Sun updates its VirtualBox virtualisation software

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 17 February 2010 12:28

Business IT - Open Source

VirtualBox 3.1.4 delivers a wide-ranging collection of bug fixes.

VirtualBox is Sun's x86 virtualisation software that's available in two versions.

The open source edition is available under the GPL, but is only available from Sun as source code.

The full version is also available free of charge, but under a personal use and evaluation licence. According to the licence, personal use "requires that you use the Product on the same Host Computer where you installed it yourself and that no more than one client connect to that Host Computer at a time for the purpose of displaying Guest Computers remotely."

Version 3.1.4 of VirtualBox has arrived less than two months after 3.1.2, skipping 3.1.3. The changes fix various bugs and provide greater stability.

Issues addressed by the new version include strict CPUID checks during 'teleportation' (live migration of a virtual machine between servers), improved virtual hard disk compatibility with Virtual PC, and correctly applies the 'passthrough' setting for the host system's DVD drive.

Among the other fixes are changes to the user interface, 3D support, networking, and to the specific support for Windows, Linux and Solaris. VirtualBox also runs on Mac OS X.