Public bug reported:
== Summary ==
Since updating to gnome-shell 46.0-0ubuntu6~24.04.17 (early November 2026),
gnome-shell reliably segfaults during session startup, typically on the first
login after a reboot. The immediate consequence is that GDM returns the user
to the login screen (login loop appearance), and GNOME's crash protection
disables all user extensions on the next login (which initially masked the
bug as "extensions disappeared after update").
== Environment ==
* Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (noble), fully updated
* gnome-shell 46.0-0ubuntu6~24.04.17
* libsoup-3.0-0 3.4.4-5ubuntu0.10 (updated from 0.9 in the same period,
per USN-8975-1)
* libgweather-4-0t64 4.4.2-1build1 (unchanged)
* Reproduced on TWO independent machines:
1. AMD Ryzen laptop (Radeon 780M iGPU, 16 GB RAM), Wayland
2. Desktop, 8 GB RAM, LUKS/btrfs, Wayland
== Stack trace (identical on both machines) ==
Program terminated with signal SIGSEGV.
#0-#4 libc: raise / signal handler
#5 <signal handler called>
#7,#8 libxkbregistry.so.0
#9-#10 libxml2.so.2 (__xmlRaiseError)
#11-#14 libxml2.so.2
#15 xmlParseElement (libxml2.so.2)
#16 xmlParseDocument (libxml2.so.2)
#17 xmlParseMemory (libxml2.so.2)
#18 libgweather-4.so.0
#19-#20 libgio-2.0.so.0
#21-#24 libsoup-3.0.so.0 / libgio (network callback path)
Full trace available in the attached core dump / apport report.
Second machine's identical trace retrievable via `coredumpctl` (crash of
[DATE], can be attached on request).
== Timeline / regression window ==
* Updates applied Nov 2-5, 2026, including gnome-shell
46.0-0ubuntu6~24.04.16 -> .17 and libsoup-3.0-0
3.4.4-5ubuntu0.9 -> 3.4.4-5ubuntu0.10 (USN-8975-1)
* First observed crash: Nov 4, 13:59 local time (machine 2, apport .crash
file preserved)
* Identical crash Nov 5 (machine 1, systemd-coredump preserved)
== Reproduction ==
* First login after a fresh reboot: shell crashes within seconds of the
session starting; user is thrown back to GDM. Second login succeeds but
with all user extensions disabled (crash protection).
* Crashes observed under both Wayland and Xorg sessions.
* Toggling org.gnome.system.location (gsettings set
org.gnome.system.location enabled false/true) reliably triggered an
immediate shell crash/relogin on the affected machines, pointing to the
geolocation-driven weather fetch in the shell (libgweather) as the crash
path.
== Workaround ==
Masking geoclue prevents the crash on both machines; sessions (including
Wayland) have been stable across reboots since:
sudo systemctl mask geoclue.service
== Request ==
Please investigate whether the .17 gnome-shell update (or the concurrent
libsoup 3.4.4-5ubuntu0.10 from USN-8975-1) introduced a regression in the
geolocation/weather code path (libgweather -> libsoup -> xmlParseMemory).
The xml error handler appears to dispatch into libxkbregistry code, which
suggests a global XML error-handler corruption issue rather than malformed
input alone.
** Affects: gnome-shell (Ubuntu)
Importance: Undecided
Status: New
** Tags: gnome-shell regression segfault wayland
** Attachment added: "| Apport-Crash `_usr_bin_gnome-shell.1000.crash`
(gnome-shell .17) | eagle: `/var/crash/` | 04.11.2026, 13:59 | |
systemd-coredump mit identischem Trace (via `coredumpctl`) | phoenix |
05.11.2026, 07:58 | | Update-Historie der Verdächtigen | beide:
`/var/log/apt/history.log` | 02.–05.11.2026 | | Workaround-Bestätigung (mask
geoclue, stabile Reboots) | beide Maschinen | seither |"
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2173073/+attachment/6015105/+files/_usr_bin_gnome-shell.1000.crash.xz
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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2173073
Title:
gnome-shell 46.0-0ubuntu6~24.04.17 SIGSEGV in
libgweather/xmlParseMemory during session start (first login after
reboot)
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