If you plan on trying the new Linux Mint 22 release in a virtual machine, you could double the fun by taking it for a spin in the new VirtualBox 7.1 beta release.
Don’t tune out—most VirtualBox updates tend to be fairly minor, but the upcoming release of VirtualBox 7.1 is looking like a major update (and about time, I say).
VirtualBox 7.1 brings with it a “modernized look and feel”, giving users a choice of UI mode: Basic streamlines the interface, reducing the amount of options, settings, and details shown; Expert puts all of VirtualBox’s functionality on show, within reach.
There are other GUI changes too. Oracle (who make VirtualBox) say this version improves the ‘overall accessibility’ (always welcome), and updates the underlying Qt toolkit to a more recent version.
Use VirtualBox on a Linux distribution that uses Wayland?
Good news: VirtualBox 7.1 supports clipboard sharing under Wayland for Linux hosts and guests. This is such a handy feature, and with Wayland now widely in use, I’m pleased to see Oracle devs have got this working again.
Sticking with Linux (kinda), the VirtualBox 7.1 release is the first version to officially support Apple Silicon and ARM virtualisation of Linux and *BSD VMs1. Preview and test builds have been available prior, but the stable 7.0 series only supports macOS/Intel.
VirtualBox ARM support has been much-requested. While this release only adds support for Apple Silicon (which is ARM, for those unaware), my hope is that some groundwork can be shared to bring VirtualBox to Linux ARM (and maybe Windows ARM).
VirtualBox also has brand-new logo and wordmark on show in this version.
Finally, there are some tweaks to VirtualBox’s Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) support, including a performance dashboard for to show resource usage for cloud instances, and options to clone or reset compute instances.
Other changes: –
- Improved screen recording performance
- VirtualBox Remote Desktop Extension (VRDE) certificate tweaks
- NAT gains new engine with IPv6 support
- EFI adds Microsoft DB/KEX certificates to new VMs
Oracle makes no mention of improvements to the VirtualBox’s overall performance but the 7.1 beta feels peppier than the 7.0 series. VM startup times are prompt, and the general responsiveness of the app seems perceptually improved.
If any of that sounds worth testing — this is a beta, remember — you can download VirtualBox 7.1 for all major OSes, with DEB packages provided for Ubuntu 20.04, 22.04, and the latest 24.04 LTS release.
- x86-on-ARM support is not supported OOTB, but can be enabled manually – but the performance is described as poor, especially for GUI OSes so keep that in mind ↩︎