Oracle has released VirtualBox 7.2, the latest stable version of its open-source virtualization software, compatible with various operating systems, including GNU/Linux, Solaris, macOS, and Windows.
For Linux users, this update introduces initial support for the upcoming Linux kernel 6.17, along with enhancements for the Linux 6.16 kernel series on both host and guest systems. It also improves Linux Guest Additions for Oracle Linux 10 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10. Additionally, handling of the vboxvideo kernel module in the initialization script for Linux guests has been enhanced.
One significant feature for Linux hosts is the enablement of video decoding acceleration, provided the 3D option is activated in their settings. This version also addresses some functionality issues, such as fixing the incorrectly mapped scan keys for Pause and Num Lock when using Xkb for translations on Linux hosts and resolving a VBoxClient start failure with older Linux kernels (2.6 or before).
The user interface (UI) of VirtualBox 7.2 has seen numerous enhancements, including refined Preferences and Settings pages, improved management of keyboard LEDs in the Soft Keyboard, and better accessibility by placing global and VM tools in more accessible locations within the UI.
Furthermore, the GUI improvements include the removal of the IO-APIC option from ARM virtual machine settings and the addition of a checkbox to share folders across all virtual machines.
Other notable enhancements encompass the open-sourced NVMe storage controller emulation, better DNS server handling, explicit unattended installation support for Oracle Linux 10, and compatibility with newer CPU instruction set extensions (AVX and AVX2). The update also reportedly introduces ARM virtualization capabilities for Windows 11 and experimental support for 3D acceleration using DXMT on macOS. Nested Virtualization on Intel CPUs has also improved through this round of updates.
As always, numerous bugs have been fixed to provide a more stable virtualization experience. For a comprehensive list of the changes, users can refer to the changelog. VirtualBox 7.2 is available for download as a universal binary installer from the official website.