Install Debian 13 with the Mint XFCE theme

03 Sep 2025 - by 'Maurits van der Schee'

I often choose Linux Mint XFCE when I need a good looking and comfortable system quick. But sometimes I'd rather have a more stable system and match what I have on the server, which is Debian 13. Unfortunately Debian with XFCE doesn't look as good as Linux Mint with XFCE. In this post I'll explain what you can do to make Debian with XFCE look like Linux Mint XFCE.

demo

Try LMDE first!

Linux Mint Debian Edition is a Linux Mint based on Debian instead of Ubuntu. It uses Cinnamon as Desktop Environment which is also quite pretty. You should consider LMDE before following this tutorial on how to customize Debian with XFCE to look like Linux Mint XFCE. Linux Mint Debian Edition is a good looking and well supported Cinnamon Desktop Environment and under the hood it still is Debian. It is expected that LMDE 7 based on Debian 13 will be released soon (LMDE 6 is based on Debian 12).

Download Linux Mint Debian Edition here

Debian 13 installation

I am using the debian-13.0.0-amd64-netinst.iso and when booting from that image I choose the Graphical install. After installing Region, language and keyboard layout it will install the network. After the network I choose not to setup a root password (leave fields empty) and then setup a first user (can become root using sudo). When asking what to do with the disk choose "Guided - use entire disk and set up encrypted LVM" to enable full disk encryption using LUKS. Choose "Separate /home partition" when asked how to partition the disk. This is nice when you are reinstalling Linux. After confirming that changes must be written to disk the installer starts copying files. It will ask you to choose a local mirror and whether you want to participate in the package popularity contest. Next is the "Software selection" list. Uncheck "GNOME" and check "Xfce" before you continue to ensure XFCE is installed as default Desktop Environment. Finally install the bootloader on the drive and reboot the system.

Panels

In order to make the task bar look more familiar do:

Move the panel from the top to the bottom by
- Right clicking on the top panel, choose "Panel" and then "Panel Preferences.."
- Uncheck "Lock panel" and a handle should appear on the panel
- Drag the panel all the way to the bottom
- Check the "Lock panel" option again and close the window
Remove the second panel
- Right clicking on the top panel, choose "Panel" and then "Panel Preferences.."
- Click on the minus behind the word "Panel 2"
- Are you sure? Click "Remove"
Under "Display" set the "Row size (pixels)" to 32
Under "Appearance" uncheck "Dark mode" and set "Fixed icon size (pixels)" to 20
Under "Items" add the "Whisker Menu" to the top of the panel's "Items" (drag up)
On "Whisker Menu" click the little wrench next to "Remove"
Under "Appearance" set the "Icon" to "/usr/share/icons/desktop-base/64x64/emblems/emblem-debian-white.png"
Remove the "Applications Menu" and confirm removal
On "Window Buttons" click the little wrench next to "Remove"
Uncheck "Show handle" and uncheck "Group windows by application"
Optionally set "Middle click action" to "Close Window"
Remove the "Action Buttons" and the "Workspace Switcher" and confirm removal
Add some separators, "Power Manager Plugin", "Notification Plugin" and "Show Desktop" item
In the "Clock" item change the "Layout" to "Time then date" and set Time to "Sans Bold"
Add some launchers for applications you often use
Start the "Whisker Menu" and click the icon left of your username
Click the logo and choose "Browse..." and point to "/usr/share/icons/desktop-base/256x256/emblems/emblem-debian.png"

Install some packages

We need a few new sources:

gpg --keyserver hkps://keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 302F0738F465C1535761F965A6616109451BBBF2
gpg --export 302F0738F465C1535761F965A6616109451BBBF2 | sudo tee /etc/apt/keyrings/linuxmint.gpg > /dev/null
echo deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/linuxmint.gpg] http://packages.linuxmint.com zara main | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/linuxmint.list
sudo sed -i 's/non-free-firmware/non-free non-free-firmware/g' sources.list
sudo apt update

Now we can install the requirements:

sudo apt install mint-x-icons mint-y-icons mint-themes mint-backgrounds-wallpapers
sudo apt install mint-backgrounds-xfce bibata-cursor-theme fonts-ubuntu mugshot
sudo apt install lightdm-settings slick-greeter

In order to remove the new sources:

sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/linuxmint.list
sudo sed -i 's/non-free non-free-firmware/non-free-firmware/g' sources.list
sudo apt update

Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu, which is itself based on Debian, but there are differences in how packages are built and maintained. Therefor it is safer to disable these sources to avoid unexpected upgrades on the (Ubuntu or Mint specific) packages.

Change "Appearance" settings

Go to "Settings" in the main menu and choose "Appearance"
Set "Style" to "Mint-Y-Aqua"
Set "Icons" to "Mint-Y-Sand"
Set "Fonts" to "Ubuntu Regular" size 10 and "Monospace Regular" size 10
Check "Enable anti-aliasing" set "Hinting" to "Slight" and Sub-pixel order" to "RGB"

Change "Window Manager" settings

Go to "Settings" in the main menu and choose "Window Manager"
Set "Style" to "Mint-Y-Aqua"
Set "Title font" to "Ubuntu Medium" size 10
In "Button Layout" remove the arrow up from "Active" (drag to "Hidden")
Set "Fonts" to "Ubuntu Regular" size 10 and "Monospace Regular" size 10
Check "Enable anti-aliasing" set "Hinting" to "Slight" and Sub-pixel order" to "RGB"
In "Advanced" under "Windows snapping" uncheck the "To other windows" option

Change "Mouse and Touchpad" settings

Go to "Settings" in the main menu and choose "Mouse and Touchpad"
Set "Theme" to "Bibata-Modern-Classic"
Set under "Size" the "Cursor size" to 24

Change "Login Window" settings

Go to "Settings" in the main menu and choose "Login Window"
Set the correct "Backround" image
Set the "GTK theme" to "Mint-Y-Aqua"
Set the "Icon theme" to "Mint-Y-Sand"
Set the "Mouse pointer" to "Bibata-Modern-Classic"
Go to "Users"
Disable "Allow manual login"
Disable "Hide the user list"

Change "Desktop" settings

Right click the desktop and choose "Desktop Settings.."
Under "File/Launcher Icons" you find a list of "Default Icons"
Uncheck "Home", "File System" and "Trash"

Change "Thunar" settings

Open "Thunar File Manager" application
In the main menu click on "Edit" and "Preferences..."
Under "Side Pane" set the "Icon size" to 16px

Create a new "Terminal" theme

We create a new theme for the xfce4-terminal application:

sudo nano /usr/share/xfce4/terminal/colorschemes/linux-mint.theme

Now paste the following colors:

[Scheme]
Name=Linux Mint
ColorForeground=#ffffff
ColorBackground=#3c3c3c
ColorCursor=#867f81
ColorPalette=#000000;#cc0000;#4e9a06;#c4a000;#3465a4;#75507b;#06989a;#d3d7cf;#555753;#ef2929;#8ae234;#fce94f;#739fcf;#ad7fa8;#34e2e2;#eeeeec
BoldIsBright=true

NB: These are extracted from a default config on a real Mint XFCE installation.

Change "Terminal" settings

Since we have created a new terminal theme we can now apply it:

Open the "Terminal Emulator" or "Xfce Terminal" application
In the main menu click on "Edit" and "Preferences..."
Under "Appearance" and "Font" choose "Monospace Regular" size 10
Under "Colors" find the "Presets" and select "Linux Mint"

Now the terminal should also look like Mint XFCE.

Firefox installation

Debian uses Firefox ESR, which may lag a bit behind the Mozilla repositories with updates. Instead of using installing Firefox from the Mozilla repository I recommend installing LibreWolf, a custom version of Firefox, focused on privacy, security and freedom.

See: https://tqdev.com/2025-install-librewolf-a-better-version-of-firefox

Conclusion

Running Debian as a desktop is more fun when Debian looks good. And in this tutorial we showed that we can make Debian look like Mint XFCE (and I like how that looks and how fast it feels). It does requires some tinkering, but this is a nice opportunity to learn all the settings that can be tweaked.

Enjoy!

TQ
dev.com