Desktop hypervisors are not dead: Oracle preps major VirtualBox update

Oracle last week debuted a beta for a major update to its VirtualBox desktop hypervisor. The most recent major update for the tool, VirtualBox 7.0 emerged in October 2022 – there have been ten maintenance releases since. The beta for Version 7.1 appeared last Friday, with user interface enhancements including "a selection …

[The BigYin]

VirtualBox with Hyper-V, please

I just wish Oracle and Microsoft would get into a room and make whatever changes are needed to allow VirtualBox and Hyper-V to co-exist.

Yes, in theory it works but in practice you get the turtle in the bottom right, and performance tanks. It can be resolved by disabling WSL2 and ensuring Hyper-V is fully disabled, but that is a bloody PITA.

VMWare seems to be able to make things work, not sure why Oracle/Microsoft can't do the same for VirtualBox. I would use VMWare, but I have found their networking and USB stacks to be utter garbage.

[BFeely]

Re: VirtualBox with Hyper-V, please

While VMWare bridged networking does seem to be a house of cards, falling over if my USB hub running my secondary NIC resets or getting in an apparent standoff with the Hyper-V network bridge, it is my go-to for interactive VMs.

As for USB I can easily attach my webcam to a Windows 11 VM to use it for telehealth visits, as I have some weird gremlins on my host OS that keep causing those sessions to disconnect.

With all that said I'd better consider VirtualBox if it did support running on systems with Hyper-V virtualization which is even more likely to be the case with modern Windows 11 systems due to the hypervisor based security features.

[MJI]

I use it

Got a 10 VM for my video editing software and my film scanning software as both failed to install on WINE.

Luckily spare licence or would have put a 7 on as VM

[Flip]

Re: I use it

...would have put a 7 on as VM

Just last week I created a VHD of an old Win7 machine using Disk2vhd from Mark Russinovich's Sysinternals. After creating a new VM on my Linux machine using the VHD I created, I was able to activate both Windows and Office 2010 via the "Activate Online" links without having to enter the licence keys. Both the Win 7 OS and Office 2010 suite were activated on the old machine when I created the VHD.

[Tom Chiverton 1]

Re: I use it

These days you can just read the keys out if EFI, or easier, use https://massgrave.dev/

Assuming your hardware came with a licence. You wouldn't steal a policeman's hat :-)

[atheist]

Re: I use it

Like banging the side of a pinball machine will get the tilt alarm to go off, changing your drive or other combinations of hardware, almost certain in P2V, will get activation to trigger again.

You may have to talk to Microsoft product activation having followed the prompts onscreen.

[Gene Cash]

Update? You mean "break it again"

I got tired of the sound support (especially the microphone) breaking every single major release and abandoned VirtualBox long ago.

Since I used it to run Windows so I could run ${VIDEOCONF_APP_OF_THE_DAY}, this was a deal breaker.

Fortunately, QEMU/KVM on Devuan Just Works, unless qpdfview has shit on /dev/null again.

[Irongut]

Re: Update? You mean "break it again"

> abandoned VirtualBox long ago

So you have no recent knowledge on which to base your opinion making said opinion baseless.

[Anonymous Coward]

matching VirtualBox's license -> wrong

"Matching VirtualBox's license" this is just wrong, only the Extension Pack has a non Open source License and from VirtualBox 7.0 on many before missing Features has been added to the Open source Version so many more can live with the free Version.

[karlkarl]

Re: matching VirtualBox's license -> wrong

Indeed. Including USB 3.0 support was added to the base code and extension pack no longer needed.

Also, a little known feature is that the RDP from the extension pack can be replaced with VNC from another (but free) extension pack:

https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch09.html#otherextpacks

[hammarbtyp]

we prefer virtualbox over vmWare player because it gives you full access to a virtual UEFI/BIOS which means it better supports bespoke secured boot projects (VMWARE player might be able to do this, but we never managed to locate the config options in VMWARES vast undocumented config files)

One thing I wish they would fix however is keyboard locality. It is always US, meaning a lot of translation between @ and " on UK keyboards. I wish there was a way to define the keyboards mapping

[The BigYin]

I use a UK keyboard without issue. Little more than a case of setting the correct keymap in the guest OS.

[hammarbtyp]

Yeah, it's a bespoke embedded os. No keyboard mapping

[botfap]

lol

However much I love to blame shit on Oracle, thats hardly the fault of virtualbox

[James Anderson]

Get a US keyboard.

