GNOME: 48 → 49

[jtojnar]

This draft PR starts update work for the upcoming GNOME 49 release.

• Schedule: https://release.gnome.org/calendar/ Release: 2025-09-13
• Project: GNOME 49
• Previous major releases: GNOME: 47 → 48 #386514
• Tool for reviewing changes: https://github.com/jtojnar/nonemast
• Release announcement:
• Hydra jobset: TBD

Major changes

• UNIX specific Gio API moved to GioUnix https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/glib/-/issues/3744
• GI bindings might use wrong getter https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gobject-introspection/-/merge_requests/529
• pygobject3 switched to libgirepository-2.0, there are downstream reports of some libpeas plugins breaking https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1099164
• gdk-pixbuf disabled thumbnailer by default GNOME/gdk-pixbuf@e110b0b
• gdm switched to dynamic users for greeter sessions https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gdm/-/merge_requests/289

How to help

TBD

Depends on

#422662

[nixos-discourse]

This pull request has been mentioned on NixOS Discourse. There might be relevant details there:

https://discourse.nixos.org/t/gnome-49-in-25-05/68589/2

[bobby285271]

Ugh, with this gdm fixup there is still:

machine # [    6.482947] gdm-launch-environment][866]: pam_succeed_if(gdm-launch-environment:auth): 'user' resolves to 'gdm-greeter'
machine # [    6.485820] gdm-launch-environment][866]: pam_succeed_if(gdm-launch-environment:auth): requirement "user ingroup gdm" not met by user "gdm-greeter"

...
In [3]: machine.execute('id gdm-greeter')
Out[3]: (0, 'uid=60578(gdm-greeter) gid=132(gdm) groups=132(gdm)\n')

(I commented out the autoLogin lines in nixos/tests/gnome.nix, this is built on build-box.nix-community.org)

[fabianhjr]

FYI, seems like there is a systemd loop on staging-next. :C

#459304

[Silk-OT]

Sorry for the dumb question but when do we expect this to be in unstable?

I'd assume roughly the same time it's ready for stable, which is about the December 7th*.

#443568

You can find the status of the schedule for 25.11 here.

Edit: Ignore me, and listen to the member below for the release date for unstable, thank you 🙏

[vcunat]

This PR should land this week in nixos-unstable.

[andersk]

Please update gnomeExtensions too:

• gnomeExtensions: Update for GNOME 49 #461080

[Silk-OT]

gnome 49 apps are extremely buggy why?

If they are, you should be opening an issue on nixpkgs for the application(s) with the bugs.

[SuperSandro2000]

I am going to revert this hunk as gtk4 on a headless system adds a LOT of dependencies to source a shell script.

