Over a month after the release of v49.1 of the desktop environment, the second bugfix update, GNOME 49.2, is now available to users.
The update refreshes a wide list of components, including GNOME Shell, Mutter, GTK, GLib, Epiphany, Nautilus, GDM, Boxes, Builder, Calculator, Console, and several accessibility and image-handling libraries. Many of the changes focus on resolving regressions and fixing crashes across the desktop. Here are the most important ones.
GNOME Shell 49.2 includes fixes for incorrect network icons on connectivity loss, improved handling of brightness changes, corrected swipe gestures in right-to-left locales, and several stability fixes that address freezes, misplaced UI elements, and zombie processes during VPN authentication.
Mutter 49.2, GNOME’s window manager and compositor, brings improved key handling on X11, more reliable tiled monitor behavior, fixes for stuck global shortcuts in Xwayland windows, and a collection of crash fixes.
File management receives attention as well. Nautilus 49.2 reduces thumbnail memory usage, fixes scaling artifacts, improves handling of unset XDG directories, and resolves crashes related to empty drop operations. Epiphany browser fixes URL decoding issues, prevents disappearing file URLs in the location bar, and ensures consistent display behavior across modes.
GTK 4.20.3 arrives with numerous fixes, including corrected SVG parsing, improved scrolling behavior, improvements to Win32 support, and several Vulkan-related stability fixes. GLib updates address a long list of bugs, including fixes for memory leaks, improved IPv6 loopback detection, file URI launches, and user directory parsing across platforms.
Other updates include improved calibration behavior in GNOME Control Center, safer X11 fallback handling in GDM when autologin fails, improved help navigation and LSP synchronization in GNOME Builder, clickable history restoration in Calculator, and translation refreshes across multiple applications.
Lastly, libraries such as gdk-pixbuf, libadwaita, librsvg, libpanel, and glycin receive targeted fixes that improve image handling, accessibility, metadata management, and compatibility with musl-based systems.
For more information, visit the official announcement or review all the changes here.
For users already on GNOME 49, updating to GNOME 49.2 is straightforward through their distribution’s regular update mechanism.
