Oracle VirtualBox - Virtualization Software.
Oracle VM VirtualBox is a free type-2 hypervisor for x86 virtualization developed by Oracle Corporation.
VirtualBox can load multiple guest operating systems under a single host operating-system. Each guest OS ( Windows, Linux or Mac OS ) can be started, paused and stopped independently within its own virtual machine (VM).
This is perfect for testing other Linux distributions on the same computer or if you want to evaluate the latest Windows version, of course you will need a computer with a minimum of 4GB, but more is recommended.
VirtualBox supports both Intel's VT-x and AMD's AMD-V hardware-assisted virtualization.
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Latest version: 6.1.36 can be downloaded here.
This new release introduces initial support for the Linux 5.18 kernel series, as well as for the upcoming Linux 5.19 kernel.
Besides this this release offers initial support for the upcoming Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.1 operating system, initial support for Python 3.10, better support for Linux kernels built using the Clang compiler, and support for setting the primary screen via VBoxManage.
In favor of Linux users, they will now be able to mount shared folders if it is represented as a symlink on the host operating system.
Several issues in the Linux Guest Additions, including multi-screen handling in VBoxVGA and VBoxSVGA graphics configuration has been fixed, icluding an X11 resources leak that occurred when resizing guest screens.
A file descriptor leak that occurred when starting a process using guest control, as well as guest control executing processes as root has been fixed.
► Have a look at the Changelog.
VirtualBox history:
VirtualBox was created by the company Sun Microsystems as a commercial X86 virtualization software (with a limited GPL version) for Linux, Mac OS X, OS / 2 Warp and Windows 32-bit and 64-bit hosts, and supports FreeBSD, Linux, OpenBSD, OS / 2 Warp and Windows as a guest operating system.
After several years of development, VirtualBox OSE (Open Source Edition) released a limited open source version, under the GNU General Public License (GPL), January 2007.
Compared with other established commercial virtualization software such as VMware Workstation and Microsoft Virtual PC, VirtualBox has no features but instead offers others.
Some of these unique features include running virtual machines remotely controlled by the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) protocol, iSCSI support, and non-local USB device support over RDP.
Sun Microsystems acquired Innotek in February 2008.
Oracle Corporation acquired Sun in January 2010 and renamed the product to "Oracle VM VirtualBox".
Since December 2010, the core package is free version of GNU General Public License version 2 (GPLv2) free software.
The separate "VirtualBox Oracle VM VirtualBox Enhancement Package" that provides support for USB 2.0 and 3.0, Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), Disk Encryption, NVMe and Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) Launch is under a licensed license, called Personal Use and Evaluation License. (PUEL), which allows the use of the software for personal use, educational use or evaluation, free of cost.
Note: VirtualBox isn't available in Debian 11 "Bullseye" repository nor LMDE5 repository.
Language support:
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Danish
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English
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French
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German
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Polish
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Portuguese
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Portuguese ( Brazil )
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Russian
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Spanish
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And others...
VirtualBox supports:
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Windows 3.1 - Windows 11
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Mac OSX until version 10.13
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Linux Kernel 2.2+
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Arch Linux
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Debian until 11 ( Tested )
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Fedora
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Gentoo
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LMDE5 ( Tested )
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Red Hat
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TurboLinux
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Ubuntu
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Xandros
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Others
How to install via a terminal window:
cd Downloads
Press Enter.
sudo dpkg -i virtualbox-6.1_6.1.36-152435~Debian~bullseye_amd64.deb
Press Enter.
It also offers an Expert Mode.
After install, run the app:
Next go to Preferences:
Screen Size:
Yes, you can actually set the screen size, now not making it so small:
Change to Hint and you can resize the window.
Then press OK.
Now install your preferred distro, to test it or to try hacking it.
►Developers website
