Use Nautilus Location Entry in Ubuntu Lucid

April 25, 2010 by
Filed under: gnome, HowTo, linux, Ubuntu 

Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) uses the latest version of the Nautilus file manager (version 2.30.0). If you've been using Ubuntu for a while then you might be accustomed to using location entry in Nautilus.  By default, Nautilus came up with the Button Bar to represent the current location in the file system. 

Nautilus 2.28 with Button Bar

Nautilus 2.28 with Button Bar

Clicking the pencil icon changed the window to show the Text Location Bar.

Nautilus 2.28 with Location Bar

Nautilus 2.28 with Location Bar

As I already mentioned, Ubuntu Lucid uses Nautilus 2.30.0. Again, in this latest version, Nautilus defaults to using the Button Bar for location.

Nautilus 2.30 with Button Bar

Nautilus 2.30 with Button Bar

Notice that the little pencil icon is no longer available to switch to Location Entry. Not to worry, the function is still available. There are actually 3 ways to switch to Location Entry.

  1. Hit the [/] key to enter the full path of the directory you want to browse.
  2. Use the Nautilus menu and navigate to Go?Location...
  3. Use the keyboard shortcut [Ctrl]+[L] to enable the Text Location Bar.
Nautilus 2.30 with Location Bar

Nautilus 2.30 with Location Bar

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Comments

15 Responses to “Use Nautilus Location Entry in Ubuntu Lucid”

  1. Arkadi says:
    April 26, 2010 at 1:24 PM

    Thank you very much!
    I was very upset when I found that it is missing in the new nautilus :-)

    Reply
    • Linerd says:
      April 26, 2010 at 2:08 PM

      I wish I knew how to turn the icon back on, but the [Ctrl]+[L] works fine. It also works in Dolphin in KDE4.

      Reply
  2. Infamy says:
    April 29, 2010 at 12:44 PM

    I think it sucks without the up button. Now I get that some geek wants to tell me the I can use the bread crumb(y) bar, but I want the path for a lot of reasons that I don't have room to explain. So, how about giving me a config option of the up button and for the rocket scientists that want to tell me how their idea is better they can have their choices too. It wasn't broke and no one fixed it.

    Reply
  3. freddy says:
    April 30, 2010 at 8:28 PM

    Infamy, try this:

    https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestoreNautilusLocationBar

    Reply
  4. Spaceeman says:
    May 1, 2010 at 4:04 AM

    For me too, the pencil icon button was really usefull. How to get it back? In gconf-editor, we found /apps/nautilus/preferences/always_use_location_entry Checked, we have only location entry. But some time, buttons are great too... Why not an option to get the choice under a simple click on the great pencil icon button? Please "masters" :(

    Reply
  5. trench says:
    May 14, 2010 at 9:34 PM

    I think it's an amazingly efficient UI solution. "/" is a rather natural shortcut key to trigger the field... I'm not really understanding why it's upsetting people.

    Reply
  6. Kyle says:
    May 22, 2010 at 11:58 AM

    Yes I agree the 9.10 places location up arrows, full path, etc.. was nothing short of perfect....why did the powers that be screw this up so badly? Everyone loved the ability to simply click on the pencil and then copy and paste the whole path or parts thereof into terminal, etc....

    YES WE WANT IT BACK!

    Reply
  7. tommo85 says:
    August 3, 2010 at 7:35 AM

    Alt+F2
    gconf-editor
    Expand the "apps" folder
    scroll down to the "nautilus" folder and expand.
    select the "preferences" folder
    check the box beside the comment
    "always_use_location_entry"

    thats it, your done.

    Reply
    • Linerd says:
      August 3, 2010 at 11:38 AM

      I prefer to keep the setting at default because I find the bread crumbs to be handy at times. I would love to just get the pencil icon back.

      Reply
  8. realflash says:
    October 20, 2011 at 2:33 PM

    "always_use_location_entry" is not the same. Switching it on means you can't go Up easily (now that the Up button is gone). Switching it off means you have to hit / to get the editable location bar - and it's not pre-populated with the current location. It's pre-populated with /. So in order to edit an existing path, I have to re-type it! Gah. Nautilus has been dumbed down too much. Time to switch file managers, I guess.

    Reply
  9. realflash says:
    October 20, 2011 at 2:37 PM

    Perhaps I should add than you can go Up with Alt+Up, if you have one.

    Reply

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