Monday, 16 May 2016

vSphere Client on Windows Server 2008

VmWare vSphere Client 5.5

If you try to run the installer as usual you would get an error complaining that you are not permitted to install the client on a DC.
But I can't access my esxi box from Linux so I do need to RDP to the windows box in order to manage my VM's.
To get around this as with many installers just silence the OS check of the installer by running it from the CMD with the following switch:
/VSKIP_OS_CHECKS="1"


Next you would be prompted to install .Net framework if you haven't already done so and reboot the server once the installation completes.


Now at this point I had to run the installer again inc. the switch from the command prompt.












Result !!






Sunday, 15 May 2016

Minicom for serial console connections

Mini ...what?

Every now and again  I fail to ssh to various device that being a server, firewall box or a random router. The only option at this time is to get physical access to the box and plug my trusty serial pl2303 connector.
At work is straightforward as I use putty on Windows box, but at home I use Ubuntu so the only option that I know of is to use a utility call minicom.
I keep forgeting how to do it as don't have to do it very often  so here's my reminder.

  • Install Minicom
      • sudo apt-get install minicom
  • Find out which connection is being used by your serial cable by executing  the command below
      • george@uc:~$ dmesg  | grep tt
      • [    0.000000] Found optimal setting for mtrr clean up
        [    0.000000] console [tty0] enabled
        [    0.212709] vgaarb: setting as boot device: PCI:0000:00:02.0
        [    0.641198] input: Power Button as /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXSYBUS:00/PNP0C0C:00/input/input1
        [    0.641202] ACPI: Power Button [PBTN]
        [    0.641244] input: Sleep Button as /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXSYBUS:00/PNP0C0E:00/input/input2
        [    0.641247] ACPI: Sleep Button [SBTN]
        [    0.641288] input: Power Button as /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXPWRBN:00/input/input3
        [    0.641291] ACPI: Power Button [PWRF]
        [    0.654926] ACPI: Battery Slot [BAT0] (battery present)
        [    0.697515] evm: HMAC attrs: 0x1
        [    0.698208] rtc_cmos 00:02: setting system clock to 2016-05-14 21:26:40 UTC (1463261200)
        [    0.988132] pps_core: Software ver. 5.3.6 - Copyright 2005-2007 Rodolfo Giomtti <giometti@linux.it>
        [    1.030838] tg3 0000:0a:00.0 eth0: attached PHY is 5761 (10/100/1000Base-T Ethernet) (WireSpeed[1], EEE[0])
        [    1.373946] sd 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0
        [    1.416301] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk
        [    1.734473] sr 1:0:0:0: Attached scsi CD-ROM sr0
        [    1.734574] sr 1:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 5
        [    7.568508] systemd[1]: Created slice system-getty.slice.
        [    7.568525] systemd[1]: Starting system-getty.slice.
        [ 1559.436187] usb 2-1.3: pl2303 converter now attached to ttyUSB0
        [ 1626.066967] pl2303 ttyUSB0: pl2303 converter now disconnected from ttyUSB0
        [ 1629.436887] usb 2-1.4: pl2303 converter now attached to ttyUSB0
        [ 1788.507218] pl2303 ttyUSB0: pl2303 converter now disconnected from ttyUSB0
        [ 1791.877138] usb 2-1.4: pl2303 converter now attached to ttyUSB0
        [ 2373.961110] pl2303 ttyUSB0: pl2303 converter now disconnected from ttyUSB0
        [ 2376.303718] usb 2-1.4: pl2303 converter now attached to ttyUSB0
        [ 2517.698598] pl2303 ttyUSB0: pl2303 converter now disconnected from ttyUSB0
        [ 2523.630796] usb 2-1.3: pl2303 converter now attached to ttyUSB0
  • From the output above I can see that my cable is attached to ttyUSB0 
  • It's time to configure Minicom
      • george@uc:~$ sudo minicom -s -c on
    • You should now see the config window as below


  • Select the Serial port setup and press A to change the port
    • Now this will depend on individual set up but in my case I need to change the port to /dev/ttyUSB0
  • Select E and change the baud rate to 9600


  • Save the setup as DFL and exit minicom
  • Now run 
    • sudo minicom
  • You should now be able to connect to your device if you press the spacebar a couple of times 
  • I just tried it with putty on my Ubuntu box and it worked as well as with minicom , some of you may find it a bit more intuitive by using putty


Now what was the password for that box ????



