Changelog for VirtualBox 5.1

This page lists all changes of the VirtualBox 5.1 releases.
All branches: 5.1 · 5.0 · 4.3 · 4.2 · 4.1 · 4.0

For 5.0.32 changes, please go here.

VirtualBox 5.1.14 (released 2017-01-17)

This is a maintenance release. The following items were fixed and/or added:

• VMM: fixed emulation of certain instructions for 64-bit guests on 32-bit hosts
• VMM: properly handle certain MSRs for 64-bit guests on ancient CPUs without VT-x support for MSR bitmaps (bug #13886)
• GUI: fixed a crash with multimonitor setups under certain conditions
• GUI: allow cloning of snapshots when the VM is running
• NVMe: fixed compatibility with the Storage Performance Development Kit (SPDK, bug #16368)
• VBoxSVC: fixed a crash under rare circumstances
• VBoxManage: added a sanity check to modifymedium --resize to prevent users from resizing their hard disk from 1GB to 1PB (bug #16311)
• Windows hosts: another fix for recent Windows 10 hosts
• Linux hosts: Linux 4.10 fixes
• Linux Additions: fixed protocol error during certain operations on shared folders (bug #8463)

VirtualBox 5.1.12 (released 2016-12-20)

This is a maintenance release. The following items were fixed and/or added:

• VMM: fixed VERR_IEM_ASPECT_NOT_IMPLEMENTED Guru Meditations with certain Linux guests if KVM paravirtualization is enabled (5.1 regression; bugs #15613 and #16251)
• VMM: fixed VERR_VMX_UNABLE_TO_START_VM Guru Meditations under rare conditions
• GUI: prevent a crash under certain conditions if the VM is terminated very early
• GUI: fixed certain keyboard capture issues (5.1.10 regression; Mac OS X hosts only; bug #16150)
• GUI: fixed dragging guest windows in seamless mode with the keyboard captured (X11 hosts only; bug #15837)
• GUI: fixed a problem where the new version detected dialog was covered by the appliance import dialog (Mac OS X hosts only; bug #16238)
• Storage: fixed NVMe reset processing when doing rmmod nvme; modprobe nvme in a Linux guest (bug #16080)
• Storage: fixed creating a snapshot when the VM is running and an NVMe controller is present
• Storage: fixed a problem with the LsiLogic SCSI controller where requests could be lost with SMP guests
• E1000: fixed "cable disconnected" issue (Mac OS X guests only; 5.1.10 regression; bug #16260)
• E1000: fixed "TX unit hang" issue (Linux guests only; 5.1.10 regression; bug #16221)
• Parallel ports: fixed port enumeration on Windows host (bugs #15872 and #16127)
• API: don't crash when sanitizing certain VM names (bug #16299)
• Linux hosts: automatically disable asynchronous I/O on Linux 2.6.18 kernels as high I/O load may trigger kernel oopses on these kernels if this feature is enabled
• Linux hosts / guests: Linux 2.6.28 compile fix (bug #16267)
• Linux hosts: compile Linux 4.9 compile fix (bug #16286)
• Linux Additions: warn the user about a known bug with older Linux guests (e.g. Debian 7) requiring manual work to get 3D working (bug #15319)
• Linux Additions: fix the graphics driver build with Linux 4.10 and later (bug #16298)
• Windows Additions: fixed a crash in the WDDM driver under certain conditions

VirtualBox 5.1.10 (released 2016-11-21)

This is a maintenance release. The following items were fixed and/or added:

