Gnome GUI no search results

rajinkajun · 08-08-2010, 02:28 PM

Somebody help please. For some reason whenever I try to search for a file in the gnome gui I get no results. But if I search through the terminal [using find] I can find the files I'm looking for. How do I recover this feature?

Lucid Lynx 10.04
Version 2.6.32-24-generic-pae

zootboy · 08-08-2010, 03:16 PM

Since the Gnome search uses locate instead of find, try running "sudo updatedb" and see if that fixes it.

rajinkajun · 08-09-2010, 09:36 AM

Still no search results.

zootboy · 08-09-2010, 09:40 AM

Try running the same search with the locate command:

"locate myfile.txt"

See if that turns results.

rajinkajun · 08-10-2010, 11:02 AM

Running that command I was able to find all the files that fit the pattern I specified. But I still can't search in the GUI. If I open my home folder, press Ctrl+F for the search option, and type in "Documents" for example, it returns with no results [There is a dir named Documents in my home folder]. If I perform a search through "Places, Search for Files" I get results, but not through in regular gnome folder view.

zootboy · 08-10-2010, 11:15 AM

Ah, that's a different issue. The search bar in the file explorer (which is called Nautilus) has long been known to have issues.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=649201
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=582593
https://bugs.launchpad.net/nautilus/+bug/28537

There are a few work-arounds in those Ubuntu forums threads, but I cannot vouch for their accuracy. I never use search, so I've never had to deal with this problem.

Good luck, this problem has plagued many. Sorry I can't be of more help.