Most likely this is because network-manager doesn't refresh the icon cache. nafallo at darkelf:~/devel/motu/network-manager-0.6.3 $ grep nm- /usr/share/icons/hicolor/index.theme nafallo at darkelf:~/devel/motu/network-manager-0.6.3 $ -- nm-applet doesn't start https://launchpad.net/bugs/55334