14 DAY TRIAL // Canonical's Ubuntu Desktop Director Will Cooke urged the Ubuntu community today to help them test recently implemented GNOME Shell memory leak patches in the upcoming Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver) operating system.
The latest GNOME 3.28 desktop environment release contained a major memory leak in the GNOME Shell user interface component, but it was quickly addressed so that it won't affect users considering the fact that most Linux OSes distribute the latest GNOME desktop packages once the first point release is available, in this case GNOME 3.28.1.
As Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver) is shipping with the latest GNOME 3.28 desktop environment by default, it was apparent that it will include all the upstream patches released by the GNOME Project to address any memory leaks. Canonical already successfully tested the new patches, but it needs to get wider testing and feedback as soon as possible before the final release on April 26.
"There has been a widely reported memory leak in the latest version of GNOME Shell which upstream GNOME have been working on fixing. While they finalize their plans and merge patches we have decided to press on with including one of the patches which should fix the biggest issues," said Will Cooke, Ubuntu Desktop Director, Canonical.
Here's how you can help
If you want to help Canonical test the GNOME desktop memory leak patches it implemented in the upcoming Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver) operating system, all you have to do is to download and install the current daily build ISO image on your personal computer. Use the GNOME desktop a bit and see how it performs.
Then download the patched packages and install them using the instructions provided here, and reboot. Use the GNOME desktop environment as you would normally do and try to see if the stability or performance was affected, if the system works better with or without the patched packages. Send your feedback here.