You can try to upgrade several important packages (gtk, glib, etc.) from the ricotz/testing ppa, then compile Nautilus 3.6 from source.
NOTE: Due to you are going to upgrade several important packages of your system, I strongly recommend to do this in a Virtual Machine or in a Test Machine only for testing purposes to see is everything is OK.
Make sure you have enable the "Source code repository"
In the Menu Bar choose Edit -> Software Sources. Click to enable "Source code repository".
Just in case I use the "Main Server" to Download.
Then..
1) Open a Terminal and install the following packages.
sudo apt-get install build-essential libtracker-sparql-0.14-dev wget
2) Install build dependencies.
sudo apt-get build-dep nautilus
3) Add ricotz ppa and upgrade the system.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ricotz/testing
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
4) Trash-Full icon in nautilus-places.
Nautilus 3.6.3 use the following icon for the trash-full (user-trash-full-symbolic.svg), not present by default in Ubuntu 12.04.
You can grab the icon from Ubuntu 13.04 to put it in /usr/share/icons/gnome/scalable/status/ directory.
To avoid this:
Once you have the correct icon type in the Terminal.
sudo mv /path/to/trash/image/user-trash-full-symbolic.svg /usr/share/icons/gnome/scalable/status/
sudo chmod 644 /usr/share/icons/gnome/scalable/status/user-trash-full-symbolic.svg
sudo gtk-update-icon-cache /usr/share/icons/gnome/
To look like this:
5) Create a folder to download the source code.
mkdir ~/Downloads/src
cd ~/Downloads/src
6) Download the nautilus 3.6.3 (raring) source code from Launchpad.
wget https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/raring/+source/nautilus/1:3.6.3-0ubuntu16/+files/nautilus_3.6.3.orig.tar.xz
7) Extract the source code.
tar -xvf nautilus_3.6.3.orig.tar.xz
8) Basic steps to compile & install. (You can change the steps according to your needs, add prefix etc.).
cd nautilus-3.6.3/
./configure
make
sudo make install
9) Kill nautilus.
10) Just in case... set default prefereces like show-desktop-icons, no show trash-icon in desktop, etc.
gsettings set org.gnome.nautilus.desktop trash-icon-visible false
gsettings set org.gnome.nautilus.desktop home-icon-visible false
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background show-desktop-icons true
11) Finally reboot the system to see the changes.
Result:
Hope this helps.
I'm going to risk answering this question since I now feel I have collected enough information on this issue. Basically downgrading to Nautilus 3.4 seems not to be an option at this time; it was coded for an earlier version of GTK, thus it wont compile on Ubuntu 13.10. The only practical way is installing a different file browser.
As it happens, Nemo is actually a fork of Nautilus 3.4 that has kept all the features of the latter (adding a few more). I've been using it since yesterday and the interface is almost the same, a seamless transition for the user. Thus installing Nemo is not very far from downgrading to Nautilus 3.4. I haven't done it yet, but it is possible to set Nemo as the default file browser.
All features I used in Nautilus 3.4 seem to function properly in Nemo (e.g. Connect to Server). The only exception at this stage is the integration with RabbitVCS, there's a package available but non functional at the moment. Since RabbitVCS doesn't work on Nautilus 3.8 either, it is not a regression.
Update II: There's no need to install Cinnamon, just install the Nemo package:
sudo apt-get install nemo
Update I: Nemo's appearance can be tweaked into something closer to the default Unity style. Open its css file:
sudo gedit /usr/share/themes/Ambiance/gtk-3.0/apps/nemo.css
And then replace all contents with the following:
.nemo-pathbar-button,
NemoPathbarButton {
background-image: -gtk-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom,
color-stop (0, shade(@dark_bg_color, 1.1)),
color-stop (.3, shade(@dark_bg_color, 1.1)),
color-stop (.7, shade(@dark_bg_color, 0.90)),
color-stop (1, shade(@dark_bg_color, 0.80)));
border-color: shade(@dark_bg_color, 0.7);
-NemoPathbarButton-border-radius: 3px;
}
NemoPathbarButton:active {
background-image: -gtk-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom,
color-stop (0, shade(@dark_bg_color, .8)),
color-stop (.3, shade(@dark_bg_color, .9)),
color-stop (1, shade(@dark_bg_color, 1.0)));
border-color: shade(@dark_bg_color, 0.7);
}
NemoPathbarButton:hover {
background-image: -gtk-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom,
color-stop (0, shade(alpha(@dark_bg_color, 1.4), 1.25)),
color-stop (.3, shade(alpha(@dark_bg_color, 1.4), 1.25)),
color-stop (.7, shade(alpha(@dark_bg_color, 1.4), 0.95)),
color-stop (1, shade(alpha(@dark_bg_color, 1.4), 0.85)));
border-color: shade(@dark_bg_color, 0.7);
}
NemoWindow * {
-GtkPaned-handle-size: 1;
}
NemoDesktopWindow GtkWidget {
background-color: @transparent;
}
.nemo-canvas-item {
border-radius: 4px;
}
/* desktop mode */
.nemo-desktop.nemo-canvas-item {
color: @bg_color;
text-shadow: 1px 1px alpha (#000000, 0.8);
}
.nemo-desktop.nemo-canvas-item:active {
background-image: none;
background-color: alpha (@bg_color, 0.84);
color: @fg_color;
}
.nemo-desktop.nemo-canvas-item:selected {
background-image: none;
background-color: alpha (@selected_bg_color, 0.84);
color: @selected_fg_color;
}
.nemo-desktop.nemo-canvas-item:active,
.nemo-desktop.nemo-canvas-item:prelight,
.nemo-desktop.nemo-canvas-item:selected {
text-shadow: none;
}
/* browser window */
NemoTrashBar.info,
NemoXContentBar.info,
NemoSearchBar.info,
NemoQueryEditor.info {
background-image: -gtk-gradient (linear, left top, left bottom,
from (shade (@cluebar_color, 1.02)),
to (shade (@cluebar_color, 0.98)));
background-color: @cluebar_color;
border-bottom-color: shade (@cluebar_color, 0.92);
border-radius: 0;
border-style: solid;
border-width: 0px 0px 1px 0px;
box-shadow: inset -1px 0px shade (@cluebar_color, 1.02),
inset 1px 0px shade (@cluebar_color, 1.02),
inset 0 1px shade (@cluebar_color, 1.04),
inset 0 -1px shade (@cluebar_color, 1.01);
}
NemoTrashBar.info:backdrop,
NemoXContentBar.info:backdrop,
NemoSearchBar.info:backdrop,
NemoQueryEditor.info:backdrop {
background-image: -gtk-gradient (linear, left top, left bottom,
from (shade (@cluebar_color, 1.01)),
to (shade (@cluebar_color, 0.99)));
background-color: @cluebar_color;
border-bottom-color: shade (@cluebar_color, 0.92);
box-shadow: inset -1px 0px shade (@cluebar_color, 1.01),
inset 1px 0px shade (@cluebar_color, 1.01),
inset 0 1px shade (@cluebar_color, 1.02),
inset 0 -1px shade (@cluebar_color, 1.0);
}
NemoSearchBar .entry {
}
.nemo-cluebar-label {
font: bold;
text-shadow: 0 1px shade (@cluebar_color, 1.06);
}
.nemo-cluebar-label:backdrop {
color: mix (@fg_color, @cluebar_color, 0.2);
text-shadow: 0 1px shade (@cluebar_color, 1.02);
}
#nemo-search-button *:active,
#nemo-search-button *:active:prelight {
color: @dark_fg_color;
}
NemoFloatingBar {
background-color: @info_bg_color;
border-radius: 3px 3px 0 0;
border-style: solid;
border-width: 1px;
border-color: darker (@info_bg_color);
}
NemoFloatingBar .button {
-GtkButton-image-spacing: 0;
-GtkButton-inner-border: 0;
}
/* sidebar */
NemoWindow .sidebar,
NemoWindow .sidebar .view {
background-color: shade (@bg_color, 0.95);
/*background-color: @bg_color;*/
color: @fg_color;
text-shadow: 0 1px shade (shade (@bg_color, 0.95), 1.04);
}
NemoWindow .sidebar .frame {
border-width: 1px 0 0 0;
border-style: solid;
border-color: shade (@bg_color, 0.86);
border-radius: 0;
}
NemoWindow .sidebar:backdrop,
NemoWindow .sidebar .view:backdrop {
color: mix (@fg_color, shade (@bg_color, 0.95), 0.2);
text-shadow: 0 1px shade (shade (@bg_color, 0.95), 1.02);
}
NemoWindow .sidebar row:selected {
color: @selected_fg_color;
text-shadow: 0 1px shade (@selected_bg_color, 0.8);
}
NemoWindow .sidebar row:selected:backdrop {
background-image: -gtk-gradient (linear, left top, left bottom,
from (shade (shade (@bg_color, 0.95), 0.94)),
to (shade (shade (@bg_color, 0.95), 0.86)));
border-top-color: shade (shade (@bg_color, 0.95), 0.88);
color: @fg_color;
text-shadow: 0 1px shade (shade (@bg_color, 0.95), 0.96);
}
NemoWindow .pane-separator {
background-color: shade (shade (@bg_color, 0.95), 0.94);
border-color: @dark_bg_color;
border-style: solid;
border-width: 0;
box-shadow: none;
}
NemoWindow .pane-separator:backdrop {
background-color: shade (shade (@bg_color, 0.95), 0.96);
}
Best Answer
Grab Nemo (Linux Mint team forked nautilus 3.4, because they don't like what was changed in 3.6)