Base

Install Base Commands

$ sudo apt install bash-completion curl dtrx file htop iotop jnettop progress sl whois

Setup Clock

To see the current configuration run the following command

$ timedatectl                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
      Local time: Sat 2017-07-01 14:38:42 UTC
  Universal time: Sat 2017-07-01 14:38:42 UTC
        RTC time: Sat 2017-07-01 14:38:42
       Time zone: UTC (UTC, +0000)
 Network time on: yes
NTP synchronized: yes
 RTC in local TZ: no

NTP

Enable NTP to keep your computer clock synchronized. First remove the old ntpdate package if present

$ sudo apt purge ntpdate

Now activate systemd NTP daemon

$ timedatectl set-ntp true

If you get a message like Failed to set ntp: The name org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1 was not provided by any .service files, add sudo in front of the command.

Timezone

To change the timezone, run the following command

$ timedatectl set-timezone UTC

If you get a message like Failed to set time zone: The name org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1 was not provided by any .service files, add sudo in front of the command. To list the possible time zones, run

$ timedatectl list-timezones                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
Africa/Abidjan
Africa/Accra
Africa/Addis_Ababa
Africa/Algiers
Africa/Asmara
Africa/Bamako
Africa/Bangui
Africa/Banjul
Africa/Bissau
Africa/Blantyre
...