Ubuntu 25.04 is out this week and many will be turning to virtual machine to test, trial or tie the release into their development workflows — perfect timing for a new version of VirtualBox, then!

Oracle today (April 15) issued the fourth maintenance update in the current VirtualBox 7.1 series. No new features were added but a flurry of bug fixes, stability boosts and integration buffs are present, which users across all supported OSes will benefit from.

For Linux users frustrated at flakey wireless network adapter detection in earlier releases, the 7.1.8 update fixes the issue. Similarly, anyone ticked off by  .sav files being left over after deleting running VM snapshots will be thrilled to hear they now auto-trash.

NAT being “completely broken” in every previous 7.1.x series release, causing connectivity loss on Windows hosts, is addressed in VirtualBox 7.1.8. Oracle devs say a “permanent fix for the issue” is now in place – let’s hope!

Other pain-points calmed in this update include a VBoxSVC crash when saving machine configurations through the VirtualBox web service, being unable to properly set disk bandwidth using the VBoxManage bandwidthctl command, and more.

Of note, Virtualbox 7.1.8 intros ‘initial support’ for latest Linux 6.14 kernel release. This means the Linux Guest Additions package—installed inside a VM to gain better performance and integration—works with the latest Linux distributions, including Ubuntu 25.04.

Other changes to Linux Guest Additions package in VirtualBox 7.1.8:

  • VBoxClient crashing under xwayland guest has been resolved
  • Cursor image no longer corrupted in VMs using VBoxVGA graphics adapters
  • Installation no longer fails on systems without X11 libraries installed
  • Improved rcvboxadd status-kernel check

Not virtualising Linux, but Windows? No worries — an improved Windows Guest Additions package with the following key changes is bundled in this update:

  • VBoxAudioTest binary is included to allow for guest audio testing
  • Windows 2000 to Windows 7 guests will use alternative Shared Folder driver
  • Installing mouse drivers on Vista guests is now working
  • Fix for ERROR_AUTHENTICODE_TRUST_NOT_ESTABLISHED driver install error
  • VBoxTray bug using 100% CPU (in certain scenarios) now resolved

Aside from everything mention above, some other notable changes in VirtualBox 7.1.8 include:

  • Linux installer failure fixes
  • Windows installer auto-loads support driver after completion
  • Network connectivity loss on Windows hosts resolved
  • Documentation updates

For more detail on the changes in VirtualBox see the official release notes, or upgrade and rummage around (the best way to find changes IMO!)

Download VirtualBox

VirtualBox is free open-source virtualisation software available for Windows, macOS, Linux and Solaris.

You can, as you’d expect, download it from the VirtualBox website. Ubuntu (Linux Mint or other Ubuntu-based distribution users can download an official DEB package from there or choose a distro-agnostic binary).

Whichever package you use, download the VirtualBox Extension Pack too. This provides additional features and functionalities not present in the base VirtualBox build but which do make the end-user experience a lot better.