nautilus
I use CTRL+L to switch the graphical path bar (sometimes called a breadcrumb) into a text-based location bar. I expect that hitting CTRL+L again will switch back, but it doesn't. Is this a bug? If not, how do I switch back?
(I don't want to make the change permanent.)
To make it permanent you have to make changes in gconf-editor.Press Alt+F2 and type gconf-editor.
Navigate to apps → nautilus → preferences and put a check mark in "always_use_location_entry".
Update 2012-01-27: An (unofficial) patch has been created to provide this functionality http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1904510
At the time the question was asked, you had two options, which I retain below for those who don't want to patch and build their own version of Nautilus.
With always-use-location-entry true, there is no button for the parent folder. You can use any of the following:
With always-use-location-entry false, you will see breadcrumbs to show a higher level folder. To type a location, you must:
Regardless of which you decide to use, I would suggest giving some love and support to the bugs on both the Ubuntu project and the Gnome project:
Best Answer
While in location bar, try hitting 'esc'.