VirtualBox 6.1.20 Released with Linux Kernel 5.11 & 5.12 Support

Oracle Virtualbox 5.1.12

Oracle VirtualBox released version 6.1.20 as the tenth update for the 6.1 release series of the open-source virtualization software.

For Linux host and guest, the release added support for both Kernel 5.11 and Kernel 5.12. And the maximum MTU size has been increased to 16110 for host-only adapters on Linux kernels 4.10+.

There are also bug-fixes for Linux guest additions, including vboxvideo module compilation fix for kernel version 5.10.x, and kernel module build fix for RHEL 8.4 beta and CentOS Stream.

Other changes in VirtualBox 6.1.20 include:

  • Fixed extremely poor VM performance depending on the timing of various actions.
  • Fixed guest OS hanging under certain circumstances when Hyper-V is present.
  • Fixed Guru Meditation error when using a nested hypervisor under certain circumstances.
  • Fixed a SMAP related host panic affecting Solaris 11.4 systems with Intel Haswell CPUs or later.
  • Add cloud-init support for export to OCI and for OCI instance creation.
  • Fixed “Delete all files” leaving behind Logs/VBoxUI.log.
  • Multiple audio fixes and enhancements.
  • Fixed detection of duplex audio devices on macOS.
  • Fixed link status reporting for “not attached” adapters.
  • Fixed connectivity issues with e1000 in OS/2 guests.
  • Fixed VxWorks e1000 driver compatibility issue.
  • Fixed GUI checks for port forwarding rules rejecting IPv6 with “Nat Network”.
  • Fixed possible VM hang when using the a serial port in disconnected mode.
  • Fixed interoperability with v4l2loopback and fixed a webcam crash under certain circumstances.
  • Fixed sporadic Windows VM hang or reboot on high CPU load.
  • Allow changing network adapter attachment of a saved VM with “modifyvm”.
  • Fix for argument processing to honor the ‘–root’ option.

How to Install VirtualBox 6.1.20 in Ubuntu:

The official .deb packages are available for download at the link below:

Download VirtualBox

If you’ve already added the Oracle apt repository for Linux, install the updates simply via Software Updater.

Or add the apt repository by running following commands one by one:

1. Open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T), paste below command and run to add the repository:

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb [arch=amd64] https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian $(lsb_release -sc) contrib" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/virtualbox.list'

For Linux Mint, you HAVE to replace $(lsb_release -sc) in the command with bionic for Mint 19.x, or xenial for Mint 18.x, or focal for Linux Mint 20.

2. Then download and install the repository key via command:

wget -q https://www.virtualbox.org/download/oracle_vbox_2016.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -

3. Refresh system package cache via command:

sudo apt update

4. Finally install Virtualbox 6.1:

sudo apt install virtualbox-6.1

Uninstall:

To remove it, simply run command in terminal:

sudo apt remove --autoremove virtualbox-6.1

And go to Software & Updates -> Other Software to remove apt repositories.