Given that most programming languages and OSes were developed on and for US keyboard it makes sense to use one all the time. Depends how often you use the £ key really.

Next time you visit the Trumpistan pick one up. Or Bangkok or Dubai as the western characters on their keyboards follow the standard US layouts —- and you get lots of extra cute looking symbols on the keys.

[Mockup1974]

SunOS? The one that's dead for 30 years now?

[Bebu]

SunOS? The one that's dead for 30 years now?

I suspect means Solaris 2 (sunos 5.x) rather than Solaris 1 (sunos 4.x) (SVR4 v BSD)

Perhaps refers to the Illumos kernels? But then might as well go to SmartOS for VM support.

Pretty impressive if it were to run on a sparcstation under SunOS 4.1.x.

[Jason Hindle]

Surprised at it appearing on Apple Silicon

At the time M1 arrived, the thinking in the Mac community was that VirtualBox is very tied to the Intel architecture and unlikely to make the port.

[Henry Wertz 1]

Re: Surprised at it appearing on Apple Silicon

Yeah and it is. Virtualbox's kernel module (if i'm not mistaken) actually runs in ring 1 (kernel is ring 0 and regular code is in ring 3. os/2 is about the ony ither thing that uses ring 1 or 2. it's pretty intel specific. But the ring 1 code is pretty self contained, and. they do have Hyper-V going so they do support pluggable hypervisors, using apples on m1 certainly. I imagine bsd and linux are using virtio timer. ethernet. disk. audio, and one of the several virtual Vga devices, So no M1 or arm specific hardware needs to be emulated.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Surprised at it appearing on Apple Silicon

Netware also used ring 1 for drivers if i remember correctly.

[Jou (Mxyzptlk)]

Desktop hypervisors never were dead

No wait, Oracle, not rest of the world.

[An_Old_Dog]

Why I Abandoned VirtualBox

A long time ago, encountering a problem in Oracle VirtualBox, I checked VirtualBox's bug tracker. Perusing the tickets, I saw a bug, and a fix, for a virtual-disc corruption problem which had previously been found and fixed, yet had recurred in the next major release.

Reading between the lines, I concluded they did not use any automated regression testing. Reading the release notes, I concluded their programmers were highly-prioritized on adding new features, and (based on the number of significant-issue open bugs) little-interested in fixing bugs and improving reliability.

Those are corporate-culture issues, beyond my ability to change, and I have not seen any data points indicating this situation has been improved.

As far as I know, the Cowboy Coders, those wet-and-wooly Redwood City Rustlers, are still out riding the range.

Icon for, "Escape to Qemu."

[ecofeco]

Re: Why I Abandoned VirtualBox

This.

Once a company culture fails in service and products, it almost never, ever, redeems itself, and I, as a customer, have ZERO obligation to ever give them a benefit of doubt. I am more than happy to treat them the way they treat their customers and employees: as disposable.

Needless to say, my list is long and my nose is painfully very pinched from being forced to sometimes choose from that list.

[TReko]

Re: Why I Abandoned VirtualBox

We got out of it for similar reasons. Plus it was always slower than VMWare player.

Anyone still using VirtualBox for free in a corporate environment should be very very careful not to install any of Oracle's recommended plugins, unless they want a visit from Oracle's licencing dept.

[Locomotion69]

Re: Why I Abandoned VirtualBox

It is just a matter of time before Oracle decides that commercial use requires a paid-for license.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Why I Abandoned VirtualBox

had several cases where vmware wouldn't work. first time on a mac with limited memory, later it didn't provide the virtual network hardware needed for my particular installation. both times virtualbox worked. vmware also caused problems with some printers. the individual involved had to eject the last page at the printer. weird problem, don't remember the specifics but no problem with virtualbox.

[OrangeDog]

Re: Why I Abandoned VirtualBox

Meanwhile, I just wanted to use WSL.

VirtualBox refuses to work if Hyper-V is enabled, so now I just use Hyper-V (or qemu in WSL) for everything.

[steviebuk]

If its Oracle

They'll make it a paid for product and remove all the free tiers.

[Crypto Monad]

Re: If its Oracle

They could, but as it's GPL (apart from the extension pack), someone could fork it to continue to maintain a free version.

https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Licensing_FAQ