Install Neofetch on Debian 11 Bullseye
If you’ve just upgraded a machine to Bullseye and the pretty ASCII art of your old setup vanished, this guide will get Neofetch back on the screen in less than five minutes. We’ll cover the straight‑apt method (the one most users reach for first) and also show how to pull the very latest version from GitHub if you’re feeling adventurous.
What you need before you start
- A non‑root user with sudo rights.
- An internet connection, because Neofetch isn’t going to install itself from thin air.
Nothing fancy; if your system can run apt update, it can handle the rest.
The easiest way: apt install
Debian 11 ships a packaged version of Neofetch in its default repos. It’s not bleeding‑edge, but it works fine for most desktop setups.
sudo apt update
sudo apt install neofetch
apt update refreshes the package index so you’re sure you’re pulling the newest snapshot that Bullseye offers. The install line does exactly what it says – pulls the binary and its tiny Bash script onto your system.
Once installed, just type:
neofetch
You should see a block of colored text with your distro logo, kernel version, and a few other goodies. If nothing shows up, double‑check that /usr/bin/neofetch exists; sometimes the package can get stuck if the cache was corrupted.
Want the latest features? Grab it from GitHub
I’ve run into cases where the Bullseye package is missing support for newer hardware detection (think the Raspberry Pi 4’s GPU info). In those moments I clone the upstream repo and run the script directly.
sudo apt install git imagemagick
git clone https://github.com/dylanaraps/neofetch.git
cd neofetch
./neofetch
The extra imagemagick dependency lets Neofetch render images in terminals that support it – a small perk if you like your wallpaper to show up next to the stats.
If you want to call neofetch from any directory, just symlink it into /usr/local/bin:
sudo ln -s "$(pwd)/neofetch" /usr/local/bin/neofetch
Now the command works exactly like the apt version, but with the freshest code.
Quick tip: make it run on login
I always add Neofetch to my .bashrc so I get a fresh snapshot every time I open a terminal. Open the file with your favorite editor and append:
# Show system info at start of each session
neofetch
If you find the output too noisy, comment it out or wrap it in a conditional that checks $TERM. For example:
[[ $TERM == "xterm-256color" ]] && neofetch
That way remote SSH sessions stay quiet.
Common hiccups and how to fix them
“Command not found: neofetch” – Most likely you installed the Git version but didn’t add it to your PATH. The symlink step above solves that, or just run ~/neofetch/neofetch directly.
Missing colors on a plain terminal – Some minimal terminals don’t support 256‑color mode. Edit ~/.config/neofetch/config.conf and set colors="true" to force basic ANSI colors, or switch to a richer emulator like GNOME Terminal.
Package says it’s already the newest version but still looks old – Debian’s repo often lags behind upstream. If you need newer detection modules, use the Git method instead of the apt package.
That’s all there is to it. Whether you stick with the distro’s packaged copy or chase the bleeding edge on GitHub, Neofetch is a tiny script that gives you a lot of visual feedback for almost no effort.
