Archives For November 30, 1999

Oracle Virtualbox 5.0.22

A new maintenance release for Virtualbox 5.0 series was announced a few days ago with various fixes and improvements.

Virtualbox 5.0.22 fixes build failure on Linux Kernel 4.7, mouse pointer offset in Linux client fullscreen mode, a potential Linux guest panic on AMD hosts, a potential hang with 32-bit EFI guests on Intel CPUs.

It also adds X.org 1.18 support for Solaris additions, brings fixes for certain Intel Atom hosts and certain 32-bit guest, adds a new I/O-APIC implementation fixing several bugs and improving the performance under certain conditions. For more details, go to the changelog page.

Download & install Virtualbox 5.0.22 in Ubuntu:

1. Download the pre-compiled package for your Ubuntu release from (i386 for 32-bit, amd64 for 64bit):

2. If you installed the stock version of VBOX from official Ubuntu repository, you have to remove it first via Ubuntu Software, or by running the command below in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T):

sudo apt remove virtualbox virutalbox-*

3. Finally install the new version by opening the package via Ubuntu Software, or run the dpkg command in terminal:

sudo dpkg -i ~/Downloads/virtualbox-5.0_5.0.22-*.deb

4. (Optional) For those who’d like to receive future updates of VBox along with other software updates via Software Updater utility, paste the 2 commands below and run one by one in terminal to add Virtualbox Linux repository:

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

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

You can manage the PPA later via System Settings -> Software & Updates -> Other Software.

VirtualBox 5.0.12 Released with Various Fixes

Last updated: December 19, 2015

Today Oracle announced a new maintenance release for its Virtualbox 5.0 release with many fixes.

Virtualbox 5.0.12 is the 6th maintenance release in VBox 5.0 series, which brings a few UI improvements, several XHCI and audio fixes, LBA64 support to be able to boot from huge hard disks, a fix to random crash on VM shutdown, and below changes to Linux hosts / guests:

  • Fix .desktop file compatibility issue
  • Fix compile on RHEL 7.2
  • Recompile the host kernel modules changes to /sbin/rcvboxdrv
  • Add Python 2.7 bindings for Solaris hosts
  • Fix a VM hang during startup
  • some fixes for PCI passthrough
  • and more at this page.

How to Install / Upgrade:

The .deb installers for all current Ubuntu releases are available for download at the link below:

Virtualbox Linux Download Page

If you’ve a previous release installed and accepted adding the VB repository while the installation, you may have already received the upgrade notification in Software Updater:

Oracle finally announced the stable release of Virtualbox 5.0, which provides increased security with encryption and improved performance.

According to the press release, the 5.0 release supports the latest guest or host operating systems including: Mac OS X Yosemite, Windows 10, Oracle Linux, Oracle Solaris, other Linux operating systems, and legacy operating systems. Oracle Virtualbox 5.0 also features:

  • Paravirtualization Support for Windows and Linux Guests
  • Improved CPU Utilization
  • Guest os can directly recognize USB 3.0 devices and operate at full 3.0 speeds
  • On all host platforms, Windows, Linux and Oracle Solaris guests now support “drag and drop” of content between the host and the guest.
  • Disk Image Encryption, using the industry standard AES algorithm with up to 256 bit data encryption keys (DEK).

There are also numerous of other changes and bug fixes, including:

  • New User Interface settings page for customizing status-bar, menu-bar and guest-content scaling
  • VMs can be started in separate mode.
  • VM guest-content scaling support (including 3D acceleration)
  • Hotplugging support for SATA disks
  • support for Linux distributions using systemd without sysv emulation
  • upgraded to rdesktop-vrdp 1.8.3

To see the full list of changes, go to the wiki page.

How to Install Virtualbox 5.0 in Ubuntu:

1. Before installing the new release, you may first remove the previous release on your system via Synaptic Package Manager, Software Center, or by running below command in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T):

sudo apt-get remove virtualbox virtualbox-4.* virtualbox-5.0

2. Download Virtualbox 5.0 from the official links below:

select i386 for 32-bit, or amd64 for 64bit system. Ubuntu 15.04, Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04, and Ubuntu 12.04 are supported so far.

3. After downloaded the package, click to open with Software Center/Gdebi and finally install the Virtualbox 5.0

Addition, to receive future updates and fixes for VBox 5 through Software Updater or your Package Manager, you may add the official Virtualbox repository for Linux

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

The command creates a separate source file for VBox and writes the repository address into it. $(lsb_release -cs) automatically detects your release name, Linux Mint and Elementary OS users have to replace it (e.g., trusty for Mint 17.x and Freya, precise for Mint 13 and Luna).

Also download and insert the keyring so that Ubuntu trusts the package from that repository:

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

Finally you can upgrade VirtualBox as a part of system updates through Software Updater/Package Manager when a new release is out.