• GUI: the USB filter settings dialog should allow to specify the USB revision in hexadecimal format (bug #15400)
• GUI: fixed crash on certain hosts when pressing certain key combinations (Windows hosts only; bug #15719)
• GUI: fixed issue with updating the available-geometry on host-screen work-area resize
• GUI: don't crash / hang on certain environments if accessibility support is enabled
• GUI: fixed various issues in Unscaled HiDPI Output mode (bug #15707)
• GUI: extend the VM Input menu with Print Screen-related actions
• GUI: improved handling of inserting the Guest Additions ISO image by trying all available optical drives rather than only the first one and by not asking the user if he wants to force unmounting (which doesn't work in most cases anyway)
• API: default to RTC using UTC for Solaris 11 guests
• Settings: be less restrictive when reading a VM configuration containing a host-only adapter without an interface name
• Storage: fixed resizing VDI images resulting in an unbootable image under certain circumstances (bug #15983)
• NAT: fixed several 5.1.8 regressions on Mac OS X and Windows hosts (bug #16084)
• Audio: fixed a few 5.1.x regressions by using the audio code from 5.0.x until the audio overhaul is completed
• VBoxManage: fixed documentation of the storagectl command (bug #15971)
• Build system: another fix for building VirtualBox on systems which default to Python 3
• Windows hosts: hardening fix for Windows 10 build 14971 (bug #16202)
• Windows Additions: properly start the VirtualBox guest services even if the guest user name contains special characters (bug #15982)
• Solaris Additions: fixed preemptible mouse notification callback being executed under a spinlock for Solaris guests
• Linux hosts / guests: Linux 4.9 fixes (bugs #16155 and #16064)
• Linux Additions: fixed Linux kernel module override rule (thanks Mark Furneaux)

VirtualBox 5.1.8 (released 2016-10-18)

This is a maintenance release. The following items were fixed and/or added:

• GUI: fixed keyboard shortcut handling regressions (Mac OS X hosts only; bugs #15937 and #15938)
• GUI: fixed keyboard handling regression for separate UI (Windows hosts only; bugs #15928)
• NAT: don't exceed the maximum number of "search" suffixes. Patch from bug #15948.
• NAT: fixed parsing of port-forwarding rules with a name which contains a slash (bug #16002)
• NAT Network: when the host has only loopback nameserver that cannot be mapped to the guests (e.g. dnsmasq running on 127.0.1.1), make DHCP supply NAT Network DNS proxy as nameserver.
• Bridged Network: prevent flooding syslog with packet allocation error messages (bug #15569)
• Audio: now using Audio Queues on Mac OS X hosts
• Audio: fixed recording with the PulseAudio backend (5.1 regression)
• Audio: various bugfixes
• Snapshots: fixed regression in 5.1.4 for deleting snapshots with several disks (bug #15831)
• Snapshots: crash fix and better error reporting when snapshot deletion failed
• Storage: some fixes for the NVMe emulation with Windows guests
• API: fixed initialization of SAS controllers (bug #15972)
• Build system: make it possible to build VBox on systems which default to Python 3
• Windows hosts: detect certain cases of REGDB_E_CLASSNOTREG errors and print a helpful error message
• Windows hosts: adapted to changes in Windows 10 build 14901 (bug #15944)
• Windows hosts: better support for processor groups on Windows 7 and later which is required on certain hosts with many CPUs
• Windows installer / Additions: added option to prevent creating of start menu items (bug #15922)
• Windows Additions / VGA: if the guest's power management turns a virtual screen off, blank the corresponding VM window rather than hide the window
• Windows Additions: fixed a generic bug which could lead to freezing shared folders (bug #15662)
• Linux hosts / guests: fix for kernels with CONFIG_CPUMASK_OFFSTACK set (bug #16020)
• Linux Additions: don't require all virtual consoles be in text mode. This should fix cases when the guest is booted with a graphical boot screen (bug #15683)
• Linux Additions: added depmod overrides for the vboxguest and vboxsf kernel modules to fix conflicts with modules shipped by certain Linux distributions
• X11 Additions: disable 3D on the guest if the host does not provide enough capabilities (bug #15860)

VirtualBox 5.1.6 (released 2016-09-12)

This is a maintenance release. The following items were fixed and/or added:

• GUI: fixed issue with opening '.vbox' files and it's aliases
• GUI: keyboard grabbing fixes (bugs #15771 and #15745)
• GUI: fix for passing through Ctrl + mouse-click (Mac OS X hosts only; bug #15714)
• GUI: fixed automatic deletion of extension pack files (bugs #11352 and #14742)
• USB: fixed showing unknown device instead of the manufacturer or product description under certain circumstances (5.1.0 regression; bug #15764)
• XHCI: another fix for a hanging guest under certain conditions as result of the fix for bug #15747, this time for Windows 7 guests
• Serial: fixed high CPU usage with certain USB to serial converters on Linux hosts (bug #7796)
• Storage: fixed attaching stream optimized VMDK images (bug #14764)
• Storage: reject image variants which are unsupported by the backend (bug #7227)
• Storage: fixed loading saved states created with VirtualBox 5.0.10 and older when using a SCSI controller (bug #15865)
• Storage: fixed broken NVMe emulation if the host I/O cache setting is enabled
• Storage: fixed using multiple NVMe controllers if ICH9 is used
• NVMe: fixed a crash during reset which could happen under certain circumstances
• Audio: fixed microphone input (5.1.2 regression; bugs #14386 and #15802)
• Audio: fixed crashes under certain conditions (5.1.0 regression; bug #15887 and others)
• Audio: fixed recording with the ALSA backend (5.1 regression)
• Audio: fixed stream access mode with OSS backend (5.1 regression, thanks to Jung-uk Kim)
• E1000: do also return masked bits when reading the ICR register, this fixes booting from iPXE (5.1.2 regression; bug #15846)
• BIOS: fixed 4bpp scanline calculation (bug #15787)
• API: relax the check for the version attribute in OVF/OVA appliances (bug #15856)
• Windows hosts: fixed crashes when terminating the VM selector or other VBox COM clients (bug #15726 and others)
• Linux Installer: fixed path to the documentation in .rpm packages (5.1.0 regression)
• Linux Installer: fixed the vboxdrv.sh script to prevent an SELinux complaint (bug #15816)
• Linux hosts: don't use 32-bit legacy capabilities
• Linux Additions: Linux 4.8 fix for the kernel display driver (bugs #15890 and #15896)
• Linux Additions: don't load the kernel modules provided by the Linux distribution but load the kernel modules from the official Guest Additions package instead (bug #15324)
• Linux Additions: fix dynamic resizing problems in recent Linux guests (bug #15875)
• User Manual: fixed error in the VBoxManage chapter for the getextradata enumerate example (bug #15862)

VirtualBox 5.1.4 (released 2016-08-16)

This is a maintenance release. The following items were fixed and/or added:

• GUI: show actual VM uptime in the session information window
• Audio: re-enabled speakers for Mac OS X guests (5.1.0 regression; bug #15611)
• Audio: fixed crashes under certain conditions
• USB: fixed a hang under certain conditions
• USB: fixed a hanging guest under certain conditions (bug #15747)
• PIIX4: implemented dummy SMBus controller to prevent annoying Linux kernel warnings about uninitialized SMBus base address (bug #9517)
• NVMe: several fixes to improve stability, fixed a crash while saving a VM state
• VMDK: Fixed an issue creating fixed size images with certain sizes and the Split2G option enabled (bug #15748)
• VHDX: fixed cloning images with VBoxManage clonehd (bug #14288)
• Storage: Fixed broken bandwidth limitation when the limit is very low (bug #14982)
• EFI: fixed sending debug messages in the EFI firmware if a serial port is enabled (bug #12161)
• OVF: when importing appliances, make sure that the version of the embedded VirtualBox-specific settings is processed, to get the default settings handling right
• VBoxManage: Don't try to set the medium type if there is no change (bug #13850)
• Linux installer: fixed some scripting issues (bugs #15701 and #15702)
• Linux installer: fixed a path issue on certain Linux distributions (bug #15717)
• Windows hosts: fixed corrupted mouse pointers with some Linux and Solaris guests (bug #15665)
• Linux Additions: made the video driver work on 32-bit guests with large video memory sizes (bug #15621)
• Linux Additions: made the video driver work on kernel 4.7 and later (bug #15769)
• Linux Additions: converted a failure message to an informational one when drivers could not be stopped during upgrade (bug #15692)
• Linux Additions: made the video driver work around an X server bug which cause screen refresh to stop (bug #15511)
• Windows Additions: auto-resizing fixes for Windows 10 guests (bug #15257)
• Windows Additions: fixed VBoxTray problems with Windows 2000 (bug #15661)

