Evan Kroske's questions

I just installed a new SSD in my system, and I'm having numerous problems trying to boot from it.

When I try to boot, the boot-loader-loader (Intel Matrix Storage Manager) skips right over it and tries to boot from the second drive. I installed Grub to the MBR on the second drive, pointing it to the boot files on the SSD. Unfortunately, the SSD is invisible to Grub. Running ls from the Grub rescue prompt shows only the second drive. However, if I boot from a LiveCD or flash drive, I can see and mount the SSD. I believe this is a BIOS problem, but I'm still curious.

How can my SSD show up in Ubuntu but not Grub? What is the difference between the way Grub finds filesystems and the way Ubuntu does?

I need to view a .pub file. How can I view the file or convert it to a more mainstream format (such as a PDF?)

I reformatted a hard drive to ext4, planning to use it as a backup drive. After mounting the freshly-formatted drive, I discovered a single empty directory inside it: lost+found. What's the purpose of this mysterious directory?

I'm setting up a server for backing up my desktop box remotely. I want to prevent remote password access to the server, permitting only users with private keys (AKA my desktop box) to access it. How can I block remote password access while allowing physical password access to the server?

It's rather frustrating to me that I can't watch any of the videos on Apple's site. Is there a QuickTime plugin for Chrome or Firefox, and if not, why?

Right now, I'm running Karmic with an unencrypted home folder sharing a partition with my system files. I'd like to change all that, but I have no idea where to start. Should I move my home folder to its own partition first, to easily perform a clean install? Should I back up my data, repartition my disk, then perform a fresh encrypted install? I'm stumped.

In what order should I transfer my home folder to its own partition, encrypt my data, and migrate to Ubuntu 10.04 to minimize my downtime and protect my data?