Ubuntu Battle Prep

I've ended up doing several Ubuntu installs lately, and find I have to go through a preceedure to get some favorite tools installed while trying to dig out information and solve problems.

• Edit /etc/apt/sources.list. Make a second copy of all the default sources installed, and change on all the copies 'http://archive....' to 'http://us.archive....', to give some quick and easy extra depth to the available Ubuntu .deb package archives.
• Immediately 'sudo aptitude update' to ensure access to the latest packages.
• edit ~/.bashrc, including lines with:
  • set -o vi
  • export IRCSERVER='irc.freenode.net'
  • export IRCNICK='mr_dallas'
  • alias realias='vi ~/.bashrc ; source ~/.bashrc ' ;
• sudo aptitude install screen lynx-cur tinyirc ckermit gkermit
• edit /etc/lynx-cur/lynx.cfg, adding 'TEXTFIELDS_NEED_ACTIVATION:TRUE' (this and the below changes to lynx options move lynx from klutz to 'thought control' mode for rapid googling of answers.)
• edit /etc/screenrc, adding
  • 'escape ^Oo' # this avoids a lot of conflicts of screen with other programs
  • 'startup_message off' # for less noise when starting screen
  • perhaps beefing up 'defscrollback' to maybe 4096.
• startup Lynx, go into options ('o')
  • change it to advanced user mode
  • turn on 'vi' keymode
  • For the number pad set 'Links and form fields are numbered'
  • check the box to 'save options to disk' before accepting changes
  • Go to and bookmark my private portal page, where I have many usefull links and forms.

This doesn't by any means duplicate all my environment on my personal machine, but it gets some simple tools that help quickly hunt for answers and solve problems available.