# minikube v1.39.0

- Product: minikube (https://whatsnew.fyi/product/minikube)
- Vendor: Kubernetes
- Date: 2026-09-02
- Version: v1.39.0
- Original notes: https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/releases/tag/v1.39.0
- Permalink: https://whatsnew.fyi/product/minikube/releases/v1.39.0

What's New is an index, not a publisher: every entry below links to the vendor's own release notes, which are the authoritative source. Entries are labelled where they are hand-curated sample data, pre-releases, or drawn from a secondary source such as a developer blog.

Reuse: the summaries, labels and curation here are © What's New. Quote freely with attribution and a link back; wholesale republication of the corpus is not permitted — terms: https://whatsnew.fyi/terms. The vendors' own release notes remain their publishers'.

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- **added** — Add support for Kubernetes v1.36 and v1.37 with v1.37.0 as default
- **added** — Add Traefik Helm-based ingress addon
- **added** — Add Helm to minikube ISO
- **added** — Add configurable DNS servers for VM drivers
- **added** — Add --mdns flag to enable mDNS on every VM start
- **added** — Add systemd-coredump to ISO for crash stack traces
- **changed** — Change default container runtime to containerd
- **changed** — Upgrade default guest Helm client to Helm 4
- **changed** — Use deterministic MAC addresses in drivers
- **changed** — Auto-select vmnet-shared network when available for vfkit
- **changed** — Start VM drivers in parallel for improved performance
- **changed** — Prefer AES-GCM ciphers for external SSH client
- **changed** — Download preloads from GitHub as default and GCS as failover
- **fixed** — Fix Helm verification failure inside guest VMs
- **fixed** — Fix kubectl exec with cri-dockerd on Kubernetes v1.36+ by disabling ExtendWebSocketsToKubelet
- **fixed** — Fix --extra-config=etcd.* producing invalid kubeadm config
- **fixed** — Fix SSHRunner ExitCode always returning 0 for SSH commands
- **fixed** — Fix image load silent failure when loading an image used by a container
- **security** — Enable securityfs in ISO for Calico 3.32.2

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

###### Performance

* drivers: Start VM drivers in parallel ([#23112](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/23112))
* Add `--vmnet-offloading` start flag for krunkit driver ([#22962](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/22962))
* ssh: Prefer AES-GCM ciphers for external SSH client ([#23125](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/23125))
* ssh: Avoid unneeded sleep when waiting for SSH server ([#23001](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/23001))

###### Bug fixes

* addons: Fix Helm verification failure inside guest VMs ([#23253](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/23253), [#23329](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/23329))
* Fix kubectl exec with cri-dockerd on Kubernetes v1.36+ by disabling ExtendWebSocketsToKubelet ([#22921](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/22921))
* Fix `--extra-config=etcd.*` producing invalid kubeadm config ([#23051](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/23051))
* Fix logic for multi-node CNI warning. ([#22779](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/22779))
* Fix SSHRunner ExitCode always returning 0 for SSH commands ([#23364](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/23364))
* Fix usage string for minikube node commands. ([#22775](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/22775))
* kvm: Check libvirt group membership before running virsh ([#23369](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/23369))
* Fix preserve tag for registry refs with a port ([#23228](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/23228))
* Use buffered channels to prevent goroutine leak on status timeout ([#23215](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/23215))
* Fix warnin

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