VirtualBox 7.0 BETA1 released

[galitsyn]

Please do NOT use this VirtualBox release candidate on production machines. A VirtualBox release candidate should be used for early evaluation and testing purposes.

You can download the binaries here. Please use sha256sum to compare the hash of the downloaded package with the corresponding hash from this list.

Please do NOT open bug reports at https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Bugtracker but use our VirtualBox Beta Feedback forum to report any problems with the Beta. Please concentrate on reporting regressions since VirtualBox 6.1.

VirtualBox 7.0 will be a new major release. Work on changelog and documentation is still in progress.

[llr]

The 7.0.0 beta Manual does not show any TPM2.0 support.
I will be trying to get it working on OpenSUSE Tumbleweed ( I am the Junior Developer for VirtualBox in OpenSUSE ).
Anyone got it working yet on any platform?

[scottgus1]

The 7.0.0 beta Manual does not show any TPM2.0 support.

Work on ... documentation is still in progress.

[Technologov]

Unattended GUI install is the biggest and main feature of VBox 7 ?
(besides some audio improvements ? ... )

[AndyCot]

The 7.0.0 beta 1 manual on page 165 has info on the TPM as follows:
--tpm-type=none | 1.2 | 2.0 | host | swtpm
Specifies the TPM type for Oracle VM VirtualBox to emulate.
Valid values are as follows:
* none – No TPM is present and is the default value.
* 1.2 – A TPM conforming to the TCG specification version 1.2 is present.
* 2.0 – A TPM conforming to the TCG specification version 2.0 is present.
* host – The host TPM is passed through to the guest. May not be available on all
supported host platforms.
* swtpm – The VM connects to an external TPM emulation compliant to swtpm.



As for why a major version change I seen and tested so far are:

1) Support for Windows 11. TPM 2.0 support working w.r.t able to install and run W11 with no registry hacks required anymore. You host hardware still needs to be W11 compliant (CPU & GPU). This IMHO is a huge change as supporting a new MS version is not easy.
2) Unattended install Ubuntu 22.xx & derivatives like Mint 21.xx due to Ubuntu 22.xx changing the way they handle unattended installs between 20 and 22.

In you want more changes you could compare the output of the VBoxManage exe options 6.1.36 and the 7.0.0 beta 1 release.

[AndyCot]

I have been able to install W11 guest on a W10 host when manually installing the guest. I have automated the configuration of the setup for the W11 guest. The relevant line in my automation windows batch file for TPM 2.0 is:

%VBoxManageExe% modifyvm %VM_Name% --tpm-type 2.0

[klaus]

TPM 2.0 is enabled by default if you create a Windows 11 VM with standard settings (which is what the GUI does, and also if you use the

--default

option to

VBoxManage createvm

.

Oh, and before I forget: for Windows 11 the default is to use UEFI, and Secure Boot is enabled by default (even though the installer is already happy when Secure Boot is available, it can be disabled). This means the associated NVRAM setup is fully automatic, including Microsoft's key.

[Technologov]

Congrats with a new major version release !

* Unattended install is very useful feature indeed.
* TPM 2.0 for VM is needed for Windows 11 guest
* Audio backend improvements
* I have found the Big Elephant in the room -- VirtualBox-7.0.0_BETA1-153351-macOSAArch64.dmg -- basically support for ARM64/Apple Silicon Macs/ M1 chip ! (and perhaps even for Raspberry Pi/ARM64-Linux) -- basically "EmulatorBox" now -- that's a real killer feature for Mac users !

[aeichner]

Don't expect too much from it though, it currently barely emulates anything and is very very slow. There is no recompilation taking place like with QEMU und there is no ARM virtualization. There is also only an ARM build for macOS.

A few other major changes for 7.0 (very very incomplete):

• VirtualBox on macOS doesn't require or use kernel extensions anymore but relies solely on Apple's hypervisor framework, there are likely bugs in that area (The official documentation for AppleHV is pretty bare bones and requires a lot of guess work).
• Full VM encryption, only available through the CLI though. Previously we supported disk image encryption only, now the VM config, NVRAM and logs can be encrypted as well. This feature is PUEL only.
• EFI supports SecureBoot now, can be configured through the CLI and for W11 it is enabled by default like the TPM.
• 3D was completely re-done and is based on DXVK now for DX -> Vulkan translation
• The VirtualBox hypervisor/debugger offers an experimental GDB stub, enabling system level developers to debug code using GDB. Requires CFGM extradata to configure right now.
• The GUI got a huge overhaul and supports dark mode now.

[mpack]

[*] 3D was completely re-done and is based on DXVK now for DX -> Vulkan translation

Finally I see mention of something that interests me! Ok, so Windows gets get a DX->Vulkan translation. What do Linux guests get? Are they getting Vulkan directly? Or GL->Vulkan?

[Technologov]

> There is no recompilation taking place like with QEMU und there is no ARM virtualization.

Since VirtualBox itself came from Qemu code directly, maybe it can copy dynamic recompiler also ? ... this should speed up the emulation significantly.

> VirtualBox on macOS doesn't require or use kernel extensions anymore but relies solely on Apple's hypervisor framework, there are likely bugs in that area (The official documentation for AppleHV is pretty bare bones and requires a lot of guess work).

How network bridge can work with it ? (if at all)

* Would be nice to have a Linux/ARM64 build for Raspberry Pi (or for Altera servers ... if you have those... )

[aeichner]

[*] 3D was completely re-done and is based on DXVK now for DX -> Vulkan translation

Finally I see mention of something that interests me! Ok, so Windows gets get a DX->Vulkan translation. What do Linux guests get? Are they getting Vulkan directly? Or GL->Vulkan?

We expose an VMware SVGA device to the guest which exposes an interface close to DX. On Linux we use the official vmwgfx driver shipped with Mesa which exposes OpenGL only afaik. On Windows we have our own DirectX driver for this.

[aeichner]

> There is no recompilation taking place like with QEMU und there is no ARM virtualization.

Since VirtualBox itself came from Qemu code directly, maybe it can copy dynamic recompiler also ? ... this should speed up the emulation significantly.

We won't re-introduce the QEMU re-compiler again after throwing it out previously.

>
> VirtualBox on macOS doesn't require or use kernel extensions anymore but relies solely on Apple's hypervisor framework, there are likely bugs in that area (The official documentation for AppleHV is pretty bare bones and requires a lot of guess work).

How network bridge can work with it ? (if at all)

Apple provides an interface for that which we are using (see https://developer.apple.com/documentati ... guage=objc).

>
* Would be nice to have a Linux/ARM64 build for Raspberry Pi (or for Altera servers ... if you have those... )

You don't want to run VirtualBox on a RaspberryPi, trust me To my knowledge Apple's M1 is the only really powerful ARM system for consumers right now which is kind of affordable.

[Technologov]

Why are you moving away from macOS kernel extensions? Are they becoming forbidden?

[aeichner]

Why are you moving away from macOS kernel extensions? Are they becoming forbidden?

Yes, Apple forces us to do so.