Tuesday, 3 May 2016

Cisco IOS Voice Gateway

Here's some of my quick reference CLI commands for troubleshooting and testing Cisco Voice Gateway

Which ISDN channels are in service
VG224#sh isdn service

To show which rule is matched
VG224#test voice translation -rule 10 XXXXXX

How to monitor Cisco Unity with RTMT

One way to find out what's going on with your Unity box is to use standard tool such as RTMT.
  • Download the tool from the Plugins section of your call manager.
  • Once all set up login to RTMT with your normal admin account
  • Navigate to Unity Connection> Port Monitor



  • You should now be able to see all your ports as configured in CUC

  • At this point to see the result press the Msg button on your phone and login to your mailbox
  • You should be able to see now in information in real-time as users dial in and access the server



Thursday, 28 May 2015

iPBX installation on Ubuntu 14.04 -Guide by Nerd Vittle

Here are the steps to get Ubuntu 14.04 humming on your new server or virtual machine once you’ve booted up. If you can bake cookies from a recipe, you can do this:

UBUNTU mini.iso install:
Choose language
Choose timezone
Detect keyboard
Hostname: incrediblepbx < continue >
Choose mirror for downloads
Confirm archive mirror
Leave proxy blank unless you need it < continue >
** couple minutes of whirring as initial components are loaded **
New user name: incredible < continue >
Account username: incredible < continue >
Account password: makeitsecure < continue >
Encrypt home directory < no >
Confirm time zone < yes >
Partition disks: Guided - use entire disk and set up LVM
Confirm disk to partition
Write changes to disks and configure LVM
Whole volume? < continue>
Write changes to disks < yes> < -- last chance to preserve your disk drive!
** about 15 minutes of whirring during base system install ** < no touchy anything>
** another 5 minutes of whirring during base software install ** < no touchy anything>
Upgrades? Install security updates automatically
** another 5 minutes of whirring during more software installs ** < no touchy anything>
Software selection: *Basic Ubuntu server (only!)
** another couple minutes of whirring during software installs ** < no touchy anything>
Grub boot loader: < yes>
UTC for system clock: < no>
Installation complete: < continue> after removing installation media
** on VirtualBox, PowerOff after reboot and remove [-] mini.iso from Storage Tree & restart VM
login as user: incredible
** enter user incredible's password **
sudo passwd
** enter incredible password again and then create secure root user password **
su root
** enter root password **
apt-get update
apt-get install ssh -y
sed -i 's|without-password|yes|' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
sed -i 's|yes"|without-password"|' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
sed -i 's|"quiet"|"quiet text"|' /etc/default/grub
update-grub
ifconfig
** write down the IP address of your server from ifconfig results
reboot
** login via SSH to continue **
Installing Incredible PBX on Your Ubuntu 14.04 Server
Adding Incredible PBX to a running Ubuntu 14.04 server is a walk in the park. To restate the obvious, your server needs a reliable Internet connection to proceed. Using SSH (or Putty on a Windows machine), log into your new server as root at the IP address you deciphered in the ifconfig step at the end of the Ubuntu install procedure above. First, make sure to run the update step for Ubuntu before you begin the install. This is especially important if using a cloud-based Ubuntu 14 server.
apt-get update && apt-get upgrade -y && reboot
WARNING: If you’re using a 512MB droplet at Digital Ocean, be advised that their Ubuntu setup does NOT include a swap file. This may cause serious problems when you run out of RAM. Uncomment ./create-swapfile-DO line below to create a 1GB swap file which will be activated whenever you exceed 90% RAM usage on Digital Ocean.
Now let’s begin the Incredible PBX install. Log back in as root and issue the following commands:
cd /root
wget http://incrediblepbx.com/incrediblepbx11.4.ubuntu14.tar.gz
tar zxvf incrediblepbx*
#./create-swapfile-DO
./Incredible*
Once you have agreed to the license agreement and terms of use, press Enter and go have a 30-minute cup of coffee. The Incredible PBX installer runs unattended so find something to do for a bit unless you just like watching code compile. When you see “Have a nice day”, your installation is complete. Write down your admin password for FreePBX as well as your three “knock” ports for PortKnocker. If you forget them, you can reset your admin password by running /root/admin-pw-change. And you can retrieve your PortKnocker setup like this: cat /root/knock.FAQ.
Log out and back in as root and you should be greeted with a status display that looks something like this:

