM settings
  • ATA: fixed several passthrough issues
  • Audio: fixed DirectSound failure when the the host has no audio input device
  • SB16: fixed compatibility issue
  • Storage: fixed broken CD/DVD passthrough when using the IDE controller
  • NAT: new ping proxy for Windows hosts
  • NAT: Properly report outbound connect(2) failures to guest with TCP RST or ICMP
  • NAT Network: no need for frequent wakeups in VBoxNetDHCP and VBoxNetNAT
  • Host-only adapter: prevent Windows from creating an “Unidentified network”
  • Bridged Networking: don’t leak host-to-guest traffic to the wireless network when bridging to a wireless interface
  • Main: fixed a possible race when changing the medium leading to a deadlock under rare conditions
  • VBoxManage: fixed return code if starting a VM failed
  • API: fixed 2 deadlock opportunities related to medium handling
  • API: fixed bug in XPCOM which created too few worker threads, sporadically resulting in a deadlock
  • SDK: fixed a garbage collection leak in the Python VirtualBox webservice API binding
  • Linux hosts: fixes for activated SMAP (Broadwell and later)
  • X11 guests: prevent unwanted hiding of guest screens on multi-monitor guests
  • X11 guests: added support for X.Org Server 1.17
  • X11 Additions: fixed a memory leak in VBoxService if libdbus is available but dbus-daemon isn’t running
  • Windows Additions: prevent VBox WDDM driver from loading if host reports weak OpenGL capabilities. 3D content now can be shown over Remote Desktop connection.
  • Winodws Additions: some fixes for recent Windows 10 Previews
  • Linux Additions: fixed a compatibility issue with 64-bit Linux 2.4 kernels
  • Linux Additions: fixed a potential use-after-free when unloading the VBoxGuest module
  • Linux Additions: Linux 3.19 fixes

Download / Install VirtualBox in Ubuntu:

For Linux, you can either download the .deb installer (click install .deb package via Software Center) from:

VBox For Linux Download Page

or install VBox and receive future updates from its official repository:

1. Open terminal from the Dash or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T. When it opens, run command to add VBox repository:

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian $(lsb_release -cs) contrib" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/virtualbox.list'

2. Run command to download and install the keyring:

wget -q https://www.virtualbox.org/download/oracle_vbox.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -

3. Finally upgrade VBox 4.3 via Software Updater, or install it for the first time via below 2 commands:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install virtualbox-4.3

Virtualbox repository

Oracle finally made the Virtualbox binary packages for Ubuntu 14.10 Utopic available in its official Linux repository. Which means running regular system updates via Software Updater will keep your Virtualbox release always up-to-date.

While Ubuntu 14.10 repositories provide the Virtualbox 4.3.18, the latest has reached the version 4.3.20. For the changelog, see the web page.

Virtualbox 4.3 in Ubuntu 14.10

How to Add Virtualbox Repository in Ubuntu:

Open terminal from the Unity Dash or just press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, paste the command below into terminal and run to get the key:

wget -q -O - http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian/oracle_vbox.asc | sudo apt-key add -

Type in your user password when it asks. Then run command to add the vbox repository for Ubuntu 14.10:

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian utopic non-free contrib" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/virtualbox.org.list'

Now install Vbox 4.3 via your package manager after checking for updates. Or just run commands below one by one:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install virtualbox-4.3

Finally keep your system up-to-date by running regular system updates, which also keep your Virutalbox 4.3 series up-to-date.

virtualbox repository

The latest Virtualbox 4.3.12 has been released just days ago on May 16, 2014. The new release brings various fixes on NAT, GUI, VMM, and hosts.

Virtualbox 4.3.12 is a maintenance release. The following items were fixed and/or added:

  • VMM: fixed an occasional Guru Meditation (Mac OS X hosts only)
  • VMM: fixed a rare condition that would fail to invalidate guest TLB entries or would invalidate them when not required (Windows hosts only)
  • VMM: fixed a VERR_NOT_SUPPORTED Guru Meditation seen with certain guests, e.g. OpenServer 5.0.7
  • VMM: more fixes for MSR emulation on certain hardware
  • GUI: fixed mouse positioning with mouse integration disabled and multiple guest screens (Windows hosts only)
  • GUI: fixed crash in VM manager
  • GUI: fixed crash under rare conditions on entering/exiting fullscreen/seamless mode
  • Shared Clipboard: don’t stop working after taking a snapshot
  • AHCI: fixed a crash under rare circumstances
  • API: fixed a hang during VM shutdown under rare conditions
  • NAT: fixed generation of malformed ICMP error datagrams (4.3.10 regression)
  • NAT: fixed potential crash in DNS proxy
  • NAT Network: don’t drop port forwarding rules after some time
  • NAT: fixed ARP cache corruption and network loss in Windows guest caused by iSCSI service activity
  • USB: improved check if a storage device is currently mounted to the host when the device is about to be attached to the VM (Mac OS X hosts only)
  • 3D support: several fixes, including better support for Ubuntu 14.04
  • VRDP: fixed a potential crash on client disconnect
  • VBoxSVC: fixed a race when a new client is started a few seconds after the last client terminated (Windows hosts only)
  • VBoxSVC: fixed VirtualBox.xml registry corruption after VM renaming
  • VBoxSVC: fixed a potential crash caused by incorrect USB device filter (Mac OS X hosts only)
  • Windows hosts: partly support 32-bit COM on 64-bit systems
  • Windows host installer: implemented merge module (msm) support
  • Linux hosts: fixed dependency of boot script on older Debian systems
  • Linux guests: fix symbolic link to shared folder helper
  • Linux Additions: don’t crash VBoxService during guest execute for users without a password
  • Linux Additions: fixed a bug in guest execution where the guest process terminated with VERR_INTERRUPTED to the host

