new virtualbox version for 12.04 available

[Alessandro Menti]

Il 12/05/2012 12:18, Werner Gerritsen ha scritto:
> Hi people
> 
> I saw that a new virtualbox version
> virtualbox-4.1_4.1.14-77440~Ubuntu~precise_i386 for Ubuntu 12.04 is
> available.
> My question to you:
> 
>   * How goes this version to be released in the ubuntu repository for 12.04?
>   * What I do make this happen?
> 
> I can do a manual installing of it, but I think it should be automated
> via repository so no other person becomes trouble with th eold version.
Hi Werner,
all Ubuntu updates can be divided - generally speaking - into two
categories.
1) Stable release updates: these are updates that fix high-importance
bugs (e.g. security vulnerabilities, loss of data, unusable
applications). They require a rigorous testing procedure and the change
made must always be the smallest possible one (only the lines of code
fixing the bugs are added or modified, no additional functionality is
introduced), so that the chance of causing further errors is minimized
(this is especially important in case an Ubuntu installation is part of
a corporate/business environment, where reliability is critical). (See
[1] for details).
2) Backports: these are updates that add new functionalities, but may
change the way features work or not be fully stable. For this reason,
they are not enabled by default, and the repository must be added
manually in Software Sources. (See [2]).

There are some exceptions to this classification, such as the Firefox
updates.

Because of the need to ensure stability detailed above, the existing
version of VirtualBox will probably not be updated, unless there are
serious bugs. However, this package could be a good candidate for
backporting.

First, you should ensure that the latest release of VirtualBox is
present in the development version of Ubuntu. In this case, a quick
search ([3]) reveals that the relevant update has already been done, so
there's nothing else to do for that.

Second, install the ubuntu-dev-tools package, open a terminal and use
the "requestbackport" tool (available from Ubuntu 12.04 onwards) to file
the backport request. The tool should guide you through the process and
send the request to Launchpad, where the Backporters Team will be able
to process it.

(As a side note, if you don't mind using proprietary software and you
can comply with the VirtualBox Personal Use and Evaluation license [4],
you could also add the official Oracle repository to your software
sources - see [5], especially the section "Debian-based Linux
distributions").

Hope this helps,
Alessandro Menti

[1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates
[2] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuBackports
[3] http://packages.ubuntu.com/source/quantal/virtualbox
[4] https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/VirtualBox_PUEL
[5] https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux_Downloads
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