Sun xVM VirtualBox allows users to create “virtual machines” in their host operating system so that they can install any guest OS, facilitating the development, cross-platform running and testing of multi-tier applications on a single computer.
General (VMM) improvements include:
- Fixed network regressions (guest hangs during network IO);
- Guest SMP performance improvements;
- Fixed hangs and poor performance with Kaspersky Internet Security (VT-x/AMD-V only);
- Fixed crashes when executing certain Linux guests (software virtualization only).
Sun was also able to improve 3D support in VirtualBox by fixing dynamic linking on Solaris/OpenSolaris guests, and addressing issues with incorrect context/window tracking for multithreaded apps. For the X11 host and guest clipboard, developers have fixed a number of issues, including some with seamless windows in X11 guests.
On the Windows side only, Sun reveals, VirtualBox now adds VBoxServiceNT for NT4 guests (for time synchronization and guest properties). As for Linux fans, a workaround has been found for buggy graphics drivers showing a black VM window on recent distributions.
Other fixes and improvements are as follows:
Installer: support Pardus Linux;
Solaris hosts: several installer fixes;
Solaris host: fixed a preemption issue causing VMs to never start on Solaris;
Solaris guest: fixed mouse integration for OpenSolaris 2009.06;
Windows hosts: fixed high CPU usage after resuming the host;
OVF: accept ovf:/disk/ specifiers with a single slash in addition to ovf://disk/;
Fixed: a settings file conversion bug which sometimes caused hardware acceleration to be enabled for virtual machines that had no explicit configuration in the XML.
VirtualBox, is free to download and use for anyone packing the necessary hardware. The software is a feature-rich, high-performance product for enterprise customers. Available as Open Source Software, VirtualBox is licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL).
