How to change desktop icon theme?

[steve_s]

Howdy!
How do I change the icon theme on the desktop?
Thanks in advance for your help!

[user1111]

I think its more a case of dragging and dropping what you want on the desktop and then setting the text beneath each of those and setting the icon by dragging/dropping ... for each individual desktop icon.

Right click the desktop icon and select the File/Set Icon option ... have /usr/share/icons open in a rox window and right click a empty region within that window and select the Show Thumbnails option and then you can drag/drop the icon you like from that into the File/Set Icon option

Right click icon and select Edit Item ...to set the text displayed

https://distro.ibiblio.org/fatdog/web/f ... sktop.html

[steve_s]

I can change specific icons, I can add icons to the desktop, no sweat. I don't know how to change the overall icon THEME. In JWM one could change all the icons by changing the theme and you would have a whole different set of icons, one click. I am trying to figure out how to do that regularly.

[jamesbond]

As it happens - Paul just asked me the same question the other day. So here is my copied-and-pasted answer.

---------

The answer is going to be complicated because there are a few ways to change the icon themes, depending on what "icon theme" you're talking about. This is true on Puppy as well, actually, as far as I can remember, so please bear with me.

1. The desktop icons (also applies for some application icons you see on the menus)

There a symlink called /usr/share/pixmaps/midi-icons and /usr/share/pixmaps/mini-icons.

/usr/share/pixmaps/midi-icons points to /usr/share/pixmaps/themes/puppy48
/usr/share/pixmaps/mini-icons points to /usr/share/pixmaps/themes/puppy16

You can install other icons in /usr/share/pixmaps/themes and re-symlink /usr/share/pixmaps/midi-icons (or mini-icons) as needed. Example - we have puppy-icon-theme package that installs to /usr/share/pixmap/themes/Puppy-Standard

2. The icons you see inside Rox, they are stored in either $HOME/.icons or /usr/share/icons.
You can change it by right-click in Rox, then choose Options -> Types and then you can change the icon theme.

We have 3 icons themes that installs in /usr/share/icons: puppy-icon-theme, adwaita, and gnome-colors.

3. Beyond this, we have non-configurable icons, that install themselves in /usr/share/pixmaps or /usr/share/icons. They're mostly used for application icons (in menus). There is no way to replace them as a group; you will have to replace them individually. These are usually used by applications that pre-date the XDG standards (or could care less about it).

4. Then you have non-configurable icons in private application directories, e.g. the "fatdog" start menu icons for lxqt-panel. These applications have their own "theme-ing" method and you just have to ask the duck if you want to change them.

[steve_s]

As it happens - Paul just asked me the same question the other day. So here is my copied-and-pasted answer.

---------

The answer is going to be complicated because there are a few ways to change the icon themes, depending on what "icon theme" you're talking about. This is true on Puppy as well, actually, as far as I can remember, so please bear with me.

1. The desktop icons (also applies for some application icons you see on the menus)

There a symlink called /usr/share/pixmaps/midi-icons and /usr/share/pixmaps/mini-icons.

/usr/share/pixmaps/midi-icons points to /usr/share/pixmaps/themes/puppy48
/usr/share/pixmaps/mini-icons points to /usr/share/pixmaps/themes/puppy16

You can install other icons in /usr/share/pixmaps/themes and re-symlink /usr/share/pixmaps/midi-icons (or mini-icons) as needed. Example - we have puppy-icon-theme package that installs to /usr/share/pixmap/themes/Puppy-Standard

2. The icons you see inside Rox, they are stored in either $HOME/.icons or /usr/share/icons.
You can change it by right-click in Rox, then choose Options -> Types and then you can change the icon theme.

We have 3 icons themes that installs in /usr/share/icons: puppy-icon-theme, adwaita, and gnome-colors.

3. Beyond this, we have non-configurable icons, that install themselves in /usr/share/pixmaps or /usr/share/icons. They're mostly used for application icons (in menus). There is no way to replace them as a group; you will have to replace them individually. These are usually used by applications that pre-date the XDG standards (or could care less about it).

4. Then you have non-configurable icons in private application directories, e.g. the "fatdog" start menu icons for lxqt-panel. These applications have their own "theme-ing" method and you just have to ask the duck if you want to change them.

Again thanks! Hacking around on this.
What did you mean on 1 where you said "we have a puppy-icon-theme"? Do you install out of gslapt? And if you install that icon package, is there any way to quickly change to that icon set? Or where you just posting an example off the top of your head? Thanks!

[jamesbond]

Again thanks! Hacking around on this.
What did you mean on 1 where you said "we have a puppy-icon-theme"? Do you install out of gslapt?

Yes.

And if you install that icon package, is there any way to quickly change to that icon set?

For step 1, you still need to change the symlinks yourself, as I outlined above, after you install the puppy-icon-theme.
You probably need to restart the rox-desktop after you do that (open terminal, type "rox-desktop", and then close terminal after that).