[lencastre]

It's just frustrating to use autocomplete on the $ shell, it's so ubiquitous to to use Tab to autocomplete that within mc it switches panes. I cannot discover how to "Esc Tab", because pressing Esc then Tab does not autocomplete, pressing and holding Esc then Tab, also doesn't autocomplete, other than that it's the good'ol souped up norton commander.

[oneshtein]

In mc, Alt-Tab or Esc+Tab two times does autocomplete for command name, but it's much easier just to press Ctrl-O and use shell in full screen, with native autocompletion by Tab, then switch back to mc by Ctrl-C + Ctrl-O. (Without Ctrl-C, mc may not be able to synchronize directories between shell and panel, which often leads to confusion).