How To Install A Dual-Panel Modified Nautilus For Gnome [ Linux / Ubuntu ]

Not so long ago we discovered a simplified version of Nautilus which seems to miss Ubuntu Karmic after all so the only way to get it is through it's PPA. But still, one of the most requested features in Nautilus must be the dual-panel view, which gives you the ability to work in two directories at one. Sure, you can use tabs, but a dual panel Nautilus would be really useful.

KDE has Dolphin which has this feature but for Gnome users, there is only Gnome Commander and I for one would like to see this in Nautilus.

Holger Berndt's (via @ ubuntu brainstorm through gnometips and ubuntu life - thanks guys!) implemented this into Nautilus so everyone can enjoy the dual panel view.

Here is a video with this modified Nautilus, but please note that some image polishing took place since this screencast was recorded:

Unfortunately, this only works in Ubuntu Jaunty but the packages will probably be updated once Karmic is out. There are packages available for Ubuntu i386 and amd64 and you can download them from here:

i386:

libnautilus-extension1_2.26.2-0ubuntu3~hb8~jaunty1_i386.deb (60.0 KiB)
nautilus-data_2.26.2-0ubuntu3~hb8~jaunty1_all.deb (4.3 MiB)
nautilus_2.26.2-0ubuntu3~hb8~jaunty1_i386.deb (1.1 MiB)
optional
libnautilus-extension-dev_2.26.2-0ubuntu3~hb8~jaunty1_i386.deb (7.4 KiB)
nautilus-dbg_2.26.2-0ubuntu3~hb8~jaunty1_i386.deb (3.0 MiB)


amd64:

libnautilus-extension1_2.26.2-0ubuntu3~hb8~jaunty1_amd64.deb (61.2 KiB)
nautilus-data_2.26.2-0ubuntu3~hb8~jaunty1_all.deb (4.3 MiB)
nautilus_2.26.2-0ubuntu3~hb8~jaunty1_amd64.deb (1.2 MiB)
optional:
libnautilus-extension-dev_2.26.2-0ubuntu3~hb8~jaunty1_amd64.deb (7.5 KiB)
nautilus-dbg_2.26.2-0ubuntu3~hb8~jaunty1_amd64.deb (3.2 MiB)

Or you can add the PPA if you want to stay up-todate (if you don't know how to add a PPA repository, read here). Please keep in mind that everything in this repository is (at most) beta.

After installing this modified Nautilus, restart it:

killall nautilus && nautilus &

and you should now have available a new options in the View menu called "Extra Panel" or you can just press F3 to activate the dual panel view.

Please note: this doesn't work if you installed Gloobus or Simplified Nautilus. You can run either Gloobus, Simplified Nautilus or this dual-panel Nautilus (that's because Gloobus uses a modified Nautilus version).! Therefore, to use this, remove the other 2 modified Nautilus.

Update: the dual panel Nautilus is now available for Ubuntu Karmic too.

[image credits: ubuntu life, also thanks to gnome tips]