 ➜ nixos-rebuild diff --new
alsa-lib: ∅ → 1.2.14, 1.7 MiB
alsa-topology-conf: ∅ → 1.2.5.1, 336.1 KiB
alsa-ucm-conf: ∅ → 1.2.14, 744.4 KiB
at-spi2-core: ∅ → 2.58.0, 2.2 MiB
avahi: ∅ → 0.8, 1.5 MiB
bluez: ∅ → 5.83, 9.8 MiB
cairo: ∅ → 1.18.4, 1.9 MiB
cdparanoia-III: ∅ → 10.2, 366.6 KiB
chromaprint: ∅ → 1.6.0, 181.2 KiB
cjson: ∅ → 1.7.19, 72.3 KiB
comin: ∅ → 0.8.0, 21.5 MiB
comin.yaml: ∅ → ε
cups: ∅ → 2.4.14, 4.7 MiB
dav1d: ∅ → 1.5.1, 2.5 MiB
dconf: ∅ → 0.40.0, 308.6 KiB
direnv-instant: ∅ → 0.1.0, 742.0 KiB
ell: ∅ → 0.80, 654.6 KiB
etc-direnv: ∅ → ε
etc-direnv-lib-zz-user.sh: ∅ → ε
faad2: ∅ → 2.11.2, 974.8 KiB
fdk-aac: ∅ → 2.0.3, 1.5 MiB
ffado: ∅ → 2.4.9, 3.1 MiB
ffmpeg-headless: ∅ → 8.0, 32.5 MiB
fftw-double: ∅ → 3.3.10, 3.9 MiB
fftw-single: ∅ → 3.3.10, 4.1 MiB
flac: ∅ → 1.5.0, 751.5 KiB
flite: ∅ → 2.2, 60.4 MiB
fluidsynth: ∅ → 2.5.0, 859.4 KiB
freepats: ∅ → 20060219, 31.8 MiB
fribidi: ∅ → 1.0.16, 162.5 KiB
game-music-emu: ∅ → 0.6.4, 1.2 MiB
gdk-pixbuf: ∅ → 2.44.3, 2.8 MiB
git.config: ∅ → ε
glibmm: ∅ → 2.66.8, 4.2 MiB
gnum4: ∅ → 1.4.20, 1.0 MiB
graphene: ∅ → 1.10.8, 182.5 KiB
graphite2: ∅ → 1.3.14, 228.0 KiB
gsettings-desktop-schemas: ∅ → 49.0, 5.8 MiB
gsm: ∅ → 1.0.23, 215.3 KiB
gssdp: ∅ → 1.6.4, 119.5 KiB
gst-plugins-bad: ∅ → 1.26.5, 16.2 MiB
gst-plugins-base: ∅ → 1.26.5, 8.7 MiB
gstreamer: ∅ → 1.26.5, 5.9 MiB
gtk+3: ∅ → 3.24.51, 41.2 MiB
gtk4: ∅ → 4.20.2, 29.1 MiB
gupnp: ∅ → 1.6.9, 344.6 KiB
gupnp-igd: ∅ → 1.6.0, 50.9 KiB
harfbuzz: ∅ → 12.1.0, 3.6 MiB
imath: ∅ → 3.2.1, 893.4 KiB
iso-codes: ∅ → 4.18.0, 21.7 MiB
json-glib: ∅ → 1.10.8, 662.9 KiB
lame: ∅ → 3.100, 337.4 KiB
ldacBT: ∅ → 2.0.2.3, 88.7 KiB
libajantv2: ∅ → 17.5.0, 13.2 MiB
libao: ∅ → 1.2.2, 119.4 KiB
libaom: ∅ → 3.12.1, 7.8 MiB
libass: ∅ → 0.17.4, 247.2 KiB
libavc1394: ∅ → 0.5.4, 145.7 KiB
libbluray: ∅ → 1.3.4, 502.1 KiB
libbs2b: ∅ → 3.1.0, 88.1 KiB
libcamera: ∅ → 0.5.2, 6.0 MiB
libcanberra: ∅ → 0.30, 251.3 KiB
libconfig: ∅ → 1.8, 398.1 KiB
libdaemon: ∅ → 0.14, 41.0 KiB
libdatrie: ∅ → 2019-12-20, 42.2 KiB
libdc1394: ∅ → 2.2.7, 407.4 KiB
libde265: ∅ → 1.0.16, 1.3 MiB
libdv: ∅ → 1.0.0, 238.1 KiB
libdvdcss: ∅ → 1.4.3, 195.2 KiB
libdvdnav: ∅ → 6.1.1, 188.6 KiB
libdvdread: ∅ → 6.1.3, 332.8 KiB
libebur128: ∅ → 1.2.6, 54.2 KiB
libepoxy: ∅ → 1.5.10, 1.7 MiB
libfreeaptx: ∅ → 0.2.2, 55.5 KiB
libglvnd: ∅ → 1.7.0, 2.5 MiB
libgudev: ∅ → 238, 73.3 KiB
libical: ∅ → 3.0.20, 3.9 MiB
libiec61883: ∅ → 1.2.0, 147.1 KiB
libjack2: ∅ → 1.9.22, 418.0 KiB
liblc3: ∅ → 1.1.3, 175.1 KiB
libmad: ∅ → 0.15.1b, 142.5 KiB
libmodplug: ∅ → 0.8.9.0, 385.8 KiB
libmpg123: ∅ → 1.33.3, 1.1 MiB
libmysofa: ∅ → 1.3.3, 1.3 MiB
libnice: ∅ → 0.1.22, 476.4 KiB
libogg: ∅ → 1.3.6, 47.0 KiB
libopenmpt: ∅ → 0.8.3, 2.9 MiB
libopus: ∅ → 1.5.2, 463.6 KiB
libpulseaudio: ∅ → 17.0, 4.7 MiB
