diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index a64f35be..dbe2a881 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -1,9 +1,9 @@
 SUBDIRS=emblems kali-logos
-BACKGROUND=kali-geometric
+DESKTOP_BACKGROUND=kali-geometric
 LOGIN_BACKGROUND=kali-light-strips
 
 build:
-	bin/update-default-backgrounds $(BACKGROUND) $(LOGIN_BACKGROUND)
+	bin/update-default-backgrounds $(DESKTOP_BACKGROUND) $(LOGIN_BACKGROUND)
 	$(foreach SUBDIR,$(SUBDIRS),$(MAKE) -C $(SUBDIR) build &&) true
 
 clean:
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 36a27202..162a402a 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -35,3 +35,14 @@ target location by the postinst script (see debian/kali-themes.postinst).
 When you add a new file that needs to be diverted, you can update
 the list in "files-to-divert" and run "debian/update-maintainer-scripts"
 to update the list of files in the 3 maintainer scripts.
+
+## wallpapers
+
+The wallpapers are provided by the kali-wallpapers-VERSION binary package
+which is built by the kali-wallpapers source package. We have the Makefile
+which generates some symlinks pointing to the kali-wallpapers-VERSION that
+we depend upon.
+
+Care must be taken to ensure that we depend on the right package so that
+the symlinks are working. So update debian/control and Makefile at the
+same time.
diff --git a/bin/update-default-backgrounds b/bin/update-default-backgrounds
index a3b1af55..a79acc8b 100755
--- a/bin/update-default-backgrounds
+++ b/bin/update-default-backgrounds
@@ -15,3 +15,7 @@ ln -sfv ../../../backgrounds/kali/$DESKTOP_BACKGROUND.xml ${DESTDIR}wallpaper/gn
 ln -nsfv ../../../wallpapers/$kde_wallpaper/contents ${DESTDIR}wallpaper/contents
 
 sed -i "s/defaultWallpaperTheme=.*/defaultWallpaperTheme=${kde_wallpaper}/" share/plasma/desktoptheme/kali/metadata.desktop
+
+# default background symlink for XFCE
+mkdir -p share/backgrounds/kali-16x9
+ln -sf $DESKTOP_BACKGROUND.png share/backgrounds/kali-16x9/default
diff --git a/debian/control b/debian/control
index 64c135b4..cc4ded36 100644
--- a/debian/control
+++ b/debian/control
@@ -12,7 +12,9 @@ Vcs-Browser: https://gitlab.com/kalilinux/packages/kali-themes
 
 Package: kali-themes-common
 Architecture: all
-Depends:  kali-wallpapers-current,
+Depends:
+# Dependency on the package providing the current default background
+ kali-wallpapers-2020.4,
  ${misc:Depends}
 Suggests: gtk2-engines-murrine
 Breaks: gnome-theme-kali (<< 2019.4), desktop-base (<< 10.0.3+kali2)
@@ -36,7 +38,8 @@ Description: Kali version of Debian's desktop-base package
 
 Package: kali-themes
 Architecture: all
-Depends: kali-themes-common (= ${source:Version}),
+Depends:
+ kali-themes-common (= ${source:Version}),
 # gsettings and other config files reference those fonts
  fonts-cantarell,
  fonts-firacode,
diff --git a/share/backgrounds/kali-16x9/default b/share/backgrounds/kali-16x9/default
new file mode 120000
index 00000000..249b4a9c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/share/backgrounds/kali-16x9/default
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+kali-geometric.png
\ No newline at end of file