Software Update: VirtualBox 4.3.8

Oracle has released version 4.3.8 of VirtualBox. VirtualBox can be used to install other operating systems in a virtual environment on a computer. In this way it is possible to use different operating systems on the same hardware side by side and at the same time. VirtualBox is available for Windows XP and above, OS X, Linux, and Solaris, and is capable of many guest operating systems to turn.

In version 4.3 of VirtualBox, among other things, the complete virtualization code has been rewritten, which has fixed several problems and also shows several performance improvements. There is also video capture and support for ipv6, various virtual machines running on the same computer can now communicate with each other via the internal network and there is support for multi-touch screens. This fourth update also includes the following improvements:

The following items were fixed and/or added:

• VMM: more work on improving the emulation of certain MSR registers (eg bugs #12224, #12544)
• VMM: fixed a VERR_INVALID_RPL Guru Meditation when booting certain guests (bug #11350)
• VMM: experimental support for SSE 4.1 / SSE 4.2 passthrough, see the manual for more information how to enable it (bug #8651)
• VMM: fix for recent Linux kernels with software virtualization
• GUI: experimental HID LEDs synchronization for Windows hosts, see the manual for more information
• GUI: warn the user if the Oracle Extension Pack is not installed and the user tries to activate the remote display feature (bug #9104)
• GUI: make sure that a minimized guest (using mini toolbar in fullscreen/seamless mode) keeps the minimized state (bug #12199)
• GUI: popup banner’s “do not show this message again” check-box replaced with corresponding button
• GUI: network adapter cables can now be connected/disconnected directly through the running virtual machine Devices / Network menu a Network status-bar indicator
• GUI: the new VM wizard now proposes 64-bit guests on 64-bit hosts by default; better distinction between 32-bit OS types 64-bit OS types (bug #12533)
• GUI: better error message if appliance import fails (bug #12657)
• GUI: allow to set host-combination to ‘None’ using the Global settings / Input page (bug #12730)
• GUI: don’t switch the guest to a black screen during online snapshot merge (4.3 regression)
• VBoxManage: when exporting an appliance, support the suppression of MAC addresses, which means they will be always recreated on import, avoiding duplicate MAC addresses for VMs which are imported several times
• AHCI: fixed a VM hang during suspend under certain circumstances
• AHCI: fixed a VM hang during online snapshot merge under certain circumstances
• AHCI: fixed a bug which resulted in Windows XP guest hangs if a SATA CDROM is attached (bug #12417)
• AHCI: fixed a Guru Meditation under certain conditions
• AHCI: ejecting a CD/DVD medium failed under certain conditions
• AHCI: disk hot plugging fixes
• NAT: transparent handling of host sleep/resume and network configuration changes if the dnsproxy is enabled or if the hostresolver is used (bug #12441)
• NAT: fixed crash and misbehavior under some circumstances with ICMP packets having TTL=1
• NAT Network: fixed IPv6 reassembly
• NAT Network: ping proxy implemented
• OVF: fixed reading of the OVF 0.9 section element (4.3 regression; bug #12345)
• OVF: several fixes
• 3D: several fixes, multiscreen fixes (eg bug #9124)
• 3D: include 3D content in captured videos (bug #12666)
• 3D: include 3D content in captured screenshot (bug #11758)
• VGA: proper handling of legacy graphics modes if the Guest Additions are active (bug #6649)
• USB: fixed crash during isochronous transfer under rare circumstances
• BIOS: better disk geometry handling of SCSI drives
• API: fix crashes in Java API clients using the XPCOM binding, happened with output parameters only (bug #11232)
• VBoxSVC: documented the handling of host power management events (see the manual for more information) and added an extradata item for configuring the handling of the battery-low event (bug #9925)
• VBoxSVC: fixed a bug which could trigger a crash if a VM snapshot was restored the second time and the VM has associated bandwidth groups (bug #12569)
• VBoxSVC: properly detect ifconfig if located in /bin (bug #12713)
• Shared Folders: fixed a failure to restore transient shared folders when starting a VM from a saved state (bug #12578)
• Mac OS X hosts: fixed issue when the application icon was frozen in the dock if the bridging interface was not connected to a network (bug #12241)
• Linux hosts: also consider the physical package ID when determining the number of physical CPU cores
• Linux hosts / guests: don’t warn in kernel log if memory allocation fails (bug #11171)
• Solaris hosts: fixed the autostart SMF script (bug #11720)
• Windows hosts: fixes for non-ANSI code page user names and similar environment contents (bug #12596)
• Windows hosts / guests: fixed setting and using a guest user’s process environment variables (relevant for Guest Control)
• Windows Additions: fixed handle leaks in VBoxTray (bug #12563)
• Windows Additions: fixed a crash while detecting active guest users
• Windows Additions: fixed restoring backed up D3D files on XPDM -> WDDM upgrade
• Guest Control: fixed setting and using a guest user’s process environment variables
• Linux Additions: support Enterprise Linux 6.5 kernels (bug #12505)
• Linux Additions: fixed CPU hot-remove on newer Linux kernels
• Linux / Solaris Additions: don’t automount a shared folder which is already mounted
• X11 Additions: support X.Org Server 1.15 (bug #12623)