Version 2.0 Beta 2

New in VirtualBuddy 2.0 Beta 2

This beta includes the following fixes from VirtualBuddy 1.6.1 and 1.6.2:

• Addresses an issue preventing successfully-restored macOS virtual machines from being launched. If you have machines stuck in that state, check out this link for a workaround
• Attempting to close a virtual machine window with the machine in the paused state now correctly asks for confirmation and stops the machine if confirmed
• Addresses an issue that caused newly-created Linux virtual machines to fail to start when the boot image had just been downloaded

Full Changelog: 2.0-b1...2.0-b2

Version 1.6.2

What's New in Version 1.6.2

This release addresses an issue preventing successfully-restored macOS virtual machines from being launched. If you have machines stuck in that state, check out this link for a workaround.

Full Changelog: 1.6.1...1.6.2

Version 1.6.1

What's New in Version 1.6.1

• Attempting to close a virtual machine window with the machine in the paused state now correctly asks for confirmation and stops the machine if confirmed (thanks @dcoeurjo for reporting)
• Addresses an issue that caused newly-created Linux virtual machines to fail to start when the boot image had just been downloaded (thanks @sundresh for implementing)

Full Changelog: 1.6...1.6.1

What's New in Version 1.6

📣 VirtualBuddy Beta Now Available

Beta versions will include new features and fixes, including better support for hosts running beta versions of macOS, such as macOS Sequoia.

If you're running a host on macOS Sequoia beta, I recommend joining the VirtualBuddy beta, which can be done in the app's settings.

Custom Names for Virtual Machine Snapshots

Virtual machine snapshots can now have a custom name assigned to them on creation.

Implemented by @buddax2 in #375.

Special Thanks

Special thanks to @p-linnane for helping to keep the macOS versions catalog always up to date.

New Contributors

• @buddax2 made their first contribution in #375

Full Changelog: 1.5...1.6

Version 1.6

What's Changed

📣 VirtualBuddy Beta Now Available

Beta versions will include new features and fixes, including better support for hosts running beta versions of macOS, such as macOS Sequoia.

If you're running a host on macOS Sequoia beta, I recommend joining the VirtualBuddy beta, which can be done in the app's settings.

Custom Names for Virtual Machine Snapshots

Virtual machine snapshots can now have a custom name assigned to them on creation.

Implemented by @buddax2 in #375.

Special Thanks

Special thanks to @p-linnane for helping to keep the macOS versions catalog always up to date.

New Contributors

• @buddax2 made their first contribution in #375

Full Changelog: 1.5...1.6

Version 1.5

What's Changed

• Adds support for virtual machine state restoration ¹
• There's a new "Library" item in the "Window" menu to open the library window
• Editing the name of a new managed disk image now works as expected
• Linux guests now use cached mode for block storage devices, addressing a corruption issue that could occur when doing heavy I/O operations (by @jamestut in #332)
• Improved virtual machine screenshot performance and reliability
• Addresses a bug that prevented spaces from being inserted into the name of Virtual Machine when editing in the library window
• Addresses an issue where rapidly renaming the same virtual machine multiple times could cause the name displayed in the library to no longer match the name that's on the filesystem
• Fixed some memory leaks

¹ State restoration requires the host to be running macOS 14 or later and a macOS guest. Once a state has been saved, I recommend always starting up from a saved state, otherwise you may encounter VM corruption (this is a limitation of Apple's Virtualization API).

Full Changelog: 1.4.1...1.5

Version 1.4.1

What's Changed

Version 1.4.1 addresses an issue that caused deep links to not work when opened before launching VirtualBuddy.

Learn more about the VirtualBuddy URL scheme.

What's Changed in Version 1.4

Note: this is the last release of VirtualBuddy to support macOS 12, future releases will require macOS 13 or later.

