VirtualBox has just been updated to version 4.2.8 for Windows, Mac and Linux systems, including Ubuntu. This maintenance release fixes many bugs, including one that crashes a guest machine with huge amount of guest RAM on VT-x hosts and another that corrupts data after resizing a VDI image under certain circumstances. It also fixes a bug that crashes Battlefield game in 3D support mode for Windows, Mac and Linux systems.
For a complete changelog on this release, please click here.
Below are some of the items that were fixed and/or added to this release.
- Linux hosts: work around gcc bug 55940 which might lead to wrong kernel module code if gcc 4.7 is used to compile the 32-bit Linux host kernel (bug #11035)
- Linux hosts: fixed inconsistent lock state and deadlock warnings on module load and VM startup when CONFIG_PROVE_LOCKING is enabled (bug #11318)
- Guest Additions: don’t block signals for processes executed via guest control
- Guest Additions: fixed a small memory leak in VBoxService (bug #10970)
- Windows Additions: fixed shared folder issue with large reads/writes on 64 bit Windows guests (bug #11115)
- Linux Additions: Linux 3.8 compile fixes (bug #11036)
- X11 Additions: fixed blocked SIGALRM in 3D desktop sessions (bug #10987)
- X11 Additions: fixed an unresolved reference in vboxvideo_drv for X.org 6.8 guests and before (e.g. RHEL4; 4.2.0 regression)
- X11 Additions: fixed screen automatic resizing for guests with X.org 1.3 or older (4.2.0 regression)
To install VirtualBox in Windows or Mac OS X systems, use this download link. Download a version for your system and install or upgrade.
To install or upgrade VirtualBox in Ubuntu 12.10, press Ctrl – Alt – T on your keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, copy and paste the commands below to add its repository’s key.
wget -q http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian/oracle_vbox.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -
Next, copy and paste the commands below to add its repository to Ubuntu
sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian $(lsb_release -sc) contrib" >> /etc/apt/sources.list'
Finally, run the commands below to update your system and install VirtualBox
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install virtualbox-4.2
Enjoy!
To uninstall VirtualBox, run the commands below:
sudo apt-get purge virtualbox-4.2 && sudo apt-get autoremove
Tore remove all VirtualBox repository and it’s key, go to System Settings –> Software Sources –> Other Software tab and remove the repository. Click on ‘Authentication’ tab to delete the repository key.
