Changelog for VirtualBox 5.2

This page lists all changes of the VirtualBox 5.2 releases.
All branches: 7.1 · 7.0 · 6.1 · 6.0 · 5.2 · 5.1 · 5.0 · 4.3 · 4.2 · 4.1 · 4.0

VirtualBox 5.2.x is no longer supported!

VirtualBox 5.2.44 (released July 14 2020)

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

• API: Fix unintentionally enabled audio due to a settings file version dependent bug
• VBoxManage: Fix crash of 'VBoxManage internalcommands repairhd' when processing invalid input (bug #19579)

VirtualBox 5.2.42 (released May 15 2020)

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

• Guest Additions: Build problems fix with Oracle Linux 8.2 (Red Hat compatible kernel) / Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2 / CentOS 8.2 (bug #19391)
• Guest Control: Various stability improvements

VirtualBox 5.2.40 (released April 14 2020)

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

• VBoxManage: Multiple fixes for guestcontrol command
• USB: Multiple enhancements improving prformance and stability
• Graphics: Enhancements in 2D and 3D acceleration and rendering
• API: Fix exception handling bug in Python bindings
• Linux: Support Linux kernel 5.6 (bug #19312)
• Settings: disable audio input and audio output by default for new VMs (bug #19527)

VirtualBox 5.2.38 (released February 21 2020)

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

• USB: Fix isochronous transfers to the VM for xHCI
• macOS host: Fix a possible crash when accessing VM related memory from the kernel
• Linux guest: Support Linux 5.5 (bug #19145)

VirtualBox 5.2.36 (released January 14 2020)

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

• Audio: fixed crash in the HDA emulation when using multi-speaker configurations
• VBoxManage: show graphics controller type in VM info
• API: support Python 3.8
• macOS host: Fix VM crashes (most visible on macOS Catalina)
• Linux host: fix systemd service dependency for web service
• Linux host: Support Linux 5.5 (guest additions not yet)
• Linux host and guest: Support Linux 5.4 (bug #18945)

VirtualBox 5.2.34 (released October 15 2019)

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

• Virtualization core: some fixes for systems with lots of processors
• Audio: relaxed VRM / VRA (variable rate audio) bit checks to provide more compatibility for guests running ALSA setups with the AC'97 emulation
• Audio: Fixed "double buffering" size of a stream's internal ring buffer, adjusted logging).
• USB: made device capturing for passthrough more accurate and reliable on Windows host
• Network: fixed potential issue with interrupt signalling for network adapters in UEFI guests
• 3D: fixed crash with some applications when using VBoxSVGA or VMSVGA graphics adapter (bug #18638)
• 3D: fixed state saving and loading when the VBoxVGA graphics adapter is used with 3D enabled (bug #18802, 5.2.32 regression)
• Multiple fixes in 3D/Graphics including Chromium
• macOS host: fix crash of GUI VM process which showed up frequently with 10.15 Catalina (bug #18990)
• Windows host: fixed crashes on startup with software trying to inject code into a VM process
• Linux host: improve python version detection during rpm package creation, can change package dependencies and fix some installation problems
• VBoxManage: copyto --target-directory now requires an ending slash for guests (bug #18724)
• Windows host installer: Fixes for access permissions for installed files
• Linux host and guest: fix kernel module build for SLES 12 SP4 kernel
• Windows guests: fixed mouse cursor visibility updating
• Linux guests: VBox Guest Additions fail to compile on Red Hat/CentOS/OL 7.7 and Red Hat 8.1 Beta (bug #18917)
• Linux guests: improve compatibility of vboxvideo.ko kernel module build logic (bug #18869)

VirtualBox 5.2.32 (released July 16 2019)

