Public bug reported:
After upgrading to Ubuntu 26.10 (Oct 17), gnome-shell's GPU memory grows
steadily until the system runs out of RAM and swap, freezes, and the OOM
killer kills Edge/other apps. Logging out and back in frees it all
without a reboot.
System: Intel Raptor Lake-P Iris Xe (i915), 14 GiB RAM, 7.3 GiB swap, Wayland
Versions: gnome-shell 51.0-2ubuntu3, mesa (libgl1-mesa-dri) 26.2.4-1ubuntu1,
kernel 7.3.0-9-generic
All three were upgraded together on 2026-10-17 (previously gnome-shell 50.1,
mesa 26.0.8, kernel 7.0.0-38). Problem started right after.
Evidence:
- /proc/<gnome-shell pid>/fdinfo shows drm-total-system0 = ~11.4 GiB, only ~47
MB shared, so the buffers are gnome-shell's own, not imported from clients.
- "Shmem" in /proc/meminfo grows with it (5.9 GB at crash) and drops to ~0.3 GB
after logging out and in.
- Growth is linear, ~60-73 MiB/min, reproduced with all user extensions
disabled and no Edge running (107 MiB -> 3165 MiB in 42 min).
- No i915 errors, hangs or resets in the journal across 26 boots; the leak is
silent.
I can provide the full memory logs on request.
ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 26.10
Package: gnome-shell 51.0-2ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 7.3.0-9.9-generic 7.3.0-rc6
Uname: Linux 7.3.0-9-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.36.0-0ubuntu1
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: pass
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Sun Oct 25 04:50:29 2026
DisplayManager: gdm3
InstallationDate: Installed on 2026-03-23 (215 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS "Noble Numbat" - Release amd64 (20260210)
SourcePackage: gnome-shell
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to stonking on 2026-10-17 (7 days ago)
** Affects: gnome-shell (Ubuntu)
Importance: Undecided
Status: New
** Attachment added: "memlog_without_extensions_only_shell.txt"
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2172144/+attachment/6012299/+files/memlog_without_extensions_only_shell.txt
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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2172144
Title:
gnome-shell leaks ~60-70 MiB/min of GPU (i915) shmem on Wayland after
upgrade to 26.10; exhausts RAM in ~2.5 h
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