minikube

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Release Notes

Version 1.39.0 - 2026-09-01

Highlights

• Add support for Kubernetes v1.36 and v1.37 (default: v1.37.0)
• Default container runtime is now containerd
• Add Traefik Helm-based ingress addon
• VirtualBox driver now supports Apple Silicon (VirtualBox 7.1+)

Features

• Add support for Kubernetes v1.36 and v1.37 (default: v1.37.0) (#23567, #23596)
• Add Traefik Helm-based addon (#23225)
• Add Helm to minikube ISO (#23420)
• Upgrade default guest Helm client to Helm 4 (#23383)
• Add configurable DNS servers for VM drivers (#23069)
• Add --mdns flag to enable mDNS on every VM start (#22964, #23208)
• drivers: Use deterministic MAC addresses (#23172)
• vfkit: Auto-select vmnet-shared network when available (#23040)
• virtualbox: Support darwin/arm64 with VirtualBox 7.1+ (#22861)
• ISO: Add systemd-coredump for crash stack traces (#23064)
• ISO: Enable kernel nftables (CONFIG_NF_TABLES) for knftables consumers (#23518)
• ISO: Enable securityfs for Calico 3.32.2 (#23592)
• ISO: Include openvswitch kernel module for aarch64 (#23151)
• ISO: Enable CONFIG_TASK_IO_ACCOUNTING and related kernel options (#23271)
• infra: Download preloads from GitHub as default and GCS as failover (#23087)

Performance

• drivers: Start VM drivers in parallel (#23112)
• Add --vmnet-offloading start flag for krunkit driver (#22962)
• ssh: Prefer AES-GCM ciphers for external SSH client (#23125)
• ssh: Avoid unneeded sleep when waiting for SSH server (#23001)

Bug fixes

• addons: Fix Helm verification failure inside guest VMs (#23253, #23329)
• Fix kubectl exec with cri-dockerd on Kubernetes v1.36+ by disabling ExtendWebSocketsToKubelet (#22921)
• Fix --extra-config=etcd.* producing invalid kubeadm config (#23051)
• Fix logic for multi-node CNI warning. (#22779)
• Fix SSHRunner ExitCode always returning 0 for SSH commands (#23364)
• Fix usage string for minikube node commands. (#22775)
• kvm: Check libvirt group membership before running virsh (#23369)
• Fix preserve tag for registry refs with a port (#23228)
• Use buffered channels to prevent goroutine leak on status timeout (#23215)
• Fix warning against virtualbox only when the flag is explicit (#22960)
• image load: Fix silent failure when loading an image used by a container (#23034)
• node add: Use suggestMemoryAllocation instead of hardcoded 2200MB (#23305)
• proxy: Walk RoundTripper wrappers to strip proxy on inner *http.Transport (#22910)
• vmnet: Fix brew install path on Intel Macs and support brew bin path (#23039)
• mount: Clarify need for bidirectional firewall rules (#20442)
• drivers: Deduplicate DHCP lease handling on macOS (#23084)
• hack/update: Track registry addon on the major tag (#23586)
• hack/update: Update kong image tag to 3 (#23585)
• ISO: Replace spaces with tabs in nerdctl-bin Buildroot package files (#23438)
• ISO: Attempt to fix ISO build failures (#22879)
• ISO: Fix ISO build script reliability and error handling (#23218)
• ISO: Support building the arm64 ISO on an arm64 host (#22862)
• ISO: Use binaries for docker buildx instead of build from source (#22942)

Breaking changes

• Change default container runtime to containerd (#23562)
• ISO/KIC: Limit support for cri-dockerd to x86 & arm64 and migrate cri-dockerd to pre-compiled GitHub binaries (#22922)

Addons

• Addon Headlamp: Update from v0.40.0 to v0.45.0
• Addon Volcano: Update from v1.14.1 to v1.15.1
• Addon cloud-spanner: Update from 1.5.49 to 1.5.56