• Basic automation support is now available with the virtualbuddy URL scheme (learn more)
• Interrupted virtual machine installs can now be restored by opening the virtual machine from the library screen
• Adds basic controls to the virtual machine window toolbar
• Adds support for Rosetta on Linux guests (learn more)
• Copy and paste support is now enabled for Linux guests
• Improves handling of virtual machine screenshots
• Open/save panels now correctly remember the last used directory
• Linux virtual machines will no longer display an install recovery alert
• Addresses an issue that caused communication between VirtualBuddy and the guest app on macOS to stop working after restarting a virtual machine
• Addresses an issue that could cause the virtual machine setup to skip the configuration step in some cases
• Addresses several memory leaks

Full Changelog: 1.3.2...1.4

Version 1.4

What's Changed

Note: this is the last release of VirtualBuddy to support macOS 12, future releases will require macOS 13 or later.

• Basic automation support is now available with the virtualbuddy URL scheme (learn more)
• Interrupted virtual machine installs can now be restored by opening the virtual machine from the library screen
• Adds basic controls to the virtual machine window toolbar
• Adds support for Rosetta on Linux guests (learn more)
• Copy and paste support is now enabled for Linux guests
• Improves handling of virtual machine screenshots
• Open/save panels now correctly remember the last used directory
• Linux virtual machines will no longer display an install recovery alert
• Addresses an issue that caused communication between VirtualBuddy and the guest app on macOS to stop working after restarting a virtual machine
• Addresses an issue that could cause the virtual machine setup to skip the configuration step in some cases
• Addresses several memory leaks

Full Changelog: 1.3.2...1.4

Version 1.3.2

What's Changed

• The type of virtual keyboard can now be configured with a generic keyboard or a Mac keyboard, this addresses an issue that caused the keyboard to not be recognized by VMs running macOS 12, which does not support the Mac keyboard type; this keyboard type requires the host to be running macOS 14 or later
• Hides the "Boot on install drive" option for macOS guests, since this option is only relevant for Linux VMs

Learn more about what's new in VirtualBuddy 1.3

Full Changelog: 1.3.1...1.3.2

Version 1.3.1

What's new in VirtualBuddy 1.3.1

• Version 1.3.1 addresses an issue that prevented some virtual machines from booting

What's new in VirtualBuddy 1.3

• New app icon designed by Matthew Skiles
• The VirtualBuddyGuest is now fully integrated into the app; it's automatically mounted for virtual machines running macOS, to install it, select the "Guest" disk on Finder's side bar and double-click the "VirtualBuddyGuest" app icon
• Support for automatically changing guest screen resolution based on window size in macOS Sonoma
• New options to resize the virtual machine window according to the display resolution
• Reduces the minimum size of the boot disk for a virtual machine to 2GB
• Basic Linux support (by @franklefebvre)
• Many improvements to the installation wizard
• Addresses some issues when running in macOS Sonoma

New Contributors

• @p-linnane made their first contribution in #104
• @WFT made their first contribution in #145
• @franklefebvre made their first contribution in #152
• @timsutton made their first contribution in #178
• @jamestut made their first contribution in #205

Full Changelog: 1.2.2...1.3.1

Version 1.3

• New app icon designed by Matthew Skiles
• The VirtualBuddyGuest is now fully integrated into the app; it's automatically mounted for virtual machines running macOS, to install it, select the "Guest" disk on Finder's side bar and double-click the "VirtualBuddyGuest" app icon
• Support for automatically changing guest screen resolution based on window size in macOS Sonoma
• New options to resize the virtual machine window according to the display resolution
• Reduces the minimum size of the boot disk for a virtual machine to 2GB
• Basic Linux support (by @franklefebvre)
• Many improvements to the installation wizard
• Addresses some issues when running in macOS Sonoma

New Contributors

• @p-linnane made their first contribution in #104
• @WFT made their first contribution in #145
• @franklefebvre made their first contribution in #152
• @timsutton made their first contribution in #178
• @jamestut made their first contribution in #205

Full Changelog: 1.2.2...1.3