I'm using Gnome instead of Unity, but they should be the same (more or less).
Nautilus (a.k.a. Files) keeps its keyboard shortcuts in ~/.config/nautilus/accels
File Rename is listed there as:
; (gtk_accel_path "<Actions>/DirViewActions/Rename" "F2")
The ;
means that it is commented out and Nautilus uses the system default.
If you remove the ;
and change the line to:
(gtk_accel_path "<Actions>/DirViewActions/Rename" "<Primary>Return")
Then File Rename will be changed to Control-Enter
.
It seems that there is only one shortcut possible for each operation. Nautilus uses the last one listed.
So you can't have F2
and Control-Enter
at the same time.
In order for the changes to take effect you have to stop nautilus. Run the following from the commandline (before you make the change):
nautilus -q
Detailed steps (on request):
open Files ('Nautilus')
browse to directory .config/nautilus
in your home directory
if you don't see directories starting with a dot, press <Ctrl>H
or in the preferences for Files ('Nautilus'), tick the box for displaying hidden files.
right-click or double-click file accels
so that it opens in an editor (likely gedit
)
Alternatively, hit <Alt>F2
and give command: gedit ~/.config/nautilus/accels
Now we have the configuration file in an editor, we have to stop Files ('Nautilus') before we can make changes. Again, two ways of doing this:
- Option 1: open a terminal window (
Gnome Terminal
) and kill nautilus, by issuing command: nautilus -q
. Your Files window(s) should all disappear
- Option 2: hit
<Alt>F2
and give command nautilus -q
. Your Files window(s) should all disappear
Now Files ('Nautilus') has been stopped, we can make changes to its configuration files.
- In the editor, make the changes as listed above and save the file
- Exit the editor
If you now open Files ('Nautilus') again, your changes should take effect
Answers to foot notes:
- It is relevant to specify the application you're having a problem with. In this case, it was the configuration of the application as opposed to a system setting that had to be modified to resolve this issue.
- People will know what you mean by
GUI Environment
. It is however generally referred to as GUI
or Desktop
in this context.