VirtualBox 7.2.16 Released with Intel FRED Support
Oracle VirtualBox 7.2.16, the eighth maintenance update for the 7.2 series, was released on Tuesday.
The new version of this virtualization software contains only some fixes and performance improvements.
For Linux host running on recent Intel platform with FRED (Flexible Return and Event Delivery) enabled (e.g., Fedora 44 on Core Ultra Series 3 laptops), there was and incompatibility causing the host system freeze.
It was because Virtualbox used the old x86 mechanism to pass NMI (Non-Maskable Interrupt) to host kernel, but the host kernel uses FRED and rejects causing kernel panic.
The 7.2.16 version fixed the issue by adding a patch that detects whether the host CPU is currently using FRED, and in that case, use Linux’s FRED-specific mechanism to re-deliver a NMI instead of the old x86 mechanism.
For RHEL 9.8 and its based distributions such as AlmaLinux running in virtual machines, VirtualBox 7.2.16 also fixed the guest addition install failure issue due to kernel internal API change.
Other changes include build failure in Linux host with OpenSSL 4.0, such as the next Ubuntu 26.10 and Fedora 45, as well as:
- Improve clipboard share handling in Linux Wayland.
- Fix a hang in video recording.
- Improve VMSVGA 3D performance.
- Add graceful handling of inaccessible VMs.
- Fix OVF import warning visibility.
For more about VirtualBox 7.2.16, see the official ChangeLog page.
Get VirtualBox 7.2.16
The installer packages for Linux, Windows, macOS, and Solaris hosts, as well as the extension pack are available in VirtualBox website via the link below:
Source: UbuntuHandbook