Robert's Blog on Tooleweb Computer Solutions

New Site and Blog

Thu, 22 Oct 2026 09:48:59 -0600

I finally got around to updating these pages with something more modern.

More to come.

VirtIO drivers on Server 2008

Mon, 13 Oct 2014 15:05:00 -0700

Installing VirtIO drivers for KVM on Windows Server 2008 (not the R2 version)

Blackberry Playbook to Cisco ASA VPN

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:56:00 -0700

The PlayBook comes out of the box with a very capable VPN client. There are quite a few posts and blogs out there on how to set up the playbook side of things, but very little about the other, Cisco ASA end. IPSec is a very fickle beast, and depends on Both ends of the connection being set up properly.

Installing old versions of the VMware VI client

Fri, 27 May 2011 15:57:00 -0700

The old VI client installer packages don't work with the latest windows installer. Here's how to work around the problem:

HA Active / Passive NFS Cluster

Thu, 10 Mar 2011 13:39:00 -0700

I use NFS volumes for all of my production vmware servers. As a result, loosing your NFS server to a hardware failure would be a very bad thing.

We accomplish this using drbd, and heartbeat

This Guide assumes you have two identicaly configured systems, with an empty partition on each node that is un-formatted and ready to go. It also assumes a dedicated crossover connection between network cards on both nodes.

This setup was completed on a CentOS 5.5 system, utilizing the centosplus yum repository for drbd and the fedora epel repository for heartbeat.

Get ready to pay a LOT more for Internet in Canada

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 10:25:00 -0700

The CRTC has recently made a decision that will force smaller internet service providers to charge similar usage-based fees as Bell, Rogers and Shaw.

What does this mean? forget downloading movies, music, or uploading lots of pictures to facebook, If you use Netflix, get out your wallet.

I have a feeling this move by the big companies is meant to make netflix more expensive than staying on their own poor TV service.

Bluetooth Headset with Kubuntu

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 19:47:00 -0700

I hate wires. I like wireless devices, (Mice, Keyboards and Headsets) I wanted to see if I could get the bluetooth headset, a Motorola MotoPure H5, I bought for my crackberry to work with my SIP softphone running on Kubuntu 10.04. This will help you get the headset working, but I'm assuming you have a working Bluetooth stack already (either Dongle or built in adapter) and a working IP soft phone (SIP or something like Skype)

Cisco MLPPP with 2 ADSL connections

Sun, 06 Feb 2011 10:42:00 -0700

Yes! MLPPP works out west for Telsavvy customers, they don't officially support it but they were quite helpful through the setup phase.

I did this with a Cisco 2691 router, with two wic-1adsl line cards.

High Fiber Rye Seed Bread

Sun, 06 Feb 2011 09:58:00 -0700

The Wife and I have gone on the South Beach diet, and while searching for a good whole grain high fiber bread, I sort of made this one up from one of our bread maker recepes.

Resize a root filesystem on the fly

Sun, 16 Jan 2011 16:39:00 -0700

Most sys-admins have been there, a full file system on a critical production server that you cannot afford to reboot.. If you are using VMWare, and linux LVM, You are in luck. As always, Keep good backups, and use at your own risk, mistakes can render your system completely unusable.

This guide can be used for any filesystem that has been mounted on a Linux logical volume.