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

• USB: Fixed "unrecoverable error" problems in OHCI emulation (bug #18593, 6.0.6 regression)
• USB: improve captured device identification
• VBoxManage: fix reversed reporting of audio input and output (thank you Socratis Kalogrianitis)
• Guest control service: various fixes
• Linux hosts: fix focus grabbing problems with recent Qt versions (builds from source only; thank you Fabian Vogt (SUSE) and Larry Finger; bug #18745)
• Linux guests: kernel module build fixes for various kernels (bugs #18677 and #18697; fixes by Larry Finger and Gianfranco Costamagna)
• Linux guests: udev rules for guest kernel modules did not always take effect in time

VirtualBox 5.2.30 (released May 13 2019)

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

• Core: fix saved state resume failures (bugs #18265 and #18331)
• API: partial fix for dealing with VM config conflicting with other VMs related to medium UUIDs, now correctly flags VM as inaccessible (bug #17908)
• Solaris guests: fix an error message from VBoxClient (bug #18428)

VirtualBox 5.2.28 (released April 17 2019)

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

• User interface: do not change the file and path name when changing the export file format (bug #18476)
• User interface: fixed operation progress when deleting snapshots
• Network: fixed unwanted padding bytes in Windows host adaptor network packets (bug #18202 and bug #18355)
• Windows host: fix unwanted wake-ups from standby, thank you Daniel Karsubka (bug #18549)
• Windows host: disallow Pause as a host key (bug #18482)
• Linux host and guest: support Linux 5.0 and 5.1, thank you Valdis Kletnieks (see also bug #18515)
• Linux host: support kernel 4.4.169 (bug #18315)
• Linux host: fix logging when building Linux kernel modules (bug #18226)
• Linux host: clarified building Linux host drivers with secure boot (bug #18312)
• Windows guests: fixed running applications which use complex display topologies with WDDM driver, fixed Skype for Business hangs (bug #17092)

VirtualBox 5.2.26 (released January 28 2019)

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

• Virtualization core: support Shanghai/Zhaoxin CPUs.
• Network: fix occasional NATNet crashes (bug #13899)
• Linux hosts: Skip device enumeration if PulseAudio interface is not available
• Linux hosts and guests: fix for building kernel modules against Linux 5.0. Thank you Kyle Laker

VirtualBox 5.2.24 (released January 15 2019)

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

• USB: fixed a problem causing failures attaching SuperSpeed devices which report USB version 3.1 (rather than 3.0) on Windows hosts
• Audio: added support for surround speaker setups used by Windows 10 Build 1809
• Linux hosts: fixed conflict between Debian and Oracle build desktop files (bug #18264)
• Linux guests: fix for building vboxvideo on EL 7.6 standard kernel, contributed by Robert Conde (bug #18093)
• Linux guests: fixed building drivers on SLES 12.4 (bug #18213)
• Linux guests: fixed building shared folder driver with older kernels (bug #18238)

VirtualBox 5.2.22 (released November 09 2018)

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

• Audio: fixed a regression in the Core Audio backend causing a hang when returning from host sleep when processing input buffers
• Audio: fixed a potential crash in the HDA emulation if a stream has no valid mixer sink attached -- thanks to Rink Springer (rink@…) (bug #17664)
• Windows hosts: fixed an incompatibility with recent versions of Windows 10 (bug #17977)
• Windows hosts: fixed a number of bridged networking driver crashes (bug #18046)
• Linux Additions: disable 3D for recent guests using Wayland (bug #18116)
• Linux Additions: fix for rebuilding kernel modules for new kernels on RPM guests
• Linux Additions: further fixes for Linux 4.19
• Linux Additions: fixed errors rebuilding initrd files with dracut on EL 6 (bug #18055)
• Linux Additions: fixed 5.2.20 regression: guests not remembering the screen size after shutdown and restart (bug #18078)

VirtualBox 5.2.20 (released October 16 2018)

