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Ubuntu - How to Create Software RAID 1 in 12.04 Ubuntu Linux - Tutorial

There are several guides for creating software RAID's on Ubuntu on the internet. Most of them we've found to be not very comprehensive or difficult to understand and follow. This is why we've created this tutorial as easy to use as we could. Pictures on every step and detailed instructions. In fact, it may be a little to comprehensive, but that's ok. At least you'll be confident you created the RAID correctly. If you do have any questions or run into a problem, feel free to leave a comment below and we'll try to help.

Linux software RAIDs work differently than normal hardware RAID's. They are partition based, instead of disk based. This means that you must create matching partitions on all disks before creating the RAID. Hardware RAIDs have you add the disks to the RAID and then create the partition.

This tutorial was created while installing Ubuntu 12.04 64 bit Server Edition. It's intended to be the first in a series of Linux software RAID tutorials. Future tutorials will cover topics such as how to recover from a failed disk.

This server has two 16GB disks installed. We will be creating 2 partitions: a 2GB swap partition and a 14GB root partition. After we are done, the server will stay in operation if one of the two disks fails. Most of the pictures in this tutorial are self-explanatory. The option you need to choose will be highlighted. We will provide comments on the picture if there is any special considerations.

How to Fix Gedit Running and Opening Slow in Ubuntu

If you just installed Ubuntu 12.04 or 12.10 (any version actually, but these are the 2 I've tested this on), you may notice that opening gedit, the default text editor in Ubuntu, takes a long time. When I say a long time, I mean anywhere from 3 to 10 seconds. To make gedit open a lot faster, do the following:

  • In gedit, go to Edit > Preferences > Plugins
  • Disable "File Browser Panel" plugin (this is the one causing the delayed start)
  • While you're at it, disable any other plugins that you don't need

For more info on the File Browser Panel plugin and what it does, see this link:

https://live.gnome.org/Gedit/Plugins/FileBrowser

Ubuntu Unity - Fix Window Border Decorations Gone - How to Restore Borders that Disappeared

Occasionally, the window decoration borders disappear in Ubuntu's Unity. It looks like the image below when this happens. To fix this problem and restore the borders to the windows, press Alt + F2 and run the following command:

/usr/bin/compiz-decorator

Ubuntu Unity Borders Gone

Ubuntu - How to View or Show Hidden Files in Nautilus or Terminal - Linux

By default, Ubuntu hides hidden files and folders. If you want to view them, you can do it from the file browser Nautilus or from the command line terminal. Here is how:

File Browser Nautilus:

While you have the file browser open, just hit "Ctrl + h". That will allow you to view the hidden files and folders.

Terminal:

The "ls" command will only display files and directories that aren't hidden unless you supply the -a switch. "ls -a" will show you all files and directories, including hidden ones.

Ubuntu - How to Disable Guest Account in 12.04 and 12.10

In some situations, a guest account is useful, but most likely you will want to disable it to prevent people from using your computer without a password. There isn't a graphical way to do disable it. You must edit the lightdm.conf file to disable it.

Press Alt + F2 to open the run box and type in this:

gksudo gedit /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf

Add the following line to the bottom of the file and save it:

allow-guest=false

Restart your computer and you will no longer be able to login as guest. To re-enable the guest account, just remove the line you added from the lightdm.conf file.

Ubuntu - Make Terminal Look Like Green Black Matrix Style Command Line and Transparent

By default, Ubuntu has a rather boring terminal. It features a solid purple background, no transparency, and white text. To make it look matrix style with green on black text and a transparent window, follow these steps:

Open a terminal window:

Ubuntu Terminal Matrix Style 1

Click on Edit > Profile Preferences:

Ubuntu Terminal Matrix Style 2

On the Colors tab, uncheck "Use colors from the system theme" and then select Green on Black from the "Built-in Schemes" list:

Ubuntu Terminal Matrix Style 3

On the Background tab, select "Transparent Background" and adjust the slider bar to your preferred level of transparency:

Ubuntu Terminal Matrix Style 4

You now have a transparent, green on black, matrix style terminal window!

Ubuntu Terminal Matrix Style 5

Ubuntu Linux - How to Get Motherboard Model Number and Other Info from Terminal Command Line

If you need to find the motherboard model of your system from the terminal or command line and you do not want to take off the case, there is a program that comes with Ubuntu by default that can do this: dmidecode

If you do not have it, you can install it with this command in most Debian based distributions (Lubuntu, Debian, Mint):

sudo apt-get install dmidecode

To find out your motherboard model, run this command:

sudo dmidecode -s baseboard-product-name

To find more details about your motherboard, run this command:

sudo dmidecode -t baseboard

To find details about all the hardware on your system, run this command:

sudo dmidecode

How to Disable or Turn Off Apport Error Reporting in Ubuntu 12.04 and 12.10

To disable or turn off Apport error reporting in Ubuntu, simply edit "/etc/default/apport" and change "enabled=1" to "enabled=0". You must edit this file as root. Reboot and apport will not pop up all the time now:

gksudo gedit /etc/default/apport

apport_disable_remove

How to Install Windows Version of Firefox on Ubuntu Linux with Wine

This tutorial shows how to install the latest stable Windows version of Firefox on Ubuntu (currently Firefox 17 and tested on Ubuntu 12.04 and 12.10, but should work on any Debian based system. Check for the latest version of Firefox here). I also recommend installing the Windows version of the Java RE using WINE after completing this tutorial. Follow this tutorial to install Java.

Run these commands to install WINE and download and install Firefox for Windows:

How to Install 200+ Free and Open Source Games in One Command on Ubuntu 12.04 - 11.10 - 11.04 -10.04

If you are looking for an easy way to install over 200 quality free and open source games in Ubuntu, this is it. I've taken the time to go through the Ubuntu Software Center and pick out some of the best games it has to offer. I tried to only include quality games (yes, I left out the glamorous xBill and Bugsx). I must warn, installing these games will download up to 8GB of data from the Ubuntu repositories and depending on your internet speed, could take over 4 hours to complete. For this reason, I recommend having a reliable internet connection before continuing. To install, run the following command for your release:

Ubuntu 12.04:

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