GNOME 49.1 refines the desktop experience with major stability fixes in Shell and Mutter, improved session reliability, and updated core apps and toolkits marking a solid maintenance release for Linux users.
GNOME 49.1, the latest point release in the 49 series, focuses on refinement and regression fixes across the stack. It prioritizes smoother performance, improved accessibility, and greater reliability for daily desktop use.
Shell and Compositor: GNOME Shell 49.1 resolves freezes when adjusting quick-settings sliders on touch devices, refines login-screen focus behavior, and enhances notification management. Mutter 49.1 eliminates resize and drag glitches, improves X11 drag-and-drop and keyboard-driven window resizing, and addresses several crash and leak conditions.
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Session and Login: GDM 49.1 fixes a rare shell lock-up and improves user session migration from GNOME Initial Setup. It also corrects user listing logic and ensures Wayland detection functions properly. GNOME Session 49.1 eliminates zombie processes, fixes option-parsing errors, and improves compatibility in non-systemd environments.
Core Applications: Nautilus 49.1 addresses crashes, sidebar drag issues, and UI inconsistencies but introduces a known regression affecting app chooser search. GNOME Software 49.1 restores reliable add-on dependency lookups and missed update notifications. Epiphany 49.1 corrects address bar rendering for non-Latin characters and fixes favicons and thumbnail regressions. Calculator 49.1 resolves incorrect BDT currency conversion rates, while GNOME Remote Desktop 49.1 fixes NVIDIA GPU image corruption. GNOME Calls 49.1/49.1.1 integrates with GNOME Session and introduces D-Bus activation alongside USSD support for oFono.
Toolkit and Platform Updates: GTK 4.20.2 corrects text-shadow layering, caret rendering, and Wayland transforms, introducing a new GtkAccessibleHypertext API. GTK 3.24.51 enhances UTF-8 title handling on Wayland and threading safety on X11. GJS 1.86.0 now depends on GLib 2.86 and includes test and introspection fixes. Glycin 2.0.3 improves sandboxing and animation handling, while libadwaita 1.8.1 enhances accessibility, touchscreen behavior, and layout alignment in RTL environments.
Accessibility and Indexing: Orca 49.1–49.3 reduces event-flood instability, improves GTK4 accessibility output, and expands D-Bus Remote Controller support. LocalSearch 3.10.1 and TinySPARQL 3.10.1 improve database resilience, memory handling, and crash recovery.
Not Updated This Cycle: Several major modules, including GLib, librsvg, libsoup, GVFS, Pango, Vala, and xdg-desktop-portal-gnome, remain unchanged.
Source: GNOME 49.1 Changelog
