GNOME 51 on Ubuntu 26.10
Ubuntu 26.10 uses GNOME 51. This guide helps you find useful settings and check your desktop after an upgrade. The workspace and app-search basics in our GNOME introduction still apply.
What changes in everyday use?
GNOME 51 improves frame scheduling and recording efficiency, remembers monitor brightness, and updates fingerprint enrollment. Settings adds automatic rotation on devices with accelerometers and an option to disable the touchpad when a mouse is connected. Files shows a count when dragging multiple items. See the GNOME release notes .
Start with these settings
| Situation | Settings location | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| External monitor position or brightness feels wrong | Settings → Displays | Adjust arrangement, scaling and brightness, then check again after signing out or restarting |
| Your palm touches the touchpad while using a mouse | Settings → Mouse & Touchpad | Try the disable-on-mouse option with the mouse connected and disconnected |
| You want fingerprint sign-in | Settings → Users | Enroll on a supported reader, then lock the screen and test; keep password sign-in available |
Options depend on your sensors and drivers. A desktop update cannot add a rotation sensor to an ordinary monitor.
Check your version and session
gnome-shell --version
printf '%s\n' "$XDG_SESSION_TYPE"Also check Settings → System → About. Obtain desktop components through distribution updates; mixing repositories from different Ubuntu releases can break dependencies.
Verify your desktop after upgrading
- Open your everyday apps and test window movement, workspace switching and input methods.
- Test each external display with your actual scaling, refresh rate and connection.
- Test locking, fingerprint sign-in, suspend and resume. Record the step that fails.
- Temporarily disable third-party Shell extensions, then enable them individually. Check that each extension author lists GNOME 51 support before restoring a workflow that depends on it.
Smoothness depends on hardware, drivers, displays and workload. We have not measured frame rates or power consumption.
Troubleshooting
Distinguish a screen that fails before sign-in from a broken desktop after sign-in or a single failing app. Start with the NVIDIA guide and journal logs. Avoid replacing system GNOME packages just to bypass extension compatibility checks.
Next: 26.10 or LTS? and the 26.10 overview.