GNOME 50.4 Released! Fixed the App Search issue for Ubuntu 26.04
GNOME 50, the default desktop environment for Ubuntu 26.04 and Fedora 44 Workstation, released its 4th maintenance today.
The new version, GNOME 50.4, fixed various crashes, security issues for GDM login screen, and the annoying app search function not working issue.
Fix Gnome App Search is not working in Ubuntu 26.04
In my case in Ubuntu 26.04, searching apps in GNOME Overview or AppGrid always fails! It works after system reboot or re-login, but then breaks after hours or even days.
I’m too lazy to bother restarting the desktop again and again, so I end up launching apps either from terminal or by browsing in the app grid.
App Search stops working after an unknown amount of time usage in Ubuntu 26.04
The bug is caused (triggered) by Ubuntu’s new “Web Search Provider” extension along with Chrome default browser, while other extensions could theoretically trigger the same bug if they do things below similarly.
According to the bug report, when you login or un-lock screen, the extension will enable and register a search provider, but GNOME silently refuses the registration due to Chrome settings.
When you lock screen or suspend computer, the extension will then disable and un-register the provider, which it’s never registered.
After extension enable/disable (un-lock then lock screen) for multiple times, app search stops working because the unregister function mistakenly removes arbitrary providers.
This issue has been fixed in GNOME 50.4, and Ubuntu backported it into gnome-shell 50.1-0ubuntu1.2 which will be available soon in Ubuntu 26.04.1 planned for the coming few weeks.
Other Fixes
Besides the fix for search provider, GNOME 50.4 also fixed glitch when switching to a minimized window on another workspace, miscaled magnified cursor on HiDPI display, as well as an audio crackling/pop issue in the Quick Settings volume slider, especially when using PipeWire virtual audio sinks.
For GDM, it fixed a path traversal vulnerability, preventing a malicious login screen from tricking it into running unauthorized programs.
It also fixed a security issue to make sure automatic login can only happen for the user explicitly configured by the administrator, preventing a malicious login screen from logging into another account.
As well, it a security issue in the PAM authentication code, that could leave plain text passwords sitting in memory after use.
gnome login screen handled by gdm
Other changes include:
- Fix local denial-of-service attack, that could crash the entire GDM login service.
- Fix blurry graphics when using fractional scaling (125%, 150%, etc.) and HDR.
- Fix invalid redraw clips on rotated monitors.
- Fix that HDR desktops look washed out with low contrast on some displays.
- Fix that display setting could offer refresh rates that the monitor does not actually support.
For more, see the official announcement in GNOME Discourse.
Get GNOME 50.4
GNOME 50.4 will be soon made available in Fedora 44 Workstation and Ubuntu 26.04, while, Arch Linux has already included it in the official Extro repository.
For other Linux, check this page for the Gnome Shell package version info.
Source: UbuntuHandbook