Chapter 6. Using the Ubuntu Installer and date obtained from the system clock when the installation system was booted are correct. It is not possible to manually set the system time during the installation process. Depending on the location selected earlier in the installation process, you may be shown a list of time zones relevant for that location. If your location has only one time zone and you are doing a default installation, you will not be asked anything and the system will assume that time zone. In expert mode or when installing at medium priority, you will have the additional option to select “Coordinated Universal Time” (UTC) as time zone. If for some reason you wish to set a time zone for the installed system that does not match the selected location, there are two options. # dpkg-reconfigure tzdata For automated installations the time zone can be set to any desired value using preseeding. Just before configuring the clock, the installer will allow you to set up the “root” account and/or an account for the first user. Other user accounts can be created after the installation has been completed. The system will ask you whether you wish to create an ordinary user account at this point. This account should be your main personal log-in. The account you create at this point will be given root privileges by means of the sudo command, and the root account itself will have login disabled. If you wish, you can enable the root account later by setting a password for it with the command sudo passwd root . You should not use the root account for daily use or as your personal login, nor should you use sudo except when root privileges are really required. Why not? Well, one reason to avoid using root’s privileges is that it is very easy to do irreparable damage as root. Another reason is that you might be tricked into running a Trojan-horse program — that is a program that takes advantage of your super-user powers to compromise the security of your system behind your back. Any good book on Unix system administration will cover this topic in more detail — consider reading one if it is new to you. You will first be prompted for the user’s full name. Then you’ll be asked for a name for the user account; generally your first name or something similar will suffice and indeed will be the default. Finally, you will be prompted for a password for this account. If at any point after installation you would like to create another account, use the adduser command. 51 6.3.2.1. Create an Ordinary User 6.3.2. Setting Up Users And Passwords 1. The simplest option is to just select a different time zone after the installation has been completed and you’ve booted into the new system. The command to do this is: 2. Alternatively, the time zone can be set at the very start of the installation by passing the parameter time/zone= value when you boot the installation system. The value should of course be a valid time zone, for example Europe/London or UTC .