installing_ubuntu.md

Installing Ubuntu

1. Download version 16.04.3 LTS of Ubuntu Desktop from the Ubuntu website
   • The file you download will be an ISO image of the operating system
2. Create a bootable USB drive on your current operating system
   • This requires using a USB stick writing tool such as Rufus
   • See this tutorial for how to do this
3. Restart your computer and boot from the bootable USB drive you created in step 2. Follow the instructions on screen.
   • Good reference here

Applications to install

Before installing anything, sudo apt-get update

• OpenSSH (enables ssh access--see below)
• anaconda
• Vim: sudo apt install vim
• git: sudo apt-get install git
• screen (terminal multiplexer): sudo apt-get install screen

Prompt customization

• Reduce prompt clutter by displaying only active virtual environment, username, and last two directories
  • Change PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\033[00m\]:\[\033[01;34m\]\w\[\033[00m\]\$ '
  • to PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[01;32m\]\u:\[\033[01;34m\]\w\[\033[00m\]\$ '
  • \u is your username, \h is the server name, which we removed
  • Also, add PROMPT_DIRTRIM=2 at the top of your .bashrc file to trim the directories shown

Setting up SSH access

• Install OpenSSH: sudo apt-get install openssh-server
• then restart the service: sudo service ssh restart
• If you get a REMOTE HOST IDENTIFICATION HAS CHANGED! warning (and you know this is the host you want to ssh to), then delete the offending ECDSA key in ~/.ssh/known_hosts