New features and fixes in qqX 1.16

[qqxproject]

Originally this started out as 1.15.01 with a few tweaks, such as being able to turn VM net access on/off

The upstream January release of 4.9.8 was nothing significant for qqX as all the changes had already been integrated into ver 1.15

Later on, upstream released '4.9.9' which was mainly changes for Mac hosts and for Mac hosts running on Arm chips.

Versioning

Although upstream profess to using semantic versioning, they seem almost fear bound of turning the corner from 4.9 to to 4.10 and the numbering is getting very silly. They have been using point releases for what should be majors for several years now ... They should probably be on 5.3 or even 6.2, or something, by my count.

The integration of 4.9.9 into the FreeSpirit built-in has prompted a change to the built-in version numbering:

4.9.9 now becomes compacted to 4.99 which leaves scope for 4.99.01, 4.99.02 etc as upstream add their unnumbered point releases, and allows for either 4.100 or 5.00 if they ever start using semantics properly.

Mac OS

Although the main focus of the upcoming release has been the integration of 4.9.9, a lot of ancillary changes have had to happen in order to cope with it. The merging of the differing upstream branches has been getting increasingly complicated.

While I was working on getting Mac OS running more smoothly, I started to realise that I needed to move function 'configure_cpu' into the mods folder and a new upstream addition of cpu pinning become intertwined ....

CPU Pinning

I have long wondered how newer Intel Processors, with their split P/E layout, cope with work allocation. The quickemu-project/quickemu#615 passed their AI auto review and was allowed in. But it was hurriedly added and obviously never tested, as it fails at the first hurdle.

The upshot is that CPU pinning, in theory, now works for qqX and now should work with Intel PE processors too. I am opening a discussion for this one, so people can add and compare tests results for pinning on all the different processors, especially PE, which I don't have access to.

Tahoe

The Mac work is still there to add but don't hold your breath on Tahoe working smoothly. That's a difficult nut to crack. However, fixes have been sorted for the 4.9.9 regression that is causing a Mac 1920 display limit and will be a there soon. As too for the mac boot and speed problems.

See the notes at the end of #9 for current Mac mitigations and workarounds

Moving the cpu config into Mods is going to make personalised guest VM tweaking generally much easier.

Fixes for Windows Spice issue

Dev 03 should be stable and good to go. This is a secure fix, using secure downloads. Initial tests seem to be fine (Apr 17)

Controlled Restarts

Dev 03 also adds other distro fixes and a new controlled restart feature for easier between stage snapshots

Tags

Look for tags in the Dev next branch to find stable clone points, if you want to get a preview.