# GNOME Shell 51.rc

- Product: GNOME Shell (https://whatsnew.fyi/product/gnome-shell)
- Vendor: GNOME
- Date: 2026-09-02
- Version: 51.rc
- Original notes: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/-/releases/51.rc
- Permalink: https://whatsnew.fyi/product/gnome-shell/releases/51.rc

What's New is an index, not a publisher: every entry below links to the vendor's own release notes, which are the authoritative source. Entries are labelled where they are hand-curated sample data, pre-releases, or drawn from a secondary source such as a developer blog.

Reuse: the summaries, labels and curation here are © What's New. Quote freely with attribution and a link back; wholesale republication of the corpus is not permitted — terms: https://whatsnew.fyi/terms. The vendors' own release notes remain their publishers'.

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- **fixed** — Fix glitch when switching workspaces with direct scanout
- **changed** — Use glycin to load and cache background images
- **changed** — Support building with libical4
- **fixed** — Refuse to unlock screen after screen time limit was reached
- **fixed** — Fix blocking when toggling wireless toggle
- **changed** — Continue port from raw event handlers to controllers
- **fixed** — Fix focusing calendar app from reminder notification
- **fixed** — Don't show busy cursor when activating actions
- **fixed** — Fix race condition that prevents password prompt from showing
- **fixed** — Fix glitch when cancelling lock screen prompt with Esc
- **changed** — Track magnifier mouse position without polling
- **changed** — Limit parallel texture loading operations
- **fixed** — Focus first menu item when opened via keyboard
- **fixed** — Fix race condition when enabling extensions
- **fixed** — Open windows created via new-window action on correct workspace
- **fixed** — Plugged leak

51.rc
=====
* Fix glitch when switching workspaces with direct scanout [Sebastian; !4320]
* Use glycin to load and cache background images [Bilal; !4134]
* Support building with libical4 [Xi; !4215]
* Refuse to unlock screen after screen time limit was reached [Florian; !4321]
* Fix blocking when toggling wireless toggle [PolyMeilex; !4323]
* Continue port from raw event handlers to controllers [Carlos; !4330, !4304]
* Fix focusing calendar app from reminder notification [Sebastian; !4327]
* Don't show busy cursor when activating actions [Sebastian; !4325]
* Fix race condition that prevents password prompt from showing [Adrian; !4336]
* Fix glitch when cancelling lock screen prompt with Esc [Joaquín; !4326]
* Track magnifier mouse position without polling [Kacper; !4344]
* Limit parallel texture loading operations [Georges; !4349]
* Focus first menu item when opened via keyboard [Sergio; !4189]
* Fix race condition when enabling extensions [Sergio; !3640]
* Open windows created via new-window action on correct workspace
  [Sebastian; !4071]
* Plugged leak [Michel; !4337]
* Misc. bug fixes and cleanups [rayjonesjay, Florian, DaPigGuy, Joan, Javad,
  Michel, Sebastian, Marco, Maximiliano, Carlos, Joan, Milan; !4313, !4332,
  !4340, !4342, !4335, !4338, !4329, !4345, !4346, !4339, !4348, !4354, !4341,
  !4358, !4357, !4356, !4362, !4368, !4366, !4369, !4371, !4374, !4373, !4377,
  !4376]

Contributors:
  Georges Basile Stavracas Neto, Sergio Costas Rodriguez, Milan Crha, DaPigGuy,
  Michel Dänzer, Bilal Elmoussaoui, Carlos Garnacho, Prasanta Hembram, Kacper,
  Sebastian Keller, Florian Müllner, PolyMeilex, Javad Rahmatzadeh,
  rayjonesjay, Xi Ruoyao, Maximiliano Sandoval, Joan Torres Lopez,
  Marco Trevisan (Treviño), Arlewatyerre Tuhoro-Bell, Joaquín Vacas Verísimo,
  Adrian Vovk

Translators:
  Flynn Peck [kw], Zeqian Sun [zh_CN], Asier Saratsua Garmendia [eu],
  Antonio Marin [ro], Yuri Chornoivan [uk], Brage Fuglseth [nb],
  twlvnn kraftwerk [bg], Prasanta Hembram [sat], Davide Ferracin [it],
  burns [pt_BR], Yaron Shahrabani [he], Andika Triwidada [id],
  Francisco Diéguez Souto [gl], Nathan Follens [nl], Xavi Ivars [ca],
  小山田 純 - Oyamada Jun [ja], Abduqadir Abliz [ug], Jiri Grönroos [fi],
  Baurzhan Muftakhidinov [kk], Aurimas Aurimas Černius [lt],
  Anders Jonsson [sv], Marcel Mrówka [pl], Lucien [fr], Emin Tufan Çetin [tr],
  Changwoo Ryu [ko], Arlewatyerre Tuhoro-Bell [mi], Jor Teron [mjw]