Oracle has released VirtualBox 4.2.12, a maintenance update for its cross-platform, open-source virtualisation tool. A large number of fixes and updates have been applied, including dynamic support for multi-monitor setups via the Windows Additions.
There are also a notable number of GUI fixes concentrating on improving multi-screen support, including one that stops a crash when changing visual mode, and another that ensures OS X hosts display the correct menu bar in each machine window.
Further multi-screen related fixes ensure better handling of host/guest screen plugging and unplugging in different visual modes, plus fix a bug when empty seamless screens were represented by full-screen windows.
The VM Manager’s GUI has also been improved, with vertical scrollbars automatically updated when the content or window is resized. An event crash on changing the machine state has also been fixed, while warnings about the state (enabled or disabled) of mouse integration will no longer appear after VMs are restored from a saved state.
Other notable bug fixes should prevent disk size changes occurring when using snapshots thanks to incorrect alignment of VDI images. Linux hosts suffering from broken audio with ALSA or PulseAudio should also find this issue resolved.
The VBoxManage tool has also been tweaked for better stability, and Linux Additions now handle a fall-back to the standard VESA driver on RedHat-based guests if vboxvideo can’t be loaded. There are also compile fixes for RHEL/OEL/CentOS 6.4 and Debian Linux kernel 3.2.0-4.
VirtualBox 4.2.12 is available now as a free, open-source download for Windows, Mac and Linux. Also available is VirtualBox Extension Pack 4.2.12, a free-for-personal-use download that adds support for USB 2.0, VirtualBox Remote Desktop Protocol and more.
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