Xfce Forum

sonycdr

Member

Registered: 2009-01-30

Posts: 144

[SOLVED] How to set new Adwaita icon theme on Debian 13?

Hi.

I have installed the adwaita-icon-theme package but when I search the icon set in Settings > Appearance > Icons nothing appears. How is the correct way to install adwaita icon set?

Debian 13 / XFCE 4.20

Last edited by sonycdr (2026-05-14 06:28:59)

lintek

Member

Registered: 2013-02-07

Posts: 47

Re: [SOLVED] How to set new Adwaita icon theme on Debian 13?

If you downloaded the icon themes from xfce-look.org, the typical procedure is to extract the archive in the Downloads directory.
Create a .icons directory in your /home/$USER directory.
Copy the extracted directory to the /home/$USER/.icons directory
Make sure the index.theme file is present in the directory you copy to .icons
You should now see the icon theme in Settings > Appearance > Icons

i.e.  /home/$USER/.icons/Adwaita/index.theme

Uityyy

Member

From: Central Texas

Registered: 2026-05-13

Posts: 2

Website

Re: [SOLVED] How to set new Adwaita icon theme on Debian 13?

I believe the Adwaita icon theme has a line in its main config file under /usr/share/icons/Adwaita that explicitly declares it a hidden fallback theme that shouldn't show up in your settings list. If you're not comfortable changing a line in a file managed by your package manager, you can create a ~/.icons folder, copy the whole Adwaita folder there, and edit the copy.

sonycdr

Member

Registered: 2009-01-30

Posts: 144

Re: [SOLVED] How to set new Adwaita icon theme on Debian 13?

I believe the Adwaita icon theme has a line in its main config file under /usr/share/icons/Adwaita that explicitly declares it a hidden fallback theme that shouldn't show up in your settings list. If you're not comfortable changing a line in a file managed by your package manager, you can create a ~/.icons folder, copy the whole Adwaita folder there, and edit the copy.

That's true, in the index.theme file there be a curious "Hidden" parameter:

[Icon Theme]
Name=Adwaita
Comment=The Only One
Example=folder
Inherits=AdwaitaLegacy,hicolor
Hidden=true

For resolve it, change true for false:

Hidden=false

In Endeavour OS forum the same problem remained unresolved. Maybe this post can help them.