VirtualBox 4.0.2 released and ubuntu 10.10/10.04/9.10 installation instructions included

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Oracle released VirtualBox 4.0.2, a maintenance release of VirtualBox 4.0. It improves stability and fixes regressions.

VirtualBox is a powerful x86 and AMD64/Intel64 virtualization product for enterprise as well as home use. Not only is VirtualBox an extremely feature rich, high performance product for enterprise customers, it is also the only professional solution that is freely available as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL).

What is new in virtualbox 4.0.2

VirtualBox 4.0.2 (released 2011-01-18)

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

* GUI: don't crash if a removable host drive referenced from the VM settings vanished
* GUI: fixed a crash when using the KDE4 Oxygen theme and clicked on the settings button (4.0 regression; bug #7875)
* GUI: properly warn if the machine folder cannot be created (bug #8031)
* GUI: several fixes for multimonitor X11 guests
* ExtPack: don’t make the installer helper application suid root (Linux .deb/.rpm packages only)
* ExtPack: improved user experience on Vista / Windows 7 when installing an extension pack
* ExtPack: fixed issue with non-ascii characters in the path name during installing an extension pack (bug #7917)
* ExtPack: fixed SELinux issues on 32-bit Linux hosts
* VBoxManage: Host-only interface creation and removal is now supported for all platforms except Solaris (bug #7741)
* VBoxManage: fixed segmentation fault when removing non-existent host-only interface
* Storage: fixed possible crashes with VMDK/VHD images with snapshots and async I/O (4.0 regression)
* Storage: don’t eject the physical medium if a DVD/CDROM/?oppy drive is detached from a VM (bug #5825)
* Storage: be more robust when a faulty guest sends ATA commands to an ATAPI device (bug #6597)
* Parallels: fixed deletion of the image during suspend, pause or power off (4.0 regression)
* Bridged networking: fixed host kernel panic when bridging to devices with no TX queue (4.0 regression; Linux hosts only; bug #7908)
* NAT: port-forwarding rule registration respects protocol parameter (bug #8094)
* E1000: fixed PXE boot issues with WDS (bug #6330)
* Virtio-net: fixed the issue with TX performance in some Linux guests
* ICH9: fixed VM crash (software virtualization only; bug #7885)
* VGA: fixed VESA screen issue (4.0 regression; bug #7986)
* Shared Folders: fixed parameter parsing when creating symbolic links, fixes 32-bit/64-bit bitness issue (bug #818)
* Main: fixed crash under rare circumstances due to an invalid logging string (4.0 regression)
* Main: improve error information propagation for errors preventing a VM start
* Main: fixed problems with snapshots and non-ASCII characters in machine paths (bug #8024)
* Webservice: now listens to localhost by default as documented (bug #6067)
* Settings: do not fail loading machine settings if removeable drive attachment (host drive or image) cannot be found; with 4.0 this is much more likely when machines are moved from one host to another
* Settings: fixed issue that changing a snapshot name or description was not saved to machine XML
* OVF/OVA: fixed import of files created by other OVF tools (bug #7983)
* rdesktop-vrdp: fix a crash during USB device enumeration (bug #7981)
* Linux hosts: fixed a crash during USB device enumeration.
* Linux hosts: try a bit harder to allocate memory (bug #8035; 4.0 regression)
* Guest Additions: fixed parsing of parameters for guest control in VBoxService (4.0 regression; bug #8010)
* Windows Guest Additions: automatic logon on Windows Vista/Windows 7 now supports unlocking previously locked workstations

Install virtualbox 4.0.2 in ubuntu 10.10/10.04/9.10

Edit /etc/apt/sources.list file

gksudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

Add one of the following line

For ubuntu 10.10 users

deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian maverick contrib

For ubuntu 10.04 users

deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian lucid contrib

For ubuntu 9.10 users

deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian karmic contrib

Save and exit the file

Add gpg key

wget -q http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian/oracle_vbox.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add --

Update source list

sudo apt-get update

Install virtualbox 4.0.2

sudo apt-get install virtualbox-4.0

Note: Ubuntu/Debian users might want to install the dkms package to ensure that the VirtualBox host kernel modules (vboxdrv, vboxnetflt and vboxnetadp) are properly updated if the linux kernel version changes during the next apt-get upgrade. For Debian it is available in Lenny backports and in the normal repository for Squeeze and later. The dkms package can be installed through the Synaptic Package manager or through the following command:

sudo apt-get install dkms

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6 Responses

  1. Chris says:

    I recall trying to install virtualbox on a ubuntu server but it seems that a graphical environment is needed in order to install it? Is it possible to install virtualbox and add a virtual server directly via the command line without having any GUI interface?

  2. tommink says:

    @Chris
    No GUI is needed. VBoxManage is command line tool for creating and managing virtual machines, which can be then run using VBoxHeadless.

  3. Tom says:

    Can VirtualBox run on a processor that does not support Intel’s VT-x technology? I suspect not.

    Currently, I am using an Intel P4 925 Processor Motherboard which does not support Intel’s VT-x technology. On the plus side, I have purchased a now obsolete 965 motherboard which does support VT-x, but have yet to purchase the additional memory chips to get to 8GB – then I should be able to run VirtualBox.

  4. Nikolai Rachmaninoff says:

    Take a look here to avoid all this stuff…
    http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php?content=136807

  5. Anonymous says:

    @Chris January 20, 2011 at 7:44 am:

    Yes it is possible, moreover I’ve done so.

    You can use “VBoxManage createvm ” to create your VM.

    “VBoxManage modifyvm <options" to select even more options

    You will also need "VBoxManage storagectl ” to create new harddisk/cd/dvd controllers
    and “VBoxManage storageattach ” to assign a harddisk/cd/dvd to the corresponding controller and ofcourse “VBoxManage createhd to create the harddisk first.

    The right order would be:
    VBoxManage createvm
    VBoxManage modifyvm <options
    VBoxManage storagectl
    VBoxManage createhd
    VBoxManage storageattach

    And when you are done configuring your virtual environment, attach the install cd/dvd using VBoxManage storageattach and start your virtual environment with “VBoxHeadless -s ”

    You can now use a client (a laptop for example, or a thin client) to connect to your server environment using ‘rdesktop :’
    and install the virtual OS.

    This way you do not have to pollute your server with all kind of X and GNOME packages, while it isn’t needed at all. (So less bugs to take care off ;))

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