libraw1394: ∅ → 2.1.2, 196.5 KiB
librist: ∅ → 0.2.11, 422.1 KiB
librsvg: ∅ → 2.61.2, 15.6 MiB
libsamplerate: ∅ → 0.2.2, 1.5 MiB
libsigc++: ∅ → 2.12.1, 42.0 KiB
libsndfile: ∅ → 1.2.2, 615.9 KiB
libsoup: ∅ → 3.6.5, 1.1 MiB
libsrtp: ∅ → 2.7.0, 101.9 KiB
libssh: ∅ → 0.11.3, 601.2 KiB
libthai: ∅ → 0.1.29, 631.1 KiB
libtheora: ∅ → 1.2.0, 659.4 KiB
libunwind: ∅ → 1.8.3, 267.6 KiB
libva: ∅ → 2.22.0, 345.5 KiB
libva-minimal: ∅ → 2.22.0, 250.2 KiB
libvmaf: ∅ → 3.0.0, 2.6 MiB
libvorbis: ∅ → 1.3.7, 1.1 MiB
libvpx: ∅ → 1.15.2, 8.2 MiB
libxcomposite: ∅ → 0.4.6, 25.1 KiB
libxcursor: ∅ → 1.2.3, 78.0 KiB
libxdamage: ∅ → 1.1.6, 17.9 KiB
libxext: ∅ → 1.3.6, 93.7 KiB
libxfixes: ∅ → 6.0.2, 33.9 KiB
libxft: ∅ → 2.3.9, 150.9 KiB
libxi: ∅ → 1.8.2, 87.7 KiB
libxinerama: ∅ → 1.1.5, 21.7 KiB
libxkbcommon: ∅ → 1.11.0, 1000.8 KiB
libxml++: ∅ → 3.2.5, 300.0 KiB
libxrandr: ∅ → 1.5.4, 62.6 KiB
libxrender: ∅ → 0.9.12, 53.2 KiB
libxtst: ∅ → 1.2.5, 117.5 KiB
libxv: ∅ → 1.0.13, 31.4 KiB
lilv: ∅ → 0.24.26, 369.3 KiB
lrdf: ∅ → 0.6.1, 62.8 KiB
lttng-ust: ∅ → 2.14.0, 1.7 MiB
mbedtls: ∅ → 3.6.4, 12.4 MiB
mjpegtools: ∅ → 2.2.1, 613.9 KiB
mpg123: ∅ → 1.33.3, 1.1 MiB
neon: ∅ → 0.35.0, 822.0 KiB
nix-direnv: ∅ → 3.1.0, 16.4 KiB
ocl-icd: ∅ → 2.3.4, 601.3 KiB
openal-soft: ∅ → 1.24.3, 2.9 MiB
openapv: ∅ → 0.2.0.4, 709.2 KiB
openexr: ∅ → 3.3.5, 3.6 MiB
openfec: ∅ → 1.4.2.12, 204.4 KiB
openh264: ∅ → 2.6.0, 1.3 MiB
opusfile: ∅ → 0.12, 124.6 KiB
orc: ∅ → 0.4.41, 860.3 KiB
pango: ∅ → 1.57.0, 903.9 KiB
pipewire: ∅ → 1.4.9, 15.5 MiB
pixman: ∅ → 0.46.4, 853.7 KiB
raptor2: ∅ → 2.0.16, 621.1 KiB
roc-toolkit: ∅ → 0.4.0, 7.8 MiB
rtmpdump: ∅ → 2.6, 470.9 KiB
sbc: ∅ → 2.1, 276.9 KiB
serd: ∅ → 0.32.4, 141.2 KiB
server.yaml: ∅ → ε
sord: ∅ → 0.16.18, 99.5 KiB
soundtouch: ∅ → 2.4.0, 426.3 KiB
sox: ∅ → unstable-2021-05-09, 700.4 KiB
soxr: ∅ → 0.1.3, 298.4 KiB
spandsp: ∅ → 0.0.6, 11.9 MiB
speex: ∅ → 1.2.1, 129.6 KiB
speexdsp: ∅ → 1.2.1, 78.4 KiB
sratom: ∅ → 0.6.18, 47.2 KiB
srt: ∅ → 1.5.4, 6.8 MiB
svt-av1: ∅ → 3.1.2, 8.0 MiB
tinysparql: ∅ → 3.10.1, 4.7 MiB
tremor: ∅ → unstable-2018-03-16, 132.7 KiB
unit-comin.service: ∅ → ε
unit-linger-users.service: ∅ → ε
unit-script-linger-users: ∅ → ε
v4l-utils: ∅ → 1.32.0, 786.0 KiB
vid.stab: ∅ → 1.1.1-unstable-2025-08-21, 552.5 KiB
vo-aacenc: ∅ → 0.1.3, 155.3 KiB
vulkan-loader: ∅ → 1.4.328.0, 670.5 KiB
wavpack: ∅ → 5.8.1, 546.9 KiB
wayland: ∅ → 1.24.0, 255.4 KiB
webrtc-audio-processing: ∅ → 1.3, 2.1, 2.8 MiB
wildmidi: ∅ → 0.4.6, 227.5 KiB
wildmidi.cfg: ∅ → ε
x264: ∅ → 0-unstable-2025-01-03, 2.4 MiB
x265: ∅ → 4.1, 22.0 MiB
xkeyboard-config: ∅ → 2.45, 10.2 MiB
xvidcore: ∅ → 1.3.7, 786.7 KiB
zimg: ∅ → 3.0.6, 1.0 MiB
zix: ∅ → 0.6.2, 142.0 KiB
zvbi: ∅ → 0.2.44, 1.0 MiB
zxing-cpp: ∅ → 2.3.0, 1.5 MiB

