Author: Avery Freeman

  • Building required VMWare Workstation Kernel Modules Ubuntu ** updated for Secure Boot **

    VMWare Workstation on Ubuntu requires another step to run. Sometimes the installer will install the kernel modules it requires in the installer, other times it won’t. There’s another step to the setup after running the installer that might as well be documented as part of the installation process. It’s compiling kernel extensions for vmmon and…

  • ESXi 6.7 – Forcefully Removing a Phantom NFS Share

    Interesting thing happened to me today. I had to do some work on one of my ESXi 6.7 hosts, so I powered it off (which is something I rarely ever do). I had just done some static configuration of ipv6 on my domain controllers, provisioned DNSSEC, etc. so I was playing with a relatively recently…

  • Building NetBSD pkgsrc on Ubuntu 19.10

    Messing around with my Ubuntu 19.10 rpool installation (ZFS is offered by default in the desktop installer now), and I couldn’t help but think to myself, “gee, it sure would be cool if the ARC was in top like it is in FreeBSD and OmniOS.” So I thought I’d try to compile the NetBSD version…

  • Want BTRFS CoW snapshots but need to use Dropbox?

    Update: Not sure when this happened but I was checking the requirements for FS on Linux at Dropbox.com and apparently they DO support BTRFS once again. So the process outlined in this post is no longer necessary. See announcement: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/19/07/22/1534200/dropbox-brings-back-support-for-zfs-xfs-btrfs-and-ecryptfs-on-linux Old article: This is less of a write up and more of a PSA: Want…

  • Quick and dirty SSH key for pfSense / OPNsense gateway

    PSA: Stop using password login for root on your router! NOW!!! OK, now that I got your attention, here’s how I did it in Git Bash (MINGW64) on Windows LTSC. I promise this is QUICK and EASY, so there’s NO EXCUSE not to do it.

  • Tricks for Importing VMware Workstation VMDK to ESXi 6.7

    So I’ve been playing with some of the Turnkey Linux VMs, which are nice a lightweight Debian Linux OS core packaged with purpose-built software.

  • Asrock J4105-ITX 16GB and 32GB memory configuration tests

    I saw this on a German web site called speicher.de and I thought it was pretty significant so I thought I’d share a copy of the translation to English The Asrock J4105-ITX is a useful low-power build that has been confirmed to work as an ESXi IGD GPU passthrough computer with 4K@60Hz HDMI 2.0. It…

  • Linux or MacOS lover, but have to use Windows?

    Make your Windows experience more nerdy! I tend to notice Windows users fall into a few major categories: Unaware any OS besides Windows exists Uses Windows because that’s what they’re most comfortable with Doesn’t like Windows per se, but can’t afford a Mac, and doesn’t want to grapple with Linux Likes posix-compliant OS better, but…

  • Musings about Home CCTV setup, and a review of Anpviz 5MP@15FPS POE security camera

    This review is for the Anpviz IPC-B850W-D 5MP@15FPS security camera w/ mic and Micro-SD card support. Full disclosure: I purchased this camera and was later reimbursed for writing this review. However, I will do my best to offer a totally objective viewpoint on the pros and cons of this model. Since I was hired to…

  • Using APFS features to migrate from a larger disk to a smaller one

    Disclaimer: Sorry for the phone pics of my screen, I was using an installer disk for this procedure and there was no screenshot feature. I’m migrating a MacOS install but the source drive is 256GB and the destination is 250GB. It’s not too much of a mismatch, but still prevents a straight-across restore. What ever…