I installed the icons with SPC SPC all-the-icons-install-fonts but I still see the original screen on startup without the icons. Is there another step I need to do? I just installed the standard spacemacs setup, then followed the instructions here: https://practical.li/spacemacs/install-spacemacs/
dotspacemacs-startup-buffer-show-icons t in the Spacemacs configuration should show the icons on the Spacemacs home page
Although that should already be set if using the Practicalli Spacemacs configuration - https://github.com/practicalli/spacemacs.d/blob/live/init.el#L377
If using Practicalli Spacemacs config, ensure that the ~/.spacemacs file does not exist (as that would be used as the configuration instead)
That was it -- installing Spacemacs and running emacs for the first time created ~/.spacemacs. Once I removed that, and installed the recommended version of emacs in the http://Practil.li instructions, it all worked fine. Thank you.