[SuperSandro2000]

That requires picking a simple patch https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/vte/-/issues/2905

I am going to open a PR with that and the other thing as well.

[SuperSandro2000]

#463526

[SuperSandro2000]

We could easily generate this list, instead of copy&pasting it.

[valyntyler]

gnome 49 apps are extremely buggy why?

If they are, you should be opening an issue on nixpkgs for the application(s) with the bugs.

I was having a graphics issue that crashed my whole DE randomly. Apparently it's tied to lack of "native" support for Vulkan, which GNOME 49 is now asking for. I'm not going to open an issue because I know too little about this and I have too little time. I've fixed it, for now, with home-manager.options.nixGL.vulkan.enable = true.

update: it doesn't even fix all the issues. I give up.
update update: as far as I can tell the issue was actually related to opengl drivers. mesa package version 2025.3.0 from unstable seems to be broken. Setting hardware.graphics.package to pkgs.mesa version 25.0.7 from nixpkgs-25.05 seems to solve the issue.

[peigongdsd]

gnome 49 apps are extremely buggy why?

If they are, you should be opening an issue on nixpkgs for the application(s) with the bugs.

I was having a graphics issue that crashed my whole DE randomly. Apparently it's tied to lack of "native" support for Vulkan, which GNOME 49 is now asking for. I'm not going to open an issue because I know too little about this and I have too little time. I've fixed it, for now, with home-manager.options.nixGL.vulkan.enable = true.

update: it doesn't even fix all the issues. I give up.
update update: as far as I can tell the issue was actually related to opengl drivers. mesa package version 2025.3.0 from unstable seems to be broken. Setting hardware.graphics.package to pkgs.mesa version 25.0.7 from nixpkgs-25.05 seems to solve the issue.

I'm currently also facing problems on gtk4 apps with vulkan backend. Use GSK_BACKEND=ngl to switch the renderer to opengl fixed the issue.

[poli0iq]

I'm currently also facing problems on gtk4 apps with vulkan backend. Use GSK_BACKEND=ngl to switch the renderer to opengl fixed the issue.

Same on iris/anv with an LNL iGPU.

[vcunat]

I think these are solved by #463695 which is contained in #461523