Software Update: VirtualBox 1.5.6

InnoTek has released a new version of VirtualBox. This program can be used to install another operating system on a computer in a virtual environment. VirtualBox runs on Windows 2000 and above, Mac OS X, Linux and OpenSolaris and can handle a wide range of guest operating systems. The software is released under gpl and the various downloads can be this page are being found. In version 1.5.6 the following changes and improvements have been made:

Changes in VirtualBox version 1.5.6:

• GUI: fixed several error messages
• GUI: fixed registration dialog crashes once and for all
• GUI: really ask before resetting the VM
• GUI: release mouse and keyboard before the host activates the screensaver
• GUI: fixed issue with license display on big screens
• GUI: added setting for network name for internal networks
• GUI: added setting for network device type
• GUI: keyboard fixes
• GUI: seamless mode and fullscreen mode fixes
• GUI: fixed soaked hostkey keyup event under certain conditions
• GUI: more informative message dialog buttons
• GUI: VM selector context menu
• VBoxSDL: added -termacpi switch
• VBoxSDL: fixed automatic adaption of the guest screen resolution to the size of the VM window
• VMM: under heavy guest activity, for example when copying files to/from a shared folder, the VM could crash with an assertion
• VMM: added an option to select PIIX4 (improves compatibility with Windows guests created by VMware)
• VMM: fixed a bug which could lead to memory corruption under rare circumstances
• VMM: improved performance of Solaris guests
• VRDP: fixed a 1.5.4 regression: VRDP client and server were out-of-sync if the VM was started using the GUI
• VRDP: proper error handling if the VRDP library could not be loaded
• VBoxManage: fixed crash during clonevdi
• VBoxManage: added ‘list runningvms’ command
• VBoxManage: improved the compatibility when reading the partition table of a raw disk
• Shared Folders: added support for read-only shared folders
• Shared Clipboard: several fixes
• Network: experimental support for E1000 device emulation
• iSCSI: better check for misconfigured targets
• iSCSI: allow to directly attach to internal networks with integrated mini IP stack
• PulseAudio: don’t hang during VM initialization if no sound server is available
• VDI: fixed sized virtual disk images are now completely written during creation to workaround buggy sparse file handling on some OS (eg Vista)
• VDI/VMDK: prevent indexing of .vdi and .vmdk files on Windows hosts
• RDP: fixed compilation of the Linux rdesktop client on newer Linux kernels
• RDP: install rdesktop-vrdp on Linux hosts
• ACPI: added sleep button event
• Serial: proper handling of inaccessible host devices
• Windows installer: allow smooth upgrade without uninstall
• Linux installer: fixed Slackware detection regression
• Linux installer: updated VBoxTunctl allowing to assign a tap device to a group on Linux kernels > 2.6.23
• Windows additions: several fixes, in particular for Windows NT4
• Linux additions: fixed installer for Kubuntu 8.04
• Linux additions: add default video mode for handling video mode hints from the host
• Linux host: compatibility fixes with Linux > 2.6.24

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