Discuss the 6.1.0 release

[socratis]

Discuss the 6.1.0 release here.
You can download the release here.
VirtualBox 6.1.0 is a new major release.

Known new issues/regressions
These are new and confirmed tickets about issues with 6.0.0:

• None so far.

[Marko73]

I've finally been able to upgrade from v5.2.28, as the oversized mouse pointer bug when using scaling on high DPI displays seems to be fixed! That's an enormous boon to me

I do have one fairly minor issue with v6.1, which is that the VirtualBox GUI, when last exited in a maximized state, always opens on my main monitor. This is not a show-stopper, and I can work around it with a rule in DisplayFusion to force VirtualBox to open on a specific monitor.

Overall, I'm very pleased!

Edit: Tested on Windows 10 x64, 1909

[Milkyjoe]

One issue i seem to have come across so far is that if your VM is encrypted and it has snapshots, the encruption is ignored in that the prompt doesn't show meaning the VDIs aren't unlocked causing an unbootable medium error. I've not done any extensive testing so far, just on a windows guest that was working in 6.0.14 and then created a fresh windows guest which had the same problem. Tried this on two different windows host as well, updating to 6.1.0 finding then issue, downgrading to 6.0.14 and being resolved

[socratis]

I've not done any extensive testing so far, just on a windows guest that was working in 6.0.14 and then created a fresh windows guest which had the same problem

If you have a recipe, a step-by-step guide on how to create the problem, post it so that we can reproduce it...

[Milkyjoe]

So in my case, when i created the new VM on 6.1.0 i did the following:

1. New VM from VBox manager UI
2. Windows Server 2016 Guest, 2 Processors, 8GB RAM
3. Turned on Encryption, AES-XTS256-PLAIN64
4. Attached Windows Server 2016 installation media
5. Started VM and entered encryption password
6. Installed clean copy of server 2016 and performed windows updates
7. Took a snapshot
8. Started VM up and encryption prompt was not shown so got the startup error no bootable medium found! System Halted

Hope that helps and that you can reproduce it. Let me know if you need any more specifics

[scottgus1]

Virtualbox 6.1.0 changelog says:

USB: Filter can now specify port path, uniquely identifying a port in a system

The 6.1.0 manual says in its changelog:

Windows host: When possible, distinguish USB devices by port number; helps with accurate capturing of devices when multiple otherwise identical devices are connected

It looks to me like there is supposed to be a new way to travel through the links of the port chain, through the hubs, to figure out exactly what port on what hub the identical device is plugged into.

Formerly, 'vboxmanage list usbhost' showed just the final port number, and a new Virtualbox USB filter Port box was empty. Trying 6.1.0 'vboxmanage list usbhost' still shows only the final part number, not the chain. And the Virtualbox USB filter Port box is still empty. I tried connecting devices directly to the PC and through a USB hub. I have not yet seen anything new in 6.1.0's USB port number handling. (Windows host, if it is important)

I have not yet tried attaching two identical devices, I don't actually have any identical twins at this time.

Anyone see anything different?

[klaus]

Yes, you can now filter by port - if that's what you want. It's not used by default. No, Windows does not provide full USB addressing information (i.e. which sequence of hubs etc. to go through), but instead has something which is unique without containing the routing details.

What the changelog about "accurate capturing" means is that if you pick a specific device (even if it is not unique) then it will now be found by using the port information. In the past what happened was that the first device with the USB id (and serial number, but many devices don't have any or it is the same for all) was actually captured when you picked any of the device entries.

[scottgus1]

Interesting, Klaus. I found that capturing identical devices by port number has been possible since at least 5.2.something, I wrote a little blog & how-to about it: Distinguish multiple identical USB devices.

The changelog mentions a "port path". I guess I saw more in that than the "port number" box that has been working for a while. Is it that using the "port" info is now officially supported, even though it worked before?

FWIW it is possible to track a USB device through the hubs on Windows, though I don't know how to do it. At my former workplace we used KernelPro's 'USB Over Ethernet' to attach identical USB security dongles to workstations from the server room. That program runs on Windows and is able to see and report both hubs and ports, so the client can grab the correct USB key.

[michaln]

I honestly don't know how filtering by port number worked for you before. I can say with 100% certainty that VirtualBox (on Windows) was not able to reliably distinguish between two otherwise identical devices (same device descriptor, same strings, no or identical serial number). You might capture the one you wanted, or you might get nothing.

In VirtualBox 6.1.0, the kernel driver responsible for capturing (VBoxUSBMon.sys) does look at the port number and uses it for matching.

I will also add that in Windows, both userland and kernel can get the complete "path" to a USB device in the form of controller/root hub/hub/.../hub/device. In its infinite wisdom, Microsoft decided to identify the controller differently in userland vs. kernel, with no obvious (at least to us) way to convert between the two. There probably is a way but it's not trivial.

[scottgus1]

I'm not entirely sure how I was able to get it to work either. Just that whenever I had to try it I got positive results. Maybe I just had the right combination of hosts.

So it sounds like the "port number" box has become official, then.

Thanks, Klaus and Michaln!

[HazardTugs]

I'm very happy.

• Intel Nested Virtualization is something I've needed for years. I'm really grateful (Christmas come early?)
• Seeing the CPU load on the status bar is very useful. I've had VMs spiral before and no way really of checking what's happening.
• Of all free pieces of software, this is the one that I've used the most.

There's always bugs in all software, but I appreciate that there are many people behind the scenes who make this happen, fix stuff, and on their own time.

Thank you.

[socratis]

Seeing the CPU load on the status bar is very useful. I've had VMs spiral before and no way really of checking what's happening.

If you're happy with the CPU on the Status Bar, you should definitely check out the "Machine" » "Session Information" » "Performance Monitor"...

[JustinH]

I'm seeing something 'new' in 6.1. When I boot a new VM I am prompted to select boot media even though I've already configured a boot ISO in the machines storage settings. I cancel the dialog and the VM boots like it should.

host: Win10 v1809 Ent
guest: Win10 anything
machine config:

• Win 10 x64 default to start with
  system: toggle off floppy, ICH9 chipset, toggle on EFI
  storage: set the hard disk to SSD, populate the optical drive with a Win10 ISO

start the VM, the VM window displays, then a dialog asking for optical disc media pops up and interrupts boot sequence

[PeterE]

I have a laptop with VirtualBox 5.2.18 on a Windows 8.1 host. One of my guests is a Windows XP (without Internet connection!) with MS Office 2003. Everything is working fine.
Now I installed a new PC with Windows 10 host and VirtualBox 6.1.0. I copied the Windows XP guest to the new computer, uninstalled the old Guest additions (GA) and installed the new GA.
The mouse pointer integration works, but if I am using MS Office the mouse pointer changes in some parts of the window. In example if I am using Excel the mouse pointer changes just over the spread sheet to the same mouse pointer of the host system, but not over the menu or symbols. This makes Excel harder to use, because if you go to the lower right corner of a cell you should get a plus sign. Even with this bad mouse pointer dragging on the cell still works, but it is not like it should be.
I have similar problems in Word, but if I go in front of a line to mark the line, it does NOT work.

Is this a know bug? When will it be fixed?

[JustinH]

Found a typo in VM Settings -> Storage, optical drive: the media references are for a 'disk' instead of a 'disc'. I was confused by this at first.