Query about Virtualbox version.

[Gary Palmer]

On Thu, Jul 16, 2015 at 12:36:46PM -0300, Mario Lobo wrote:
> On Thu, 16 Jul 2015 14:50:14 +0100
> Gary Palmer <gpalmer at freebsd.org> wrote:
> 
> > On Thu, Jul 16, 2015 at 06:36:36PM +0800, muhammedzubair sharief
> > wrote:
> > > 
> > > --------------------------------------------
> > > On Wed, 15/7/15, Gary Palmer <gpalmer at freebsd.org> wrote:
> > > 
> > >  Subject: Re: Query about Virtualbox version.
> > >  To: "muhammedzubair sharief" <mzs_47 at yahoo.co.in>
> > >  Cc: vbox at FreeBSD.org
> > >  Date: Wednesday, 15 July, 2015, 6:06 PM
> > >  
> > >  On Wed, Jul 15, 2015 at
> > >  06:33:52PM +0800, muhammedzubair sharief wrote:
> > >  > 
> > >  > Dear Maintainer,
> > >  > 
> > >  > 
> > >  > I am using Virtualbox 4.3.28 on FreeBSD
> > >  10.1, during recent pkg upgrade it showed version 4.3.30.
> > >  
> > >  > 
> > >  > [..]
> > >  > > pkg upgrade
> > >  >
> > >  Installed packages to be UPGRADED:
> > >  >
> > >  ??? virtualbox-ose-kmod: 4.3.28 -> 4.3.30
> > >  > ??? virtualbox-ose: 4.3.28_1 ->
> > >  4.3.30
> > >  > 
> > >  > The
> > >  process will require 14 KiB more space.
> > >  >
> > >  32 MiB to be downloaded.
> > >  > 
> > >  > Proceed with this action? [y/N]: 
> > >  > [..]
> > >  > 
> > >  > 
> > >  > However there was no
> > >  stable release of 4.3.30. Is this version 5 which was
> > >  recently released?
> > >  > 
> > >  > Thanks for maintaining Virtualbox on
> > >  FreeBSD!
> > >  
> > >  
> > >  https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Download_Old_Builds_4_3
> > >  
> > >  Quote:? "VirtualBox
> > >  4.3.30 (released July 10th 2015)"
> > >  
> > >  Regards,
> > >  
> > >  Gary
> > >  
> > > 
> > > Thanks, the last time I checked(on 9th July) it was not there which
> > > was during version 5 release,  I am afraid that moving to version
> > > 5.0 might break the Virtualbox VM installations on 4.3.x. Will
> > > version 5 replace 4.3.x or that be maintained separately?
> > 
> > 
> > I can't speak for the FreeBSD VBox maintainers, but in general
> > FreeBSD ports try to put major versions into a new port (e.g.
> > emulators/virtualbox-ose5 or similar) so that people are not forced
> > to upgrade and possibly break working configurations, and allow a
> > transition period.
> > 
> > I would expect that unless by some miracle the kernel module works
> > for both VBox 4.3.x and 5.0.x, you may not be able to have both
> > versions installed on the same system at the same time.
> > 
> > Regards,
> > 
> > Gary
> 
> Forgive my lameness but for the VM itself should make no
> difference, right? Except noticing possible improvements on
> responsiveness, speed, etc... Well, maybe there could incompatibilities
> if the VM has guestadditions 4.3.28/30 installed and is running on a
> 5.0 environment, although I believe this shouldn't happen.
> 
> Other than the above, the only thing that comes to mind is if the .vdi
> disk layout has changed so much that would make HD images produced in
> one version incompatible with the other. I hardly doubt that.
> 
> So, assuming VBox 5.0 is stable and bug-free, what would be the reason
> to keep both 4.3.28/30 and 5.0 installed?

Your assumption states the issue exactly.  Most dot zero software is
not bug free.

Regards,

Gary