Ubuntu CommonTasks

Here is a truth about Ubuntu: most “how do I…?” questions have one canonical answer, and once you know the pattern you stop searching. This page is a pocket card of those answers – the tasks people actually do on a fresh Ubuntu box.

What it is, in plain words

Ubuntu is Debian’s friendlier cousin: same .deb packages and apt, a fixed release cadence (April and October), with LTS releases supported for five years (ten with Ubuntu Pro). The current LTS at the time of writing is 24.04 “Noble Numbat”; non-LTS releases get nine months. Underneath, since 15.04, the init system is systemd, so service management is systemctl and logs are journalctl – the old service apache2 status style still works as a thin wrapper, but the native commands are the ones to learn.

I run Void Linux on Vikix day to day, but Ubuntu is what you’ll meet on cloud VMs, friends’ laptops and most Linux tutorials, so these tasks are worth having in muscle memory.

Why it matters

The first hour on a new Ubuntu machine is always the same: update, set the hostname, create a user, enable SSH, open a port, install a package, start a service. Doing those cleanly – and knowing how to undo them – is the difference between a tidy box and one you don’t trust.

An everyday analogy: a hotel checkout list

Every hotel stay has the same checklist: key card, Wi-Fi code, checkout time, where the ice machine is. The rooms differ, the checklist doesn’t. Ubuntu common tasks are that checklist for a Linux box.

flowchart LR
  A[Fresh Ubuntu] --> B[update & upgrade]
  B --> C[hostname + user + SSH]
  C --> D[install packages]
  D --> E[enable services]
  E --> F[firewall]

A hands-on pocket card

Update the system

sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade          # safer than plain 'upgrade'; handles new deps
sudo apt autoremove --purge    # remove leftover packages

Change the hostname (replaces the old hostname file dance):

sudo hostnamectl set-hostname vikix-lab
# also put the same name in /etc/hosts next to 127.0.1.1

Create a user and give them sudo

sudo adduser vikid
sudo usermod -aG sudo vikid

SSH: install, enable, and use keys

sudo apt install openssh-server
sudo systemctl enable --now ssh
# on your laptop:
ssh-copy-id vikid@server

Then harden a little: in /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/local.conf set PasswordAuthentication no and PermitRootLogin no, then sudo systemctl reload ssh.

Packages: find, install, remove

apt search nginx
apt show nginx
sudo apt install nginx
sudo apt remove nginx          # leave config
sudo apt purge nginx           # remove config too
apt list --installed | less

Prefer .deb packages from Ubuntu’s repos. Snap is preinstalled; Flatpak is one apt install flatpak away. For language toolchains, use the language’s own installer (rustup, nvm, uv) rather than outdated distro packages.

Services with systemd (Apache is the classic example):

sudo apt install apache2
sudo systemctl enable --now apache2    # start now and at boot
sudo systemctl status apache2
sudo systemctl reload apache2          # graceful config reload
sudo systemctl stop apache2
journalctl -u apache2 -f               # live logs

The old sudo service apache2 start still works; it calls systemctl for you.

Firewall with UFW (front end to iptables/nftables):

sudo apt install ufw
sudo ufw allow OpenSSH
sudo ufw allow 'Apache Full'           # or: allow 80,443/tcp
sudo ufw enable
sudo ufw status verbose

Open ports, see who’s listening

ss -tulpn
sudo ss -tulpn | grep :80

Time, locale, and a static IP tip

timedatectl                            # Ubuntu uses systemd-timesyncd by default
sudo timedatectl set-timezone Asia/Dubai
localectl set-locale LANG=en_GB.UTF-8

Network on desktop Ubuntu is NetworkManager (nmtui works). On Ubuntu Server it’s usually Netplan YAML in /etc/netplan/ – edit, then sudo netplan apply.

Common misconceptions

"apt-get is the real command; apt is fake." apt is the recommended interactive tool since Ubuntu 16.04. Use apt-get in scripts for stable output.
"service is deprecated and broken." It’s a compatibility wrapper. Prefer systemctl, but service still works.
“Snap is mandatory.” Firefox and a few others ship as snaps by default; you can replace them with deb or Flatpak packages if you prefer.
“LTS means packages are up to date.” It means stable. Language runtimes and desktop apps can lag – use upstream tools or backports when you need newer.
“You need reboot after everything.” Only after kernel updates (or use livepatch / kexec). systemctl reload is enough for most services.

Connections

systemd – what systemctl is talking to.
nmtui – network configuration from a terminal.
SSH Login – keys, agents and jump hosts.
Firewalls – the ideas behind UFW.
Linux Tools – the wider toolbox.
Arch Linux – a different distro’s answers to the same questions.

service apache2 status start stop apache2 change the computer hostname