Comment # 1 on bug 1223618 from Francis Therien

OK, so here is the workaround: In order to obtain assets, including fonts and
icons, the user must use the "Online Updater" feature in Retroarch to download
and install assets. They are installed in the user's home directory.

I'm not sure what the fix should be, as Retroarch's design seems counter to
typical linux packaging. The package can't install assets in all users home
directories. If they are installed in /usr, then that prevents users from using
the online updater feature as they do not have write access. However the
current state is a bad user experience, in my opinion. The user is not even
guided to download assets if they are missing at startup. Even navigating the
menus to the online updater is difficult due to missing navigation icons.

Perhaps the assets could be included and installed under /usr, and then if a
user wants to use the Online Updater, they have to configure the assets
directory to be under their home? This config option already exists in
Retroarch.