Xfce Forum

slimyrecluse

Member

Registered: 2026-06-29

Posts: 4

window buttons show square instead of icon for xterm

Hello,
So the window buttons plugin isn't displaying the xterm icon instead a grey/black square.
I can see either the xterm or terminal icon everywhere else except for window buttons.
While I don't use them often, this is happening with some other apps like xclock and xcalc.

Does anyone have a solution?
Thanks.

I'm using Xfce 4.20 if it's any relevant

Last edited by slimyrecluse (2026-06-29 18:51:12)

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 12,644

Re: window buttons show square instead of icon for xterm

Hello and welcome.

Which distro? Which icon theme?

The grey/black square could be the "no icon found" icon.

---

Mark solved threads as [SOLVED] to make it easier for others to find solutions.
--- How To Ask For Help | FAQ | Developer Wiki  |  Community | Contribute ---

slimyrecluse

Member

Registered: 2026-06-29

Posts: 4

Re: window buttons show square instead of icon for xterm

I am using opensuse tumbleweed and the adwaita-xfce icons
I can find some mini.xterm and some other xterm icons along with a generic terminal icon under /usr/share/pixmaps/

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 12,644

Re: window buttons show square instead of icon for xterm

I am using opensuse tumbleweed

If you look at /usr/share/applications/xterm.desktop, you should see:

Icon=terminal

The adwaita-xfce icons is missing that icon file and /usr/share/pixmaps isn't being sourced when looking for icons.

Try creating the directory ~/.local/share/icons and copying (or linking) in /usr/share/pixmaps/terminal.png. That should make xterm work. Follow the same steps for xclock and xcalc looking at their icon names in their respective .desktop files.

---

Mark solved threads as [SOLVED] to make it easier for others to find solutions.
--- How To Ask For Help | FAQ | Developer Wiki  |  Community | Contribute ---

slimyrecluse

Member

Registered: 2026-06-29

Posts: 4

Re: window buttons show square instead of icon for xterm

Try creating the directory ~/.local/share/icons and copying (or linking) in /usr/share/pixmaps/terminal.png. That should make xterm work. Follow the same steps for xclock and xcalc looking at their icon names in their respective .desktop files.

copied terminal.png to ~/.local/share/icons and reloaded xfce4-panel just in case but its still got the square icon

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 12,644

Re: window buttons show square instead of icon for xterm

Hmm. Try this option then. Create, if it doesn't already exist, the ~/.local/share/applications folder. Then copy over the xterm desktop file:

cp /usr/share/applications/xterm.desktop ~/.local/share/applications

Edit the xterm.desktop file in ~/.local/share/applications and change the "Icon=" line to read:

Icon=/usr/share/pixmaps/terminal.png

---

Mark solved threads as [SOLVED] to make it easier for others to find solutions.
--- How To Ask For Help | FAQ | Developer Wiki  |  Community | Contribute ---

slimyrecluse

Member

Registered: 2026-06-29

Posts: 4

Re: window buttons show square instead of icon for xterm

That worked, thank you so much