How do I get an up/parent button in Nautilus, without using breadcrumbs?

Solution 1:

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.

  1. With always-use-location-entry true, there is no button for the parent folder. You can use any of the following:

    • Use the menu-bar (Go->Open Parent)
    • Use the keyboard shortcuts (Alt+Up or Backspace)
  2. With always-use-location-entry false, you will see breadcrumbs to show a higher level folder. To type a location, you must:

    • Press Ctrl+L
    • Use the Go->Location menu option

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:

  • https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=662243
  • https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nautilus/+bug/885592

Solution 2:

Solely using the mouse don't see much to do except, - I find the right click on the back arrow icon to be quite useful, should list all folders you accessed to get where you are

Not quite the same but handy