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

• VMM: fixed task switches triggered by INTn instruction (bug #17979)
• Storage: fixed connecting to certain iSCSI targets (bug #17507)
• Storage: fixed handling of flush requests when configured to be ignored when the host I/O cache is used (bug #17573)
• Drag and drop: implemented support for UNC paths (bug #17146)
• Drag and drop: fixed resuming operation when restoring from a saved state (bug #17649)
• Drag and drop: fixed copying files with long file names (> 248 characters) from guests to Windows hosts (bug #17447)
• Drag and drop: fixed handling files with Unicode names on Windows guests (bug #15501)
• Drag and drop: fixed copying empty (0-byte) files to / from guests (bugs #14863 + #17443)
• Drag and drop: fixed copying over files from hosts to Linux guests (bug #16025)
• Networking: restore connectivity for guests bridged to host adapters that were unavailable temporarily (Windows hosts, bug #17090)
• Guest Control: fixed hang when using --wait-stdout and/or --wait-stderr (bug #17386). Needs updating Guest Additions
• Video recording: fixed starting video recording on VM power up (bug #17307)
• Linux Additions: various build fixes for kernel modules on recent distributions, and made sure modules end up in initramfs files
• Linux Additions: build fixes for 4.19, thank you Larry Finger
• Linux Additions: various small fixes for video driver

VirtualBox 5.2.18 (released August 14 2018)

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

• VMM: See user manual.
• VMM: fix loading with recent binutils and self-built versions of VirtualBox (bug #17851)
• NAT: fix --nataliasmode sameports which is a valid setting (bug #13000)
• VRDP: fixed VM process termination on RDP client disconnect if 3D is enabled for the virtual machine

VirtualBox 5.2.16 (released July 17 2018)

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

• OVF: case insensitive comparison of manifest attribute values, to improve compatibility (bug #17357)
• Linux: build for openSUSE 15.0 (bug #17554)
• Linux: various build fixes for distribution builds, thank you Gianfranco Costamagna

VirtualBox 5.2.14 (released July 02 2018)

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

• User interface: fixed a segmentation fault when accessing the interface through VNC (bug #16348)
• User interface: X11: handle repeating keys on the host system correctly (bug #1296, previously fixed, 5.1.0 regression)
• VMM: Fixed emulation of the undocumented SALC instruction
• VMM: Fixed emulation of so-called "huge unreal mode" (bug #17744); this in practice only affected Intel CPUs with VT-x without unrestricted execution.
• Keyboard: The PS/2 keyboard emulation has been corrected to not queue partial scan code sequences (bug #17709); this problem was likely only visible on Linux hosts due to losing the fix for bug #1296
• Storage: Fixed CUE file support to correct REM keyword parsing (bug #17783)
• USB: Fixed a problem where the emulated xHCI device under very rare circumstances failed to report an empty isochronous transfer ring error, causing the transfers on the corresponding endpoint to stop.
• Audio: fixed Linux kernel log flooding (bug #17759)
• Apple hosts: make kernel driver load with Mac OS Mojave pre-release (bug #17805).
• Linux guests: made vboxvideo driver build with kernel 4.17 (bug #17801) and with pre-3.14 and EL 7.1 kernels (bug #17771)

VirtualBox 5.2.12 (released May 09 2018)

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

• VBoxManage: fixed MODIFYVM_AUDIOOUT (bug #17409)
• Serial: fixed possible data corruption when sending data under certain circumstances
• Video recording: fixed starting / stopping recording under certain circumstances
• Linux hosts: support Linux 4.17 changes. Thank you Larry Finger
• Linux guests: support Linux 4.16 and EL 7.5 kernels (bugs #17676 and #17678)
• Linux guests: 3D fixes for recent guests (bug #17623)

VirtualBox 5.2.10 (released April 17 2018)

