[Ubuntu] How I build up the environment on Ubuntu

In this post, I will use command line so that I do not need to care about the issues caused by different graphic user interfaces.
(Don't be afraid of command line! You can just copy & paste if you are not interested in it.)

Operation System: Ubuntu 12.04
Check the Ubuntu version again
lsb_release -a

Update the system
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

Set default editor to vim
sudo update-alternatives --config editor
Enter your passwd

Press 3 (vim.basic) and enter

Set the administrator privilege
sudo visudo
This command uses default editor to open /etc/sudoers to help you check the format.
Assume you want to give administrator privilege to user 'spencer' and group 'adm'







Check the disk
df -h










Setup a shared directory
Assume you want to create a shared directory /home/shared/
(please make sure the parent directory, i.e. /home has sufficient space)

sudo mkdir /home/shared/
sudo chmod -R 777 /home/shared/

Set the default permission for this directory using ACLs (Access Control Lists)
sudo vim /etc/fstab

Add ACL option to /home, which is the parent directory

Then remount it
sudo mount -oremount /home
Now, use the following command to set the default ACL:
sudo setfacl -dm u::rwx,g::rwx,o::rwx /home/shared/

It means that default permission of directories and files under /home/shared/ will be 777 (Everyone can read, write, and execute).

Create softlinks (like Shortcuts on Windows) in every user's home directory (For example: spencer), so that the users can upload their data directly to the shared directory.

sudo ln -s /home/shared/ /home/spencer/shared 

Install the Git
Ubuntu 12.04 is accompanied with git.

But you still to learn how to generate your security key to connect to remote repositories.
ssh-keygen

Press enter to save the file under default location
Input the password for this key
You will need the content of id_rsa.pub file, use the follow command to copy the content to clipboard.
pbcopy < ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

Install Python and useful packages

• iPython
• Scipy
• Numpy
• Matplotlib

Ubuntu 12.04 is accompanied with them.

Install vim plug-ins

• pydiction
• taglist
• NERDtree

Install curl
sudo apt-get install curl

Setup VNC server
Virtual Network Computing (VNC), a way to connect to the GUI.

sudo apt-get install vnc
Setup the vnc password
vncpasswd
Edit your ~/.vnc/xstartup

   #twm

  gnome-session &

Start the your vncserver by this
 vncserver -geometry 1920x1080
then your session would have a window with 1920x1080 volume

For connection, use your favorite vnc client software (RealVNC, UltraVNC, etc), and the port you need to enter is 5900+the display number (1 in this case) = 5901.  You also need to enter the VNC password.
Other Packages for productivity

1. oh my zsh: Another shell with git friendly theme.

Install zsh

sudo apt-get install zsh
git clone git://github.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh.git ~/.oh-my-zsh
cp ~/.oh-my-zsh/templates/zshrc.zsh-template ~/.zshrc

Change the default shell to zsh

chsh -s /bin/zsh

then restart the machine.

BTW, if you want your bash shell back, just use this

chsh -s /bin/bash