You can access the Asterisk CLI by typing: asterisk -rvvvvvvvvvv
You can access the FreePBX GUI using your favorite web browser to configure your server. Just enter the IP address shown in the statusdisplay. The default username is admin with the randomized password you wrote down above. If desired, you can change them in FreePBX Administration by clicking Admin -> Administrators -> admin. Enter a new password and click Submit Changes then Apply Config. Now edit extension 701 so you can figure out (or change) the randomized passwords that were set up for default 701 extension and voicemail: Applications -> Extensions -> 701.

Setting Up a Soft Phone to Use with Incredible PBX
Now you’re ready to set up a telephone so that you can play with Incredible PBX. We recommend YateClient which is free. Download it from here. Run YateClient once you’ve installed it and enter the credentials for the 701 extension on Incredible PBX. You’ll need the IP address of your server plus your extension 701 password. Choose Settings -> Accounts and click the New button. Fill in the blanks using the IP address of your server, 701 for your account name, and whatever password you created for the extension. Click OK.

Once you are registered to extension 701, close the Account window. Then click on YATE’s Telephony Tab and place some test calls to the numerous apps that are preconfigured on Incredible PBX. Dial a few of these to get started:
123 - Reminders
222 - ODBC Demo (use acct: 12345)
947 - Weather by ZIP Code
951 - Yahoo News
*61 - Time of Day
*68 - Wakeup Call
TODAY - Today in History
Now you’re ready to connect to the telephones in the rest of the world. If you live in the U.S., the easiest way (at least for now) is to use an existing (free) Google Voice account. Google has threatened to shut this down but as this is written, it still works with previously set up Google Voice accounts. The more desirable long-term solution is to choose several SIP providers and set up redundant trunks for your incoming and outbound calls. The PIAF Forum includes dozens of recommendations to get you started.

Configuring Google Voice
If you want to use Google Voice, you’ll need a dedicated Google Voice account to support Incredible PBX. If you want to use the inbound fax capabilities of Incredible Fax 11, then you’ll need an additional Google Voice line that can be routed to the FAX custom destination using FreePBX. The more obscure the username (with some embedded numbers), the better off you will be. This will keep folks from bombarding you with unsolicited Gtalk chat messages, and who knows what nefarious scheme will be discovered using Google messaging six months from now. So keep this account a secret!
We’ve tested this extensively using an existing Google Voice account, and inbound calling is just not reliable. The reason seems to be that Google always chooses Gmail chat as the inbound call destination if there are multiple registrations from the same IP address. So, be reasonable. Do it our way! Use a previously configured and dedicated Gmail and Google Voice account, and use it exclusively withIncredible PBX 11.
IMPORTANT: Be sure to enable the Google Chat option as one of your phone destinations in Settings, Voice Setting, Phones. That’s the destination we need for The Incredible PBX to work its magic! Otherwise, all inbound and outbound calls will fail. If you don’t see this option, you’re probably out of luck. Google has disabled the option in newly created accounts as well as some old ones that had Google Chat disabled. Now go back to the Google Voice Settings.
While you’re still in Google Voice Settings, click on the Calls tab. Make sure your settings match these:
Call Screening – OFF
Call Presentation – OFF
Caller ID (In) – Display Caller’s Number
Caller ID (Out) – Don’t Change Anything
Do Not Disturb – OFF
Call Options (Enable Recording) – OFF
Global Spam Filtering – ON
Click Save Changes once you adjust your settings. Under the Voicemail tab, plug in your email address so you get notified of new voicemails. Down the road, receipt of a Google Voice voicemail will be a big hint that something has come unglued on your PBX.
One final word of caution is in order regardless of your choice of providers: Do NOT use special characters in any provider passwords, or nothing will work!