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

• VMM: fixed missing NULL pointer check in MMIO code
• Storage: fixed having multiple NVMe controllers with ICH9 enabled (5.2.0 regression)
• Network: fixed wireless detection regression when bridging to adapters with unbound IP protocols (bug #17543)
• Network: fixed VERR_INTNET_FLT_IF_NOT_FOUND when bridging to some adapters on Windows hosts (possibly related bugs #15294, #15060, #13481)
• Audio: fixed interrupt storm in FreeBSD guests with HDA (bug #17219)
• Keyboard: introduced a small delay to fix old software which expects to be able to read an incoming scan code more than once (bug #17592)
• Windows installer: removed the "Ignore" action in the case the current VBox installation is still running, as the (successful) update will not work until a host reboot is performed
• NAT: handle nameserver 0.0.0.0 which is a valid setting (bug #17584)
• BIOS: INT 15h/87h service must disable A20 gate when done
• Linux Guest Additions: fix a hang starting KDE Plasma

VirtualBox 5.2.8 (released February 27 2018)

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

• VMM: added support for FSGSBASE, PCID, INVPCID CPU features for guests
• VMM: fixed EMM386 issue with detecting suitable page frame base (bug #10022)
• Front end: Linux: prevent VM window from jumping and auto-resizing to tiny size after resizing it on HiDPI screen
• Front end: Linux: fixed seamless regression caused by wm_class functionality (bugs #12534, #17304)
• Front end: switched to https downloads
• Front end: fixed crash while opening New machine wizard (s.a. forums topic 86592)
• Audio: added support for distinguishing recording sources in the PulseAudio mixer on the host when multiple VMs are running
• Audio: various fixes for the DirectSound backend
• Video recording: added better file seeking support and fixed playback of recorded files with certain players (e.g. Firefox)
• Audio: various fixes for Windows guest surround setups
• Audio: various fixes for HDA emulation
• Serial: fixed an issue where the serial port parameters in the emulation and host serial port got out of sync (bug #17116)
• Storage: fixed overwriting certain INQUIRY data for the DVD/CD drive attached to a AHCI controller
• Storage: fixed handling VMDK images created by Amazon EC2 VM export
• Network: fixed PXE boot regression in e1000
• Network: Added a workaround for older guests which do not enable bus mastering for the virtio PCI device
• 3D: add environment variable to configure presenting 3D content on main thread (see bug #13653)
• Windows hosts: fixed indiscriminate binding of NDIS5 bridged driver, that caused PPPOE malfunction (bugs #16407, #17489)
• Windows guests: fixed incorrect function error when using shared folders in certain applications (bug #14118)
• Linux guests: Linux 4.15 support (bugs #17311, #17320, #17282)
• Linux guests: fixed black screen when 3D enabled in guests (bug #17463, 5.2.6 regression)
• Linux guests: suppress setuid and setgid in shared folders

VirtualBox 5.2.6 (released January 15 2018)

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

• GUI: fixed occasional screen corruption when host screen resolution is changed
• User interface: increase proposed disk size when creating new VMs for Windows 7 and newer
• User interface: various improvements for high resolution screens
• VMM: Fixed problems using 256MB VRAM in raw-mode VMs
• Audio: implemented support for audio playback and recording for macOS guests
• Audio: further timing improvements for Windows 10 guests
• Linux hosts: fixed problem accessing mini-toolbar under XFCE (bug #17280, contributed by Dusan Gallo)

VirtualBox 5.2.4 (released December 19 2017)

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

• User interface: Adjusting desktop file for X11 window managers (bug #17312)
• User interface: various high resolution display adjustments
• Audio: fixed SB16 volume handling (5.2 regression)
• Audio: various fixes
• USB/OHCI: fixed a problem where OHCI emulation might sporadically drop data transfers
• Linux hosts: fixed screen corruption when the host screen changes and a virtual machine window is maximized
• X11 Guest Additions: fixed a hang at the GNOME Shell login screen with 3D enabled (5.2 regression, bugs #17189 and #17190)

VirtualBox 5.2.2 (released November 22 2017)

