Never knock a steadily updated app.
VirtualBox, an open source x86 virtualization project available for free has just hit version 4.2.14. The new version, a 150 megabyte download, features the following fixes and changes:
– VMM: another TLB invalidation fix for non-present pages.
– VMM: fixed a performance regression (4.2.8 regression; bug #11674).
– GUI: fixed a crash on shutdown.
– GUI: prevent stuck keys under certain conditions on Windows hosts (bugs #2613, #6171).
– VRDP: fixed a rare crash on the guest screen resize.
– VRDP: allow to change VRDP parameters (including enabling/disabling the server) if the VM is paused.
– USB: fixed passing through devices on Mac OS X host to a VM with 2 or more virtual CPUs (bug #7462).
– USB: fixed hang during isochronous transfer with certain devices (4.1 regression; Windows hosts only; bug #11839).
– USB: properly handle orphaned URBs (bug #11207).
– BIOS: fixed function for returning the PCI interrupt routing table (fixes NetWare 6.x guests).
– BIOS: don’t use the ENTER / LEAVE instructions in the BIOS as these don’t work in the real mode as set up by certain guests (e.g. Plan 9 and QNX 4).
– DMI: allow to configure DmiChassisType (bug #11832).
– Storage: fixed lost writes if iSCSI is used with snapshots and asynchronous I/O (bug #11479).
– Storage: fixed accessing certain VHDX images created by Windows 8 (bug #11502).
– Storage: fixed hang when creating a snapshot using Parallels disk images (bug #9617).
– 3D: seamless + 3D fixes (bug #11723).
– 3D: version 4.2.12 was not able to read saved states of older versions under certain conditions (bug #11718).
– Main/Properties: don’t create a guest property for non-running VMs if the property does not exist and is about to be removed (bug #11765).
– Main/Properties: don’t forget to make new guest properties persistent after the VM was terminated (bug #11719).
– Main/Display: don’t lose seamless regions during screen resize.
– Main/OVF: don’t crash during import if the client forgot to call Appliance::interpret() (bug #10845).
– Main/OVF: don’t create invalid appliances by stripping the file name if the VM name is very long (bug #11814).
– Main/OVF: don’t fail if the appliance contains multiple file references (bug #10689).
– Main/Metrics: fixed Solaris file descriptor leak.
– Settings: limit depth of snapshot tree to 250 levels, as more will lead to decreased performance and may trigger crashes.
– VBoxManage: fixed setting the parent UUID on diff images using sethdparentuuid.
– Linux hosts: work around for not crashing as a result of automatic NUMA balancing which was introduced in Linux 3.8 (bug #11610).
– Windows installer: force the installation of the public certificate in background (i.e. completely prevent user interaction) if the –silent command line option is specified.
– Windows Additions: fixed problems with partial install in the unattended case
Windows Additions: fixed display glitch with the Start button in seamless mode for some themes.
– Windows Additions: Seamless mode and auto-resize fixes.
– Windows Additions: fixed trying to to retrieve new auto-logon credentials if current ones were not processed yet.
– Windows Additions installer: added the /with_wddm switch to select the experimental WDDM driver by default.
– Linux Additions: fixed setting own timed out and aborted texts in information label of the lightdm greeter.
– Linux Additions: fixed compilation against Linux 3.2.0 Ubuntu kernels (4.2.12 regression as a side effect of the Debian kernel build fix; bug #11709).
– X11 Additions: reduced the CPU load of VBoxClient in drag’and’drop mode.
– OS/2 Additions: made the mouse wheel work (bug #6793).
– Guest Additions: fixed problems copying and pasting between two guests on an X11 host (bug #11792).
VirtualBox 4.2.14 is available for free and requires an Intel-based Mac running Mac OS X 10.6 or later and an Intel-based Mac to install and run.
If you’ve tried the new version and have any feedback, please let us know.