sudo timedatectl set-timezone Europe/London
Reverting window decorations in Ubuntu Lucid (moving the window buttons from the unintuitive left side, back to the right, restoring the context menu and reverting the order):
Open gconf-editor. Navigate to Apps » General » 'button_layout' (or apps » metacity » general). Change it to read:
menu:minimize,maximize,close
Those four keywords can be specified in any order, the colon right-aligns everything after the colon.
Change the default colour of xterms from black-on-white, to the geek norm, white (gray) on black.
Add this text to /etc/X11/app-defaults/XTerm (or alternatively add to ~/.Xresources and remember to run: xrdb -merge ~/.Xresources):
xterm*background: Black xterm*foreground: Grey
Home/End keys don't work via putty
Set your terminal type to linux. In putty, set Connection » Data » Terminal-Type String = linux. Or from the command line or by putting in ~/.bashrc.
export TERM=linux
Installing packages on a new ubuntu system
I seem to setup a new system for somebody every month or so and keep forgetting what I'll later rely on. I'll try to add to this list as I discover/remember.
apt-get install vim build-essential p7zip screen
Set the timezone
timedatectl set-timezone Europe/London
usermod -aG sudo seven apt-get install vim build-essential p7zip screen