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

• User interface: various improvements for high resolution screens
• User interface: added functionality to duplicate optical and floppy images
• User interface: various improvements for the virtual media manager
• VMM: fixed emulation so that Plan 9 guests can start once more (5.1.0 regression)
• Storage: fixed regression breaking iSCSI (bug #17196)
• Audio: added HDA support for more exotic guests (e.g. Haiku)
• Serial: fixed hanging I/O when using named pipes on Windows (5.2.0 regression; bug #17227)
• Serial: fixed broken communication with certain devices on Linux hosts
• USB/OHCI: improved behavior so that the controller state after a VM reset is closer to the initial state after VM start
• EFI: fixed HFS+ driver which in rare cases failed to access most files on a volume
• Shared clipboard: fixed hang with OS X host and Linux guest (bug #15782)
• Linux hosts: fixed kernel module compilation and start failures with Linux kernel 4.14 (bug #17267)
• X11 hosts: better handle WM_CLASS setting (bug #12534)
• Linux guests: fixed kernel module compilation and other problems with Linux kernel 4.14 (bug #12534)
• Linux guests: fixed kernel module compilation and other problems with Linux kernel 4.14
• Linux guests: fixed various 5.2.0 regressions (bug #17163)
• Bridged networking: fixed duplicate EtherType in VLAN/priority tags on Linux (5.2.0 regression; bug #17277)

VirtualBox 5.2.0 (released October 17 2017)

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

• VM export to Oracle Cloud (OPC)
• Unattended guest installation (bug #5810; see user manual)
• Overhauled VM selector GUI (improved tools VM / global tools handling, new icons)
• Added experimental audio support for video recording

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

• VMM: fixed reason for recent Linux kernels on also recent CPU models warning about "XSAVE consistency problem"
• GUI: Virtual Media Manager rework allowing to manage media attributes, like size, location, type and description
• GUI: Host-only Network Manager implemented to simplify managing corresponding networks and their attributes
• GUI: Snapshot Pane rework allowing to manage snapshot attributes, like name and description; reworked snapshot details which looks more clear, corresponds to VM Details pane and reflects current VM state difference according to last snapshot taken
• GUI: Audio settings extended with possibility to enable/disable audio input/output; corresponding changed were done to Audio and Video Capture settings pages; VM Devices menu and status-bar extended with corresponding actions and indicator as well
• GUI: improvements with accessibility support
• GUI: Fixed double mouse cursor when using mouse integration without Guest Additions, actually a Qt 5.6 bug fixed with QT 5.6.3 (Mac OS X hosts only; bug #15610)
• Audio: implemented (optional) device enumeration support for audio backends
• Audio: implemented support for host device callbacks (e.g. when adding or removing an audio device)
• Audio: HDA emulation now uses asynchronous data processing in separate threads
• Audio: implemented ability to enable or disable audio input / output on-the-fly
• Storage: implemented support for CUE/BIN images as CD/DVD media including multiple tracks
• Storage: implemented support for the controller memory buffer feature for NVMe
• Storage: first milestone of the I/O stack redesign landed
• E1000: Fix for Windows XP freeze when booting with unplugged cable
• NAT network: do not skip some port forwarding setup when multiple VMs are active (Windows hosts only; bug #17041)
• Serial: fixed extremely rare misbehavior on VM poweroff
• EFI: better video mode handling, supporting custom video modes and easier configuration (bug #6783)
• BIOS: properly report floppy logical sectors per track for unusual formats
• BIOS: update ATA disk parameter table vectors only if there is actually a corresponding ATA disk attached
• PXE: speed up booting by better handling pending packets when the link is not up yet
• VBoxManage: handle CPUID sub-leaf overrides better
• Windows Additions: fix several 3D related crashes
• Solaris hosts: allow increasing MTU size for host-only adapter to 9706 bytes to support jumbo frames
• Linux Additions: on systems using systemd, make sure that only the Guest Additions timesync service is active
• many unlisted fixes and improvements