Oracle announced the release of the first maintenance update to the VirtualBox 5.1 series of the open-source and cross-platform virtualization software for all supported computer operating systems.
Dubbed VirtualBox 5.1.2, the first bugfix release comes after two weeks since the announcement of the massive VirtualBox 5.1 branch, which introduced a huge number of new features and enhancements, among which we can mention support for the latest Linux 4.7 kernel.
According to Oracle, VirtualBox 5.1.2 is a major update that promises to bring a large number of improvements and corrections for the VirtualBox 5.1 release, and the changelog shows us that there are multiple GUI enhancements, several API, storage, USB, EFI, OVA, and audio fixes, as well as platform-independent changes.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 builds are now supported
For Linux hosts, the VirtualBox 5.1.2 release adds better support for the latest builds of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 operating system, which will receive support until November 30, 2020. Additionally, there's a patch in Linux Additions for an SELinux issue that prevented the 3D mode from working correctly on some Linux guests.
It's now possible to take screenshots of guests even if the virtual machine was started in separate mode, as well as to open registered file types like .vbox and .vbox-extpack on Mac OS X operating systems. Also, after installing VirtualBox 5.1.2, users will be able to access devices attached to a SATA 2 port or higher.
As mentioned, multiple audio improvements are present in VirtualBox 5.1.2, bringing better support for the SB16 soundbar speaker system and AC'97 emulation and volume control. Ultimately, the first maintenance update of VirtualBox 5.1 makes it possible again to create fixed size VHD (Virtual Hard Disk) images.
If you want to know what exactly has been changed in the VirtualBox 5.1.2 release, we recommend that you check out the official changelog. Otherwise, we invite you to download Virtualbox 5.1.2 binaries for GNU/Linux, Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows operating systems right now via our website and update as soon as possible.
