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How can I search files on ubuntu ??? The usual search tool does not find anything . I have installed tracker search tool and it too does not find anything .I tried to follow the instructions found to enable this tool by going to system>>preferences>>searching and indexing but Where the hell is system>>preferences>>searching and indexing? I found a program called searching and indexing but it does not contain anything that is described in the instructions .

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marked as duplicate by karel, Florian Diesch, Eric Carvalho, BuZZ-dEE, belacq Mar 5 at 22:21


Nothing happens when you click the Dash and type something? –  Uri Herrera Jul 8 '12 at 8:20

2 Answers 2

Go to terminal and type

sudo find / -name "filename"

this will search entire space

You can also use:

locate "filename"   
whereis "filename"

For the man pages, type:

man locate    
man whereis
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Also worth noting you may need to do sudo updatedb to re-index after installing something etc otherwise locate might not find the file even if it's there. –  Lerp Mar 3 at 11:52

Doesn’t the file show up when you search for it by the name in the Launcher? If it doesn’t show up then you may have entered the name wrong. Searching for the file/folder with the full (correct) name helps to narrow down the results.

You might want to test the launcher to check if there’s any fault; just make a folder in the desktop and name it ‘FIND ME LAUNCHER’ and search for it.

I’ve tested this myself and I’ve seen that right after making the file, when I search it in the launcher it doesn’t show up, but when I exit and search in the launcher again it comes up fine. If the file ‘FIND ME LAUNCHER’ doesn’t come up even then, it could only mean a buggy launcher (report the issue) or human error.

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