GNOME 49 is scheduled for release on September 13, 2025, and developers are finalizing last-minute fixes during the beta cycle. A recent merge request to Mutter, GNOME´s Wayland display server and X11 compositor and window manager, changes cursor handling when variable refresh rate is enabled. The update aims to keep pointer motion running at the display´s maximum refresh rate even if the desktop frame rate falls, which should make mouse input feel more responsive when the desktop environment is under load.
The merge request states that if the fullscreen surface frame rate drops below 30 fps, the cursor should be allowed to move at maximum refresh rate instead of being limited to 30 hz or less. The change was inspired by a description of how KWin, the Wayland compositor for KDE, handles the same situation, highlighting cross-project learning in open source desktop development. The new behavior brings GNOME closer to the level of support that KDE Plasma has historically provided for features such as variable refresh rate and hdr.
In addition to the cursor update, the article notes a broader platform change planned for GNOME 49: the release will disable the X11 session by default and use Wayland as the primary session, keeping X11 available only as a fall-back for compatibility applications. Other technical details, implementation timing, and testing results are not stated in the article. The merge request itself is referenced as the source of the change, indicating the update is already present in the project´s review workflow ahead of the stable GNOME 49 release.
