A month after the release of v49.3 of the desktop environment, the fourth bugfix update, GNOME 49.4, is now available to users, described by the devs as a “boring” bugfix update to the stable GNOME 49 series.
Visible updates include fixes for screen time tracking when idle inhibitors are active, tab focus behavior in the quick settings menu, and password text exposure during input method pre-edits. Other fixes address memory leaks and prevent default folders from being recreated after removal.
Mutter 49.4, the window manager and compositor, corrects initial display scaling on Xorg sessions, disables tone mapping when HDR is active, and improves screen sharing for monitors without a reported frame rate. The update also resolves multiple crash scenarios and refines idle watch handling.
Files app receives several crash fixes and behavioral corrections. Version 49.4 resolves issues with removed MTP devices, thumbnail validation, icon cache handling, bind-mount trash operations, and early closure of the rename popover. It also avoids unnecessary thumbnail invalidation and improves script execution paths from the Recent view.
The Control Center update addresses crashes in sound and Bluetooth panels by updating libgvc for compatibility with newer PipeWire versions. GNOME Maps fixes an issue with opening the Privacy panel in Settings after panel reorganization. GNOME Software improves repository name display, clarifies data removal warnings, and fixes update history handling on rpm-ostree systems.
Moreover, GNOME Text Editor corrects buffer invalidation during language changes, fixes UTF-8 handling issues, and improves dark theme styling to better align with libadwaita 1.8.4. The libadwaita update itself resolves focus handling in dialog bottom sheet mode and corrects layout justification behavior in AdwWrapBox.
The notification stack also sees refinements, with libnotify 0.8.8 introducing improved icon handling, expanded notify-send capabilities, stricter action validation, and a comprehensive new test suite. Several long-standing bugs related to signals and macOS builds are also addressed.
Other updated modules include gnome-desktop 44.5 with memory leak fixes and seccomp updates, libgsf 1.14.55 with reduced stack usage, libspelling 0.4.10 with translation additions, and pyatspi 2.58.1 with collection test fixes and improved error reporting.
For more information, visit the announcement or review all the changes here.
For users already on GNOME 49, updating to GNOME 49.4 is straightforward through their distribution’s regular update mechanism.