How to install or upgrade:

You can either get the .deb installer from the link below:

Download Virtualbox for Linux

Or get it from the official Linux repository by running the commands below one by one in a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T):

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian $(lsb_release -sc) contrib" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/virtualbox.list'

wget -q http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian/oracle_vbox.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install virtualbox-4.3

If you already have Virtualbox repository added in your system, just run the last two commands will do the job. That’s it enjoy!

virtualbox 4.3.4

The latest Virtualbox 4.3.4 was released recently. Now it works with Linux Kernel 3.13. This tutorial shows you what’s new and how to install or upgrade to Virtualbox 4.3.4 in Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 13.04, Ubuntu 12.04, Linux Mint.

What’s New in Virtualbox 4.3.4:

  • VMM: fix for a bug in the Local APIC emulation causing a BSOD when booting certain guests (4.3.0 regression;)
  • VMM: fixed loading of saved states if VT-x/AMD-V was disabled (4.3.2 regression;)
  • VMM: fixed single-stepping inside the guest for certain instructions (VT-x only;)
  • VMM: fixed a performance issue involving APIC accesses after rebooting a VM (4.3.0 regression; VT-x only;)
  • VMM: fixed TPR patching to be enabled for 32-bit guests even when the chosen guest type is 64-bit (4.3.0 regression; AMD-V only)
  • VMM: fixed occasional VINF_EM_TRIPLE_FAULT errors on hosts without the unrestricted guest execution feature
  • GUI: don’t bother the user with the BPP warning if no Guest Additions are installed
  • GUI: fixed machine-window paint artifacts on VM reboot / guest-screen resize
  • GUI: make sure the assigned license and description are attached to the exported appliance
  • GUI: fixed bugs in close VM action restrictions handling
  • GUI: fixed incorrect wizards text colors for some unusual look and feel styles
  • GUI: should restore seamless mode as soon as possible after VM reboot or shutdown
  • GUI: fixes for medium enumeration
  • GUI: the OS X hot corners were not accessible while a VirtualBox VM is running (Mac OS X hosts only;)
  • GUI: fixed an old bug which bared the host from cleanly shutdown / reboot if the VM selector window is open (Mac OS X hosts only;)
  • Host-only Networking: fixed creating of host-only network interfaces (4.3.0 regression;)
  • NAT: don’t run into an infinite loop in case the host cannot access any DNS server (4.3.0 regression;)
  • NAT: don’t re-connect the cable if the DNS information changes and the cable was disconnected before (4.3.0 regression;)
  • NAT: fixed several issues with automatically starting / terminating of NAT networks on VM start / stop and configuration changes
  • VBoxNetDHCP: don’t block prevent VBoxSVC from terminating
  • 2D Video acceleration: fix crashes on presentation mode switches
  • BusLogic: allow to run VMs with more than one BusLogic SCSI controller enabled
  • Keyboard: fixed a VM crash if a VM was resumed from a saved state where at least one key was pressed
  • VBoxSVC: fixed a heap corruption under certain conditions (4.3.0 regression)
  • VBoxSVC: fixed a race leading to a hang during initialization
  • OVF: fixed import logic for OVF appliances containing multiple VMs
  • OVF: improved logic for finding an appropriate image format during OVF import
  • API: block the removal of the current snapshot if it has child snapshots (only relevant for VMs without snapshottable hard disks, their presence always prevented removal), which resulted in VM configuration corruption
  • API: mark VM configurations with snapshots but without current snapshot as inaccessible, as this combination is nonsense
  • API: fixed information for some automatically generated events (only with XPCOM, Windows host was not affected), which caused errors when getting some of the attributes over the webservice
  • SDK: extended the functionality coverage for the C bindings
  • Guest Control: various bug fixes and improved VBoxManage help
  • Windows hosts: another attempt to fix the massive DPC latency
  • Mac OS X hosts: properly sign the kernel extensions for Mavericks hosts
  • Mac OS X hosts: fixed a bug where the VirtualBox dock icon was not properly removed from the dock after a VM terminated preventing Mavericks hosts from shutting down
  • Mac OS X hosts: fixed minor installer issue
  • Linux hosts / guests: Linux 3.13 compile fixes
  • Linux guests: build the vboxvideo kernel module correctly on OL/RHEL 6.1 guests
  • Linux guests: make 3D work on Slackware 14.1
  • Guest Additions/3D: fixed an occasional dead-lock
  • Windows Additions/3D: fixed possible memory leaking
  • Windows Additions/XPDM: use separate tables containing valid video modes for each virtual monitor
  • Windows Additions: fixed automatic logins for Vista and newer Windows guests
  • Download & Install Virtualbox 4.3.4:

    You can either download the DEB from Linux download page, or install it from official repository:

    (Hate Linux commands? Well, go to this page for graphical way)

    1. Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run commands below to add VBox repository:

    sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian $(lsb_release -sc) contrib" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/virtualbox.list'

    2. Get the key:

    wget -q http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian/oracle_vbox.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -

    3. Update & install:

    sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install virtualbox-4.3

    virtualbox 4.3.2

    Virtualbox 4.3.2, the first maintenance release of virtualbox 4.3 was released with lots of bugfixes. Here’s how to upgrade it in Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy, Ubuntu 13.04 Raring, Ubuntu 12.04 Precise, Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal and Linux Mint.

    What’s New in Virtualbox 4.3.2:

    • VMM: fixed restoring of the auxiliary TSC MSR in VT-x that caused host BSODs on Windows 8.1 hosts and unpredictable behavior on other hosts
    • VMM: provide fake values for a couple of MSRs to make more guests happy on certain hosts
    • VMM: fixed detection of VT-x on certain machines where the BIOS would not set the VMX LOCK feature bit, which affected the VM settings in the GUI
    • VMM: fixed TPR threshold which caused BSODs on Windows XP guests that use the I/O APIC (VT-x only;
    • VMM: fixed PATM saved state incompatibility for software virtualized VMs
    • VMM: don’t fail if AMD-V isn’t available if the VM is configured to use software virtualization
    • GUI: fixed guest resize breakage on visual representation mode change (when switching from normal to fullscreen etc)
    • GUI: make sure the guest screen is resized after restoring a VM from a saved state if the host screen size changed
    • GUI: disabled SCROLL LED sync from HID LEDs synchronization (Mac OS X hosts only)
    • Webcam passthrough improvements including GUI support (see the manual for more information)
    • Guest Control: implemented more IGuestSession methods
    • Guest Control: added support for deleting and renaming guest files + directories in VBoxManage
    • Guest Control: various bugfixes
    • API: incorrect handling of hardware UUID default value, resulting in an all zero DMI/SMBIOS UUID, which leads to Windows requesting re-activation
    • 3D support: fixed crash on shutdown if 2D video acceleration is enabled (Mac OS X hosts only)
    • 3D support: miscellaneous fixes
    • Storage: fixed detection of CD/DVD media when switching from an empty to a host drive with passthrough enabled
    • Storage: fixed hang of the VM process when the disk is full under certain circumstances
    • NAT: listen for changes of NAT Network setting at runtime
    • NAT: NAT Network DHCP server now saves leases to a persistent storage
    • Main: monitor changes in host DNS configuration
    • Mac OS X host: reworked a mechanism of adding a VM desktop alias from the VM selector
    • Mac OS X installer: remove old kernel extensions during upgrade
    • Linux Additions: correctly set umask before installing
    • X11 Additions/3D: fix freezes starting 3D desktop
    • X11 Additions/3D: fix depth buffer support
    • X11 Additions/3D: fix Age Of Empires 3 rendering
    • Windows Additions/3D: fix Google Earth plugin rendering
    • Windows Additions/WDDM: autoresize fixes

    Install or Upgrade Virtualbox 4.3.2:

    You can easily get this version from Virtualbox for Linux official download page.

    Or install it from Virtualbox repository for Linux. Press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run commands below one by one to add the repository:

    sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian $(lsb_release -sc) contrib" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/virtualbox.list'
    
    wget -q http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian/oracle_vbox.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -

    In the code, change $(lsb_release -sc) to:

    • raring for Ubuntu 13.10, Linux 15 & 16.
    • quantal for Linux Mint 14
    • precise for Linux Mint 13 & Elementary OS Luna.

    After that, update packages list and install Virtuablox via:

    sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install virtualbox-4.3
    virtualbox 4.3.2 in ubuntu 13.10

    virtualbox 4.3.2 in ubuntu 13.10