The GNOME project has rolled out the 49 release candidate, the last step before the final release, expected later this month (September 17). And while most of the changes focus on polishing what’s already in place, there’s one notable shift: X11 sessions are back in GDM.
So, after all the talk about X11 support being dropped in this release, you’re probably wondering why the team decided to change course. Originally, the idea was to keep the code around so distributions could re-enable it if they needed to, while still letting GDM launch X11 sessions.
However, according to devs, it turned out that separating “just enough X11” from the rest of the old code wasn’t that simple. So for now, X11 support is turned back on.
I’ve attempted to surgically remove the parts necessary for launching modern X11 sessions from the overall x11-support switch, while keeping the more horrible parts of X11 support (XDMCP, x11-legacy displays, non-user-session displays, etc) under its control. This is hard, requires some pretty arbitrary X11 code to exist outside of the switch’s control, and frankly is just incorrect.
So, for now, let’s turn x11-support back on for GNOME 49. For GNOME 50, we’ll be able to outright delete the majority of X11 support, leaving only the ability to launch X11 sessions.
As you can see, the long-term plan is still to remove most of the legacy X11 integration in GNOME 50, while leaving only the ability to launch modern X11 desktops.
As for the other changes you can expect in version 49 of the desktop environment, the most important ones are that GNOME Shell saw refined animations, improved legacy tray icon support, WPA Enterprise connection fixes, clearer accessibility labels in quick settings, and more reliable lock-screen notifications.
Plus, GTK 4.20 landed with Wayland seat v10 support, clipboard fixes, and smoother natural scrolling. On the compositor side, Mutter 49 brings ICC profile handling, extended sRGB blending, VRR-friendly cursor movement, and several fixes to fractional scaling.
Lastly, on the core applications side, Console now has full-screen mode and better error handling. System Monitor improved chart rendering and CPU display. Epiphany fixed a string of regressions and crashes. GNOME Software added rpm-ostree “past updates” support and always lists Flatpak system installs.
So, for now, that’s all. We’re just about two weeks away from the final GNOME 49 release, and once it drops, I’ll walk you through all the important changes and new features.
