Install GNOME Tweaks on Debian 11 Bullseye

GNOME is a popular desktop used on many Linux distributions, including Debian. The GNOME Tweaks tool allows users to modify and change the cosmetics in their GNOME desktop environment, which is popular amongst users that are not satisfied entirely with the GUI.

Some of the things you can do with GNOME Tweaks are edit font colors and scaling, disable animations for desktop speed improvement, change themes, manage GNOME extensions, bar changes, and much more.

Depending on the installation you choose when installing Debian 11, this may already be installed on your desktop.

In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install GNOME Tweaks on Debian 11 Bullseye.

Prerequisites

• Recommended OS: Debian 11 Bullseye.
• User account: A user account with sudo or root access.

Update Operating System

Update your Debian operating system to make sure all existing packages are up to date:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

The tutorial will be using the sudo command and assuming you have sudo status.

To verify sudo status on your account:

sudo whoami

Example output showing sudo status:

[joshua@debian~]$ sudo whoami
root

To set up an existing or new sudo account, visit our tutorial on Adding a User to Sudoers on Debian.

To use the root account, use the following command with the root password to log in.

su

The tutorial will utilize the terminal for the installation found in Activities > Show Applications > Terminal.

Example:

Install GNOME Tweaks on Debian

The GNOME Tweaks package is by default available on Debian 11’s repository, which means the installation is quite simple. First, in your terminal, execute the following command.

sudo apt install gnome-tweaks

Example output:

Type Y, then press the ENTER KEY to proceed.

Once installed, verify the package by using the apt-cache policy command.

apt-cache policy gnome-tweaks

Example output:

As above, GNOME Tweaks is successfully installed.

How To Launch GNOME Tweaks

With the installation complete, you can launch GNOME Tweaks in a few ways.

First, while you are in your terminal, you can use the following command:

gnome-tweaks

Alternatively, run the gnome-tweaks & command in the background to free up the terminal:

gnome-tweaks &

However, this isn’t practical, and you would use the following path on your desktop to open with the path: Activities > Show Applications > Tweaks.

Alternatively, if you cannot find it, use the search function in the Applications menu if you have many applications installed.

Example:

Now open GNOME Tweaks; from here, you can see the default landing page with lots of options to start customizing the look and feel of your GNOME desktop.

Example:

Next, go through the various options such as changing Windows, Appearance, and Top bars; customizing startup applications are some of the most sought-after changes most users would want to customize.

Example changing Window Titlebars:

Comments and Conclusion

In the tutorial, you have learned how to install GNOME Tweaks on Debian 11 Bullseye desktop. Overall, GNOME Tweaks is a well-used tweaking tool that many Linux users have installed to customize the feel of their desktop on multiple platforms, not just Debian. New users porting to Linux from Windows 10 or 11 can help make adjustments if you do not like the defaults of Debian’s GNOME desktop.