Now you’re ready to set up your Google Voice trunk in FreePBX. After logging into FreePBX with your browser, click the Connectivity tab and choose Google Voice/Motif. To Add a new Google Voice account, just fill out the form. Do NOT check the third box or incoming calls will never ring!

IMPORTANT LAST STEP: Google Voice will not work unless you restart Asterisk from the Linux command line at this juncture. Using SSH, log into your server as root and issue the following command: amportal restart.
If you have trouble getting Google Voice to work (especially if you have previously used your Google Voice account from a different IP address), try this Google Voice Reset Procedure. It usually fixes connectivity problems. If it still doesn’t work, enable Less Secure Apps using this Google tool.
SIP Gateways for Google Voice — GVsip and Simonics
Troubleshooting Audio and DTMF Problems
You can avoid one-way audio on calls and touchtones that don’t work with these simple settings in FreePBX: Settings -> Asterisk SIP Settings. Just plug in your public IP address and your private IP subnet. Then set ULAW as the only Audio Codec.

Adding Speech Recognition to Incredible PBX
To support many of our applications, Incredible PBX has included Google’s speech recognition service for years. These applications include Weather Reports by City (949), AsteriDex Voice Dialing by Name (411), and Wolfram Alpha for Asterisk (4747), all of which use Lefteris Zafiris’ terrific speech-recog AGI script. Unfortunately (for some), Google now has tightened up the terms of use for their free speech recognition service. Now you can only use it for “personal and development use.” If you meet those criteria, keep reading. Here’s how to activate speech recognition on Incredible PBX. Don’t skip any steps!
1. Using an existing Google/Gmail account to join the Chrome-Dev Group.
2. Using the same account, create a new Speech Recognition Project.

3. Click on your newly created project and choose APIs & auth.
4. Turn ON Speech API by clicking on its Status button in the far right margin.

