diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 22a6be0b9..b031ce185 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ test/logs
 coverage.txt
 docs/_build
 docs/tools
+*.log
 
 scripts/wal2json/wal2json
 scripts/cutWALUntil/cutWALUntil
diff --git a/Vagrantfile b/Vagrantfile
index 12cfce475..abbb719f8 100644
--- a/Vagrantfile
+++ b/Vagrantfile
@@ -21,29 +21,31 @@ Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
 
     # install base requirements
     apt-get update
+    apt-get upgrade -y
     apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends wget curl jq \
         make shellcheck bsdmainutils psmisc
     apt-get install -y docker-ce golang-1.9-go
+    apt-get install -y language-pack-en
+
+    apt-get autoremove -y
 
     # needed for docker
-    usermod -a -G docker ubuntu
+    usermod -a -G docker vagrant
 
-    # use "EOF" not EOF to avoid variable substitution of $PATH
-    cat << "EOF" >> /home/ubuntu/.bash_profile
-export PATH=$PATH:/usr/lib/go-1.9/bin:/home/ubuntu/go/bin
-export GOPATH=/home/ubuntu/go
-export LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8
-cd go/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint
-EOF
+    # set env variables
+    echo 'export PATH=$PATH:/usr/lib/go-1.9/bin:/home/vagrant/go/bin' >> /home/vagrant/.bash_profile
+    echo 'export GOPATH=/home/vagrant/go' >> /home/vagrant/.bash_profile
+    echo 'export LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8' >> /home/vagrant/.bash_profile
 
-    mkdir -p /home/ubuntu/go/bin
-    mkdir -p /home/ubuntu/go/src/github.com/tendermint
-    ln -s /vagrant /home/ubuntu/go/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint
+    mkdir -p /home/vagrant/go/bin
+    mkdir -p /home/vagrant/go/src/github.com/tendermint
+    ln -s /vagrant /home/vagrant/go/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint
 
-    chown -R ubuntu:ubuntu /home/ubuntu/go
-    chown ubuntu:ubuntu /home/ubuntu/.bash_profile
+    chown -R vagrant:vagrant /home/vagrant/go
+    chown vagrant:vagrant /home/vagrant/.bash_profile
 
     # get all deps and tools, ready to install/test
-    su - ubuntu -c 'cd /home/ubuntu/go/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint && make get_tools && make get_vendor_deps'
+    source /home/vagrant/.bash_profile
+    cd /home/vagrant/go/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint && make get_tools && make get_vendor_deps
   SHELL
 end