= Changelog for VirtualBox 4.0 =

'''!VirtualBox 4.0.0''' (released 2010-12-22)[[BR]][[BR]]
This version is a major update. The following major new features were added:
 * Reorganization of !VirtualBox into a base package and Extension Packs; see chapter 1.5, Installing !VirtualBox and extension packs, see the manual for more information
 * New settings/disk file layout for VM portability; see chapter 10.1, Where !VirtualBox stores its files, see the manual for more information
 * Major rework of the GUI (now called “!VirtualBox Manager”):
  * Redesigned user interface with guest window preview (also for screenshots)
  * New “scale” display mode with scaled guest display; see chapter 1.8.5, Resizing the machine’s window, see the manual for more information
  * Support for creating and starting .vbox desktop shortcuts (bug #1889)
  * The VM list is now sortable
  * Machines can now be deleted easily without a trace including snapshots and saved states, and optionally including attached disk images (bug #5511; also, ''VBoxManage unregistervm --delete'' can do the same now)
  * Built-in creation of desktop file shortcuts to start VMs on double click (bug #2322)
 * VMM: support more than 1.5/2 GB guest RAM on 32-bit hosts
 * New virtual hardware:
  * Intel ICH9 chipset with three PCI buses, PCI Express and Message Signaled Interrupts (MSI); see chapter 3.4.1, “Motherboard” tab, see the manual for more information
  * Intel HD Audio, for better support of modern guest operating systems (e.g. 64-bit Windows; bug #2785)
 * Improvements to OVF support (see chapter 1.12, Importing and exporting virtual machines, see the manual for more information):
  * Open Virtualization Format Archive (OVA) support
  * Significant performance improvements during export and import
  * Creation of the manifest file on export is optional now
  * Imported disks can have formats other than VMDK
 * Resource control: added support for limiting a VM’s CPU time and IO bandwidth; see chapter 5.8, Limiting bandwidth for disk images, see the manual for more information
 * Storage: support asynchronous I/O for iSCSI, VMDK, VHD and Parallels images
 * Storage: support for resizing VDI and VHD images; see chapter 8.21, VBoxManage modifyhd, see the manual for more information.
 * Guest Additions: support for multiple virtual screens in Linux and Solaris guests using X.Org server 1.3 and later
 * Language bindings: uniform Java bindings for both local (COM/XPCOM) and remote (SOAP) invocation APIs
In addition, the following items were fixed and/or added:
 * VMM: Enable large page support by default on 64-bit hosts (applies to nested paging only)
 * VMM: fixed guru meditation when running Minix (VT-x only; bug #6557)
 * VMM: fixed crash under certain circumstances (Linux hosts only, non VT-x/AMD-V mode only; bugs #4529 and #7819)
 * GUI: add configuration dialog for port forwarding in NAT mode (bug #1657)
 * GUI: show the guest window content on save and restore
 * GUI: certain GUI warnings don’t stop the VM output anymore
 * GUI: fixed black fullscreen minitoolbar on KDE4 hosts (Linux hosts only; bug #5449)
 * BIOS: implemented multi-sector reading to speed up booting of certain guests (e.g. Solaris)
 * Bridged networking: improved throughput by filtering out outgoing packets intended for the host before they reach the physical network (Linux hosts only; bug #7792)
 * 3D support: allow use of CR_SYSTEM_GL_PATH again (bug #6864)
 * 3D support: fixed various clipping/visibility issues (bugs #5659, #5794, #5848, #6018, #6187, #6570)
 * 3D support: guest application stack corruption when using glGetVertexAttrib[ifd]v (bug #7395)
 * 3D support: fixed OpenGL support for libMesa 7.9
 * 3D support: fixed Unity/Compiz crashes on natty
 * 2D Video acceleration: multimonitor support
 * VRDP: fixed rare crash in multimonitor configuration
 * VRDP: support for upstream audio
 * Display: fixed occasional guest resize crash
 * NAT: port forwarding rules can be applied at runtime
 * SATA: allow to attach CD/DVD-ROM drives including passthrough (bug #7058)
 * Floppy: support readonly image files, taking this as the criteria for making the medium readonly (bug #5651)
 * Audio: fixed memory corruption during playback under rare circumstances
 * Audio: the !DirectSound backend now allows VMs to be audible when another !DirectSound application is active, including another VM (bug #5578)
 * EFI: support for SATA disks and CDROMs
 * BIOS: reduce the stack usage of the VESA BIOS function !#4F01 (Quake fix)
 * OVF/OVA: fixed export of VMs with iSCSI disks
 * Storage: Apple DMG image support for the virtual CD/DVD (bug #6760)
 * Linux host USB support: introduced a less invasive way of accessing raw USB devices (bugs #1093, #5345, #7759)
 * Linux hosts: support recent Linux kernels with ''CONFIG_DEBUG_SET_MODULE_RONX'' set
 * Guest Additions: Shared Folders now can be marked as being auto-mounted on Windows, Linux and Solaris guests
 * Linux Additions: Shared Folders now support symbolic links (bug #818)
 * Linux Additions: combined 32-bit and 64-bit additions into one file
 * Windows Additions: automatic logon on Windows Vista/Windows 7 is now able to handle renamed user accounts; added various bugfixes


For the changelog of previous !VirtualBox series, have a look at
 * [wiki:Changelog-3.2 VirtualBox 3.2]
 * [wiki:Changelog-3.1 VirtualBox 3.1]
 * [wiki:Changelog-3.0 VirtualBox 3.0]
 * [wiki:Changelog-2.2 VirtualBox 2.2]
 * [wiki:Changelog-2.1 VirtualBox 2.1]
 * [wiki:Changelog-2.0 VirtualBox 2.0]
 * [wiki:Changelog-1.6 VirtualBox 1.6]