Adwaita was my preferred theme for use with Cinnamon on my Debian boxes. But its use with Cinnamon has now been blocked because reasons. You may see it as one or more of the themes in use, but once you switch to something else, you can't get it back.
IMHO, the next best option is to use Linux Mint themes, which inconveniently aren't available in Debian or by downloading through Cinnamon's control panel.
However, for the time being at least, you can get them by adding a Linux Mint repository to your apt. This is documented here.
The steps I use are:
- As root, inside /etc/apt/sources.list.d create the file linuxmint.list
- Using your favorite editing means, put the following line to the file:
deb [trusted=yes] http://packages.linuxmint.com zara main
This points to the Zara release. In the future, you may want to point it to something newer. - apt-get update
- Use Synaptic or your favorite tool to browse the new packages. I installed:
mint-cursor-themes
mint-l-icons
mint-l-theme
mint-themes
mint-x-icons
mint-y-icons is in Debian, so I didn't install the Linux Mint version. - After installing what you want, edit linuxmint.list to disable the repository by putting a # in front of the repo info:
# deb [trusted=yes] http://packages.linuxmint.com zara main - apt-get update (again)
The last two steps are important so you don't continue to see the Linux Mint packages and inadvertently do something with them that borks your system. This also means you won't be notified of updates to the theme packages, so you might want to enable the repo periodically and check.
I'm currently using the Mint-Y-Blue application theme along with GNOME-Colors Brave for icons and a DMZ cursor. It works for me.
