On 20/05/18 00:04, Andrew Greig via luv-main wrote:
What should I do about partitioning? Should I use hard partitions say, 20Gb for the /root, should I use a /boot partition or just use the MBR?
You don't really need a separate /boot partition any more unless you have an older BIOS that can only boot from the first part of the drive.
Is mdadm a part of this process or does it get involved later ? ZFS for the pair of drives?
If you use ZFS or btrfs, you probably don't want to use mdadm (software RAID) as well. Better to take advantage of the filesystem-level mirroring. If you use another filesystem (such as XFS, which is what I use on my 4T RAID-1 mirror on my desktop workstation) you will need to install and set up mdadm first, yes.
Do I have to jump through hoops in Ubuntu to watch an MP4 or a Matroska video?
Not if you select the "use third-party proprietary drivers and codecs" checkbox during the install - note that it's off by default, though. Or you can install VLC, which should come with all the codes you need. Hope that helps, Andrew