Ubuntu: Synaptic not in menu and cannot start/run from command line

My otherwise blissful installation and use of Ubuntu on an aging 2.4ghz athlon was rudely interrupted today when I could not find Synaptic package manager in my menus, and when, when I tried to run it from the command line, I was informed that there was a su problem and I should contact my administrator. Oy. I am the administrator...

Turns out that the problem was that I somehow removed myself from the admin group, therefore, I lost privileges to do sudo type things (such as fixing the fact that I lost sudo priviliges).

To correct this, I had to reboot and go to the recovery console and choose the root shell option. From there, I used the following command to restore the admin group to my user account.

# usermod --group admin rcs

I then rebooted and everything was good again. So Ubuntu is back in my good graces.

Dual-head kubuntu alt-tab only shows windows on the active screen

I've been plagued by this problem since I installed and configured my Kubuntu 7.04 and I just happened upon the solution by entering the just-right search terms. When I alt-tab to find a window, the list of windows are only the windows on the active screen. Meaning that I get a different list when my mouse pointer is in the left screen and the right screen. I'm used to just seeing all the windows across screens regardless of which screen my mouse pointer is in.

Solution found on ubuntuforums.org (http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-284693.html)

Run: "kcmshell kwinfocus", in the resulting dialog, check "Separate Screen Focus". Save changes and press alt-tab. You should see all windows.