HOWTO: Restore Nautilus Address or Location Bar

[SisterNotes]

I'm in complete agreement. I'm trying to set up a connection to my website files and the instructions were to put the provided address into Nautilus. I still think of myself as a newbie, even if I started on Jaunty. It had taken me quite a while (the past 30+ min.) to find this particular post explaining how to get the address bar back.

For the other newbies, you need to press ALT-F2 and then type gconf-editor in order to change the settings. Is there a GUI way to get to the ALT-F2 window for when I forget these key-strokes?

[MestreLion]

Humm, ESC to restore the button bar works ONLY if location bar is NOT the default. Looks like (unfortunately) theres no key to bring to button bar if the location is the default one (after configuring always_use_location_bar to true)

That is sad

Heres my scenario: i want location bar to be default, because it has many benefits (mostly copy-and-paste). So i must either set configuring always_use_location_bar=true OR i would have to hit CTRL+L like 90% of the times i enter Nautilus.

BUT, after changing the default, i cannot have the button bar back, or quickly toggle it. ESC does not work. Do i really have to let the button bar as the default to be able to toggle the bars???

[L a r r y]

Many people dislike the new Nautilus view where the full text path is not shown, but instead Icons of each folder. To restore Hoary like location "address" bar

Here is the Simple Fix

If you want it to only last for the current session hit CTRL+L

When you are done with it and want the "new" view back , click in the location bar and simply push "esc"

To make it permanemt:
Open Applications->System Tools -> Configuration Editor
find the entry
"/apps/nautilus/preferences/always_use_location_entry"
and click the checkbox on

You actually have your choice of default behavior now:

If your system shows the full-path-in-location-bar by default, and you want the folder-button view by default, and its ability to be switched between text (CTRL+L) and buttons (ESC), then follow these steps:

Open
Applications->System Tools -> Configuration Editor
find the entry
"/apps/nautilus/preferences/always_use_location_entry"
and remove the check from the box. Close the editor and you have buttons.

You may toggle the default back-and-forth by repeating these steps and placing the check back in the box for text-only or removing the check for buttons.

Now: For those of us who like the button view some of the time, wouldn't it be nice if there were a set of keyboard shortcuts that work when the default is set to full-path-text mode?

Job for someone with knowledge of programming bash and some time to kill: Create an app for that! It might offer the default behavior option in the Nautilus Preferences menu, of all places. (Edit) Or Right out on the user interface! I agree textual full paths are best for copy-paste, but buttons do quickly move one through the tree.(/edit)

Thank you Dr Nick!

[tofudrifter]

Is it still possible to do this in 11.10?
I installed gconf-editor and the always_use_location_entry is missing.
Manually adding it does nothing.

edit: found it!!!
AskUbuntu.com

In 11.10 you need to install dconf-tools
Then run dconf-editor
Location Bar option is stored in "org ➜ gnome ➜ nautilus ➜ preferences ➜ always-use-location-entry"

[abdulmajid]

Thanks for the tip. Until now I used Ctrl+l to display the address/location bar.