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Similar to this question: Disable global search in GTK file chooser

Since upgrading from ubuntu 18.04 to 19.10, my file-open experience has become much less fluid: where a single letter-key press used to take me to the first occurrence of that letter as initial character in a filename in the list of files (and subsequent keystrokes would build a leading string to match against), the same keystroke now triggers a cumbersome and more-processor-intensive filesystem-wide search. This is absurd. I navigated to the directory I know a particular file is in, and jumping to its location with a single keystroke, then hitting Enter to open it was so simple.

How do I restore the old behavior?

user2901351
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  • I do not think it can be changed. For me, however, the dialog only searches in the current folder. Typing the first letters indeed will reveal more matches, but the benefit is that you can search on partial names, allowing, for example, for filing with a date preceding the label. – vanadium Jan 04 '20 at 17:18
  • @vanadium It can be done with a patched version of Nautilus. – pomsky Jan 04 '20 at 17:32
  • @pomsky A distinct advantage of open source is that one always can change a feature by editing source code. In addition, the file dialogs are not nautilus, but the GTK dialogs. – vanadium Jan 04 '20 at 17:39
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    Yes, the PPA apparently also works for 18.04: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2018/05/enable-nautilus-type-ahead-search-ubuntu This, however, is for nautilus: not sure if the GTK dialogs are also covered. – vanadium Jan 04 '20 at 17:42
  • @vanadium The PPA was updated last October, it even supports 19.10. – pomsky Jan 04 '20 at 17:54
  • @pomsky, before closing as a duplicate, can you confirm this also applies to the GTK file open dialogs? Question here is explicitly on File Open dialogs, question people are starting to mark as dup is explicitly about nautilus. – vanadium Jan 04 '20 at 18:01
  • @vanadium I don't use it, hopefully OP would try and report back. If OP (or someone) reports it doesn't work, I would be more than happy to vote to reopen it. – pomsky Jan 04 '20 at 18:06
  • Thanks much, pomsky, vanadium. – user2901351 Jan 05 '20 at 18:17

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