Discuss VirtualBox 3.1.4 release

[sandervl]

Discussion about the new maintenance release can be added to this topic.

[Graham Norris]

XP Pro SP3 host, W7 x64 RC guest. When re-installing Guest Additions for 3.1.4, the DVD drive on my PC opened as the ISO was being connected. The CD drive was not connected to the guest at the time. This has never happened previously, and could be most annoying if the drive was actually in use by something else at the time - especially if it was being written to.

[Etepetete]

I've installed 3.1.4 and everything went smoothly. Installing the VBox USB driver was as with past releases, i.e. I insert my USB stick, I then have to install the VBox driver, after install the USB is neither from Host nor guest accessible. After shutting down, disconnecting my USB device and restarting the host am I able to use the USB stick within my guest. I have noticed a different behavior with version 3.1.4. In previous versions the USB stick was automatically picked up by the guest. Now the USB device is initially picked up by the host. Only after selecting the USB device in the <Devices> menu of the guest is it available to the guest.

[stefan.becker]

XP Pro SP3 host, W7 x64 RC guest. When re-installing Guest Additions for 3.1.4, the DVD drive on my PC opened as the ISO was being connected. The CD drive was not connected to the guest at the time. This has never happened previously, and could be most annoying if the drive was actually in use by something else at the time - especially if it was being written to.

Must lough. Yesterday i updated all my guests to 3.1.4. On one xp guest the cdrom opens, too.

PS: For me: Suse 11.2 Host.

[timvand]

Was any testing done, upgrading from 3.1.2. to 3.1.4 on Win2K3?

Does one need to uninstall 3.1.2 and do a fresh install of 3.1.4?

The upgrade has broken the installation and now there is no network connectivity nor does adding host-only interface work.

Suggestions? Pass on the upgrade to 3.1.4 and stick with 3.1.2?

[MichaelZ]

Was any testing done, upgrading from 3.1.2. to 3.1.4 on Win2K3?

Does one need to uninstall 3.1.2 and do a fresh install of 3.1.4?

The upgrade has broken the installation and now there is no network connectivity nor does adding host-only interface work.

Suggestions? Pass on the upgrade to 3.1.4 and stick with 3.1.2?

I had the same problem, though I am installing on XP Sp3. The install hung and never finished. Networking was stopped and wouldn't restart.

However, I recall this happening on an earlier upgrade, though I don't remember which one. The solution then was to uninstall VBox completely (uninstalling won't touch your disk images), reboot, and to then reinstall the current version. I uninstalled the 3.1.2/4 version, rebooted the system, then installed 3.1.4. Everything installed fine and things are working smoothly now.

So I'd give that a try, timvand. Uninstall whatever vbox version you now have (it might show up as 3.1.4, or as 3.1.2, depending where in the install it died at), reboot the server to clear things and to get your networking back, then install a fresh copy of 3.1.4. I expect it will work fine.

[timvand]

Was any testing done, upgrading from 3.1.2. to 3.1.4 on Win2K3?

Does one need to uninstall 3.1.2 and do a fresh install of 3.1.4?

The upgrade has broken the installation and now there is no network connectivity nor does adding host-only interface work.

Suggestions? Pass on the upgrade to 3.1.4 and stick with 3.1.2?

I had the same problem, though I am installing on XP Sp3. The install hung and never finished. Networking was stopped and wouldn't restart.

However, I recall this happening on an earlier upgrade, though I don't remember which one. The solution then was to uninstall VBox completely (uninstalling won't touch your disk images), reboot, and to then reinstall the current version. I uninstalled the 3.1.2/4 version, rebooted the system, then installed 3.1.4. Everything installed fine and things are working smoothly now.

So I'd give that a try, timvand. Uninstall whatever vbox version you now have (it might show up as 3.1.4, or as 3.1.2, depending where in the install it died at), reboot the server to clear things and to get your networking back, then install a fresh copy of 3.1.4. I expect it will work fine.

Michael,

Did as you suggested and re-installed 3.1.2 as I know that one works and not willing to spend more time on 3.1.4. Maybe in the future.

[SSCBrian]

Already reported elsewhere, but adding here for sake of completeness, in case someone else has the issue. Unable to install Linux (SuSE or Fedora) on Windows Vista x64 host. Freezes during installer at random points.

However, the Solaris support is very nice. Best it's ever worked! Good job, I know some time was put into the various Solaris issues!

[MichaelZ]

Michael,

Did as you suggested and re-installed 3.1.2 as I know that one works and not willing to spend more time on 3.1.4. Maybe in the future.

Yep, been there before.

Glad to hear it's working again. When you have the time and the inclination, make sure you uninstall 3.1.2 completely then install 3.1.4. It should work without any problems.

I usually haven't had any problems simply upgrading versions. I do recall one version upgrade a while back that had this problem, forcing me (and others) to uninstall the existing version first. So I'm not sure what the hiccup is, but the uninstallation trick does seem to work well.

Good luck.

[richjnk]

The links to the MD5 Sums are broken on the Virtualbox.org download pages. I just get a 404 not found error.

[log111]

I hope there is a tool to import vmware fusion images into virtualbox. I have many VMs in vmware fusion 3 on my lab's Mac. But I am using vbox on my macbook. I success to use vbox media manager to import the vmdk but usually fail to boot the VMs...

[Two]

Thanks for making pure bugfix releases instead of adding new late-night features. I would very much like to see rather stable releases with stable new features at a later time, than having a buggy version of a new feature that is not usable.

A virtual machine is only useful, if it works reliably and VirtualBox lost that track a while ago. Good to see that you are back on it!

[mykes]

Windows 7 x64 host.
Ubuntu 9.10 amd64 server guest.

I have dual monitors.

I tried to install guest additions, but it complained at the end about not having an X-server. Makes sense, sort of, but maybe there's a way to deal with mouse capture when it's just a console?

So I installed kubuntu-desktop

Reinstalled guest additions, it found the X server, everything ok.

Rebooted, get the kubuntu login screen, login works, resize window resizes the desktop proper, etc.

If I hit cmd-L (seamless mode) with the window on the secondary monitor, the vbox window disappears. No system start bars or anything. I can click on virtualbox in the windows environment to "activate the window" but it doesn't appear. Fortunately, cmd-L does restore the window to window state. Otherwise, I'd have to ssh in and reboot the machine.

Move the window to my primary monitor. cmd-L maximizes the window. cmd-L again goes to seamless mode. It should toggle between seamless mode, right? I don't want a maximized window when not in seamless mode, but it makes it that way.

Primary monitor is 30" 2560x1600. Secondary monitor is 1200x1600 (monitor is rotated portrait)

[mykes]

One more thing.

Even under 3.1.2, I could not reboot the server (Ubuntu amd64). I ssh in and type sudo -i ; sync; sync; sync; reboot (or halt)

It hangs doing the shutdown. If I hit cmd-delete to send ctrl-alt-delete, it does reboot, but it says 'killed hwclock-save', so there's something messed up with how vbox and ubuntu deal with the hardware clock it seems.

[SSCBrian]

One more thing.

Even under 3.1.2, I could not reboot the server (Ubuntu amd64). I ssh in and type sudo -i ; sync; sync; sync; reboot (or halt)

It hangs doing the shutdown. If I hit cmd-delete to send ctrl-alt-delete, it does reboot, but it says 'killed hwclock-save', so there's something messed up with how vbox and ubuntu deal with the hardware clock it seems.

How about if you use the "shutdown" command? Does that also hang?