From LedHed's Wiki
General Notes
Add GUI to Ububtu Server installations
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop
Add Mouse support to command line interface (CLI)
The package is called 'GPM' which stands for "General Purpose Mouse Interface" It allows for cutting and pasting via the mouse on the command line.
sudo apt-get install gpm
Enable the root account
If you are like me and absolutely hate typing sudo all the time and don't listen to all the people who say logging in as root is CRAZY, then you might like this tip! To enable logging in as root on Ubuntu all you need to do is run the 'passwd' command like so.
sudo passwd root
When prompted, add the root password. Bingo, you can now login as root. I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY DAMAGE YOU MAY DO AS THE ROOT USER!!!