GNOME 49.5 Improves Stability With Fixes in Shell, Nautilus, and Mutter

GNOME 49.5, the fifth maintenance release in the older GNOME 49 branch, is now available, bringing updates to key components such as GNOME Shell 49.5, Mutter 49.5, Nautilus 49.5, GNOME Control Center 49.6, Epiphany 49.7, and GLib 2.86.4.

This update also includes newer versions of supporting libraries like GTK+ 3.24.52, GVFS 1.58.4, Libadwaita 1.8.5.1, and libsoup 3.6.6. Notably, GLib 2.86.4 delivers multiple security fixes, addressing issues like buffer underflows and out-of-bounds memory access during base64 processing and content parsing.

GNOME Shell 49.5 fixes several visible issues, including outdated folder icons after pinning apps, incorrect logout options in menus, and keyboard layout changes after password entry. It also improves accessibility in app folders, enhances stability, and resolves memory leaks.

On the compositor side, Mutter 49.5 tackles crashes and input-related problems, such as touchscreen behavior after power-saving mode and proper handling of touch input. Additional improvements refine display plane switching across CRTCs and boost overall stability.

Nautilus 49.5 resolves a crash when searching starred locations and removes delays before enabling the “Skip” button. Meanwhile, GNOME Web (Epiphany) 49.7 restores its earlier adblock filter set to fix compatibility issues introduced in previous 49.x releases.

GTK+ 3.24.52 brings bug fixes, including crash resolutions on Wayland and better accessibility event handling. GVFS updates improve FTP security and overall stability, while libsoup 3.6.6 enhances HTTP handling with better validation and memory safety.

Other components have also been updated: GNOME Remote Desktop includes crash fixes, GNOME Online Accounts corrects SMTP configuration issues, and Orca 49.6 introduces improvements to screen reading, braille support, and speech consistency.

Some modules, such as GNOME Software, GNOME Settings Daemon, and GNOME Terminal, remain unchanged, highlighting that this release focuses on stability and maintenance rather than new features.

Users already running GNOME 49 can easily upgrade to version 49.5 through their distribution’s standard update process.

For more information, visit the announcement or review all the changes here.