VirtualBox 5.1.2 (released 2016-07-21)

This is a maintenance release. The following items were fixed and/or added:

• VMM: several fixes
• GUI: fixed screenshot if the VM is started in separate mode
• GUI: fixed issue with double-click/opening registered file types (.vbox and .vbox-extpack) on Mac OS X (bug #15648)
• GUI: fixed a bug which made it impossible close some error/warning messages using the close button
• GUI: weakened the control over the VM window behavior allowing to resize it across multiple screens and to use in Snap Assist techniques
• GUI: jump to the second tab of the session information window (5.1.0 regression)
• GUI: fix for Alt-Tab
• Storage: fixed creating fixed size VHD images (bug #15601)
• Storage: fixed a hang during power off if the VM was suspended before and a NVMe controller is configured
• USB: fixed a crash under certain conditions
• Audio: make AC'97 volume control work again (5.1.0 regression; bug #15598)
• Audio: fixed rare VM hangs when using AC'97 emulation
• Audio: SB16 fixes
• EFI: fixed access to devices attached to SATA port 2 and higher (bug #15607)
• OVA: fix for checking certain signatures
• OVA: fixed MAC address generation for appliances created by VirtualBox (5.1.0 regression; bug #15623)
• API: fixed audio settings handling for older config files (bug #15626)
• API: fixed truncation of USB product/vendor IDs on Linux hosts (5.1.0 regression; bug #15644)
• API: fixed VRDP with authentication (bug #15653)
• API: don't crash if there is no graphics controller configured (bug #15628)
• Linux hosts: fixed EL5 builds (bug #15634)
• non-Windows hosts: fixed a crash during shutdown under rare circumstances (bug #15568)
• Linux Additions: fixed SELinux issue which prevented certain Linux guests to work in 3D mode (bug #15574)
• User Manual: updates

VirtualBox 5.1 (released 2016-07-12)

This is a major update. The following major new features were added:

• VMM: new APIC and I/O APIC implementations that result in significantly improved performance in certain situations (for example with networking, bug #15295)
• VMM: added support for Hyper-V paravirtualized debugging of Windows guests
• VMM: emulate even more MMIO and shadow pagetable exits without going back to user mode
• GUI: overall migration to Qt5 (bug #11775)
• GUI: passive API event listener improving the VM GUI performance and response time
• Audio: added HDA (High Definition Audio) support for newer Linux guests
• Audio: added on-demand timers which should improve the overall performance and reduce the CPU consumption
• Audio: more fine-grained volume control for the AC'97 emulation, which now also takes the master volume control into account
• better support for Python 3

In addition, the following items were fixed and/or added:

• VMM: activate the x2APIC by default for Linux guests
• VMM: many more fixes
• GUI: the Detach UI action is now a part of the VM Machine menu
• GUI: reworked session information window
• GUI: the new VM wizard now allows to choose the VM location for the VM which is being created
• GUI: fixed location of touch events in unscaled HiDPI mode (bugs #14366, #14367)
• GUI: various bugfixes and internal cleanup
• Storage: use fallocate() or similar if present to speed up creating fixed-sized disk images (bug #5967)
• Storage: implemented NVMHCI-compatible storage controller
• Audio: various bugfixes and infrastructure improvements
• E1000: implemented interrupt throttling for performance improvements
• EFI: many improvements, for example allow to boot from USB
• OVF: improved handling of signed manifests
• API: Windows XP guests and Windows 2003 server guests now default to the E1000 T Server network card
• VBoxSVC: fixed several memory leaks when handling .dmg images
• Installers: ship VBoxBugReport
• Windows hosts: reworked COM proxy (e.g. bug #8298)
• Linux installers: no longer rely on DKMS for module rebuilding
• Linux Additions: fix a problem when updating the initramfs after the guest modules are compiled (bug #15579)
• Linux Additions: try to fix a problem where the OpenGL libraries where loaded by the X server when we only support X clients (bug #15574)