5. Click on Credentials in APIs & auth and choose Create New Key -> Server key. Leave the IP address restriction blank!

6. Write down your new API key or copy it to the clipboard.
7. Log into your server as root and issue the following commands:
# for Ubuntu and Debian platforms
apt-get clean
apt-get install libjson-perl flac -y
# for RedHat and CentOS platforms
yum -y install perl-JSON
# for all Linux platforms
cd /var/lib/asterisk/agi-bin
mv speech-recog.agi speech-recog.last.agi
wget --no-check-certificate https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zaf/asterisk-speech-recog/master/speech-recog.agi
chown asterisk:asterisk speech*
chmod 775 speech*
nano -w speech-recog.agi
8. When the nano editor opens, go to line 70 of speech-recog.agi: my $key = "". Insert your API key from Step #6 above between the quotation marks and save the file: Ctrl-X, Y, then Enter.
Now you’re ready to try out the speech recognition apps. Dial 949 and say the name of a city and state/province/country to get a current weather forecast from Yahoo. Dial 411 and say “American Airlines” to be connected to American.
To use Wolfram Alpha by phone, you first must install it. Obtain your free Wolfram Alpha APP-ID here. Then run the one-click installer: /root/wolfram/wolframalpha-oneclick.sh. Insert your APP-ID when prompted. Now dial 4747 to access Wolfram Alpha by phone and enter your query, e.g. “What planes are overhead.” Read the Nerd Vittles tutorial for additional examples and tips.
A Few Words about the Incredible PBX Security Model for Ubuntu
Incredible PBX for Ubuntu 14 is our most secure turnkey PBX implementation, ever. As configured, it is protected by both Fail2Ban and a hardened configuration of the IPtables Linux firewall. As configured, nobody can access your PBX without  your credentials AND  an IP address that is either on your private network or that matches the IP address of your server or the PC from which you installed Incredible PBX. Incredible PBX is preconfigured to let you connect to many of the leading SIP hosting providers without additional firewall tweaking.
You can whitelist additional IP addresses for remote access in several ways. First, you can use the command-line utilities: /root/add-ipand /root/add-fqdn. You can also remove whitelisted IP addresses by running /root/del-acct. Second, you can dial into extension 864 (or use a DID pointed to extension 864 aka TM4) and enter an IP address to whitelist. Before Travelin’ Man 4 will work, you’ll need to add credentials for each caller using the tools in /root/tm4. You must add at least one account before dial-in whitelisting will be enabled. Third, you can temporarily whitelist an IP address by successfully executing the PortKnocker 3-knock code established for your server. You’ll find the details and the codes in /root/knock.FAQ. Be advised that IP addresses whitelisted with PortKnocker (only!) go away whenever your server is rebooted or the IPtables firewall is restarted. For further information on the PortKnocker technology and available clients for iOS and Android devices, review the Nerd Vittles tutorial.
HINT: The reason that storing your PortKnocker codes in a safe place is essential is because it may be your only available way to gain access to your server if your IP address changes. You obviously can’t use the command-line tools to whitelist a new IP address if you cannot gain access to your server at the new IP address.
We always recommend you also add an extra layer of protection by running your server behind a hardware-based firewall with no Internet port exposure, but that’s your call. If you use a hardware-based firewall, be sure to map the three PortKnocker ports to the internal IP address of your server!
The NeoRouter VPN client also is included for rock-solid, secure connectivity for remote users. Read our previous tutorial for setup instructions.
As one would expect, the IPtables firewall is a complex piece of software. If you need assistance configuring it, visit the PIAF Forum for some friendly assistance.
Adding Incredible Fax 11 to Your Server
Once you’ve completed the Incredible PBX install, log out and log back in to load the latest automatic updates. Then reboot. Now you’re ready to continue your adventure by installing Incredible Fax 11 for Ubuntu. Special thanks to Josh North for all his hard work on this! The latest download includes the Incredible Fax 11 installer. So just run the script:
cd /root
./incrediblefax11_ubuntu14.sh
Accept all of the defaults during the installation process. IMPORTANT: Once you complete the install, reboot your server. After rebooting, log into FreePBX -> Module Admin and enable the AvantFax module. When you log out of FreePBX, there now will be an option for AvantFax on the FreePBX login screen. Choose it and enter admin:password to login and change your default password. You also can set your AvantFax admin password by logging into the Linux CLI and… /root/avantfax-pw-change.
Incredible Backup and Restore
We’re pleased to introduce our latest backup and restore utilities for Incredible PBX. Running /root/incrediblebackup will create a backup image of your server in /tmp. This backup image then can be copied to any other medium desired for storage. To restore it to another Incredible PBX 11 server, simply copy the image to a server running Asterisk 11 and FreePBX 2.11 and run/root/incrediblerestore. Doesn’t get much simpler than that.
NEWS FLASH: More good news. If you decide you’d prefer another Linux platform, Incredible Backup and Restore will now let you migrate from one operating system to another. For details on the procedure, see this message thread.
Incredible PBX Automatic Update Utility
Every time you log into your server as root, Incredible PBX will ping the IncrediblePBX.com web site to determine whether one or more updates are available to bring your server up to current specs. We recommend you log in at least once a week just in case some new security vulnerability should come along.
In the meantime, we encourage you to sign up for an account on the PIAF Forum and join the discussion. In addition to providing first-class, free support, we think you’ll enjoy the camaraderie. Come join us!

Originally published: Monday, June 30, 2014    Updated: Wednesday, January 7, 2015
Support Issues. With any application as sophisticated as this one, you’re bound to have questions. Blog comments are a terrible place to handle support issues although we welcome general comments about our articles and software. If you have particular support issues, we encourage you to get actively involved in thePBX in a Flash Forums. It’s the best Asterisk tech support site in the business, and it’s all free! Please have a look and post your support questions there. Unlike some forums, ours is extremely friendly and is supported by literally hundreds of Asterisk gurus and thousands of users just like you. You won’t have to wait long for an answer to your question.

Need help with Asterisk? Visit the PBX in a Flash Forum.

New Vitelity Special. Vitelity has generously offered a new discount for PBX in a Flash users. You now can get an almost half-price DID from our special Vitelity sign-up link. If you’re seeking the best flexibility in choosing an area code and phone number plus the lowest entry level pricing plus high quality calls, then Vitelity is the hands-down winner. Vitelity provides Tier A DID inbound service in over 3,000 rate centers throughout the US and Canada. And, when you use our special link to sign up, the Nerd Vittles and PBX in a Flash projects get a few shekels down the road while you get an incredible signup deal as well. The going rate for Vitelity’s DID service is $7.95 a month which includes up to 4,000 incoming minutes on two simultaneous channels with terminations priced at 1.45¢ per minute. Not any more! For PBX in a Flash users, here’s a deal you can’t (and shouldn’t) refuse! Sign up now, and you can purchase a Tier A DID with unlimited incoming calls for just $3.99 a month. To check availability of local numbers and tiers of service from Vitelity, click here. Do not use this link to order your DIDs, or you won’t get the special pricing! Vitelity’s rate is just 1.44¢ per minute for outbound calls in the U.S. There is a $35 prepay when you sign up. This covers future usage and any balance is fully refundable if you decide to discontinue service with Vitelity.

Some Recent Nerd Vittles Articles of Interest…

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With some providers including ones linked in this article, Nerd Vittles receives referral fees which assist in keeping the Nerd Vittles lights burning brightly. [↩]
Posted in Technology, Telephony by ward, Wednesday, January 7, 2015 4:00 am
Tags: asterisk, fax, freepbx, google voice, gvoice, IncrediblePBX, twitter, voip
20 Responses to “30 Minutes to Paradise: Incredible PBX for Ubuntu 14.04 is Ready for Primetime”

Eric
Monday, June 30, 2014 at 8:12 am
See what happens when your (Me) too stupid to say no!
If you want to completely automate the upgrades go to https://help.ubuntu.com/10.04/serverguide/automatic-updates.html this explains how to do it. It can be set to email when it has installed updates. Sorry I’m lazy and forgetful!
Glad to see all my efforts go to good use!
Skavoovie
Monday, June 30, 2014 at 12:52 pm
A quick fix to allow PHP5.5+ to accept both the PHP short tag and the long tag ( <? vs. <?php ):
/etc/php.ini:
short_open_tag = On
Restart Apache and done.
AlfaNerd
Wednesday, July 2, 2014 at 1:14 pm
I tried your installation instructions on a pre-built ubuntu 14 server in the cloud and it does not function. I’m guessing there are some prerequisites to the server instance including php and mysql being installed.
I cannot run (or even find) the asterisk binary but any attempt to rerun the installation scripts results in a message “Incredible PBX is already installed.”
Can I recover from this?
[WM: You didn’t mention which cloud provider you were using. Works flawlessly on Digital Ocean. We would need a good bit more information to troubleshoot what went wrong. That’s what the PIAF Forum is there for. We install the LAMP stack as part of the Incredible PBX installation procedure so that’s not the problem. You can attempt to rerun the installer and see where the install is failing. Just delete /etc/pbx/.incredible, and you’re good to go. ]
Bob
Thursday, July 3, 2014 at 10:42 am
So glad to see Ubuntu available for PBX in a Flash! Thanks Ward :)
Steve
Friday, July 11, 2014 at 2:37 am
I seem to be unable to find Google’s Speech Recognition in the api-list.
Any ideas, whether it is still available for new users at all?
[WM: It is still available, but the license has changed a bit. Read the Adding Speech Recognition tutorial in this article. It will walk you through setting it up. Did you skip the first step??
Marcelo
Monday, July 14, 2014 at 8:36 am
Came to the site to see if PIAF was being supported on CentOS7 and found out the great news that I can now have all Ubuntu VMs on my servers.
Still don’t understand why setting up and maintaining a ppa repository would not be a better approach. Yes, you mentioned the preference to compiling Asterisk from source but is it really a smart tradeoff to lose all the great work a package manager can offer for free – fast security updates included?
[WM: Nothing in our build precludes enabling automatic security updates with Ubuntu. And Incredible PBX handles automatic security updates for Asterisk and any other problems we spot.]
Slambers
Wednesday, July 16, 2014 at 4:08 am
‘The Incredible PBX installer runs unattended so find something to do for the next 30 minutes unless you just like watching code compile. When you see “Have a nice day”, your installation is complete.’
In between the above stages, I get a load of questions I don’t know the answer to:
‘Enter your USERNAME to connect to the ‘asterisk’ database:
Enter your PASSWORD to connect to the ‘asterisk’ database:
Enter the hostname of the ‘asterisk’ database:
Enter a USERNAME to connect to the Asterisk Manager interface:
Enter a PASSWORD to connect to the Asterisk Manager interface:’
Is this normal behaviour, and if so, what am I supposed to be entering?
[WM: Sounds like you’re either using the wrong version of Ubuntu or you skipped the initial (required) update, upgrade, and reboot steps. Follow the tutorial exactly, and you shouldn’t have any problems. Still works as advertised for us.]
Josh
Thursday, July 24, 2014 at 3:07 pm
The Google Voice section still mentions FAX capabilities, but I don’t see how I can use Incredible Fax on the Ubuntu installation with the method on this page. Is that just leftover from a copy/paste from other tutorials or am I missing something?
[WM: Thanks for the heads up, Josh. We’ll have a look. Running a little low on people with paddles at the moment, but we’ll get it squared away… soon. Ubuntu is still very much a testing platform. If you need a production-ready system, switch to Incredible PBX with PIAF-Green and FreePBX 2.11 on the CentOS 6.5 platform.]
Josh
Saturday, July 26, 2014 at 10:51 pm
Thanks so much for the reply! It’s purely experimental for me currently, my production clients use a mix of “real” PIAF or custom asterisk boxes, quite frankly the only reason I am testing this version is that I prefer Apt to Yum :)
I might see if I can play around with porting over incredfax over the next couple of weekends on my own for kicks.
Thanks for all your work on this!
[WM: Thanks, Josh. Wrestling with Incredible Fax would be a huge help. Come join the forum!]
Bill Dengler
Wednesday, August 6, 2014 at 1:16 am
I installed the preview. How can I upgrade without reinstalling/reconfiguring everything? Do I simply run your new installer?
[WM: Download and untar Incredible Backup 11 for Ubuntu, make a backup, and copy it from /tmp to your desktop. Install the newest version, copy the backup image to /tmp, and run /root/incrediblerestore.]
zhando
Thursday, August 7, 2014 at 2:26 pm
Waiting for approval at the forum. So I’ll try here.
First, thank you for developing this ubuntu install of incrediblepbx.. I much prefer this over the old CentOS implementation.
I’ve been messing with this ubuntu installation on a cubox-i2ex for my simple soho installation. It’s looking promising..
While I’ve been studying the hiccups on the cubox-i, I’ve been using the ubuntu preview on an x86 box – two providers, handful of extensions.. Been pretty good so far.
One problem on BOTH platforms that is driving me nuts: the install scripts breaks the OS reboot/shutdown. Short of cycling power, I can’t reboot or shutdown either the x86 or arm boxes. Anyone experience this? Suggestions?
[WM: Try this!]
cd /root
wget --no-check-certificate https://raw.githubusercontent.com/joshnorth/UbuntuPIAF/master/FixIncrediblePBXMySQL.sh
chmod +x FixIncrediblePBXMySQL.sh
./FixIncrediblePBXMySQL.sh
zhando
Friday, August 8, 2014 at 3:39 pm
Ward,
Thanks for the tip. It seems to work. That one was driving me crazy..
Looking through the install script – it downloads knockd from the debian repos. Why not just use the Ubuntu trusty universe repo?
No need then to dl libpcap and test for 32/64 bit..
[WM: Thank you for the tip! As time permits, we’ll rework it to incorporate your suggestion.]
Anthony McCarhy
Sunday, August 17, 2014 at 12:23 pm
Awesome installation of piaf on ubuntu!
I see above some people are confused between updates and upgrades.
After installing 14.04 you recommend the following command as root:
apt-get update && apt-get upgrade -y && reboot
This works fine for those using an older version of ubuntu.
However, when 14.10 is released in October, the upgrade typically breaks lots of stuff, and very likely will break Incredible PBX also.
I suggest you put a caveat about the October upgrade to 14.10 – and give people a heads up.
[WM: Thanks, Anthony. Still an Ubuntu newbie here. We’ll update the article and remove the upgrade component. We initially had problems, but it may have been because we didn’t run update or upgrade. In any case, you’re absolutely right. We’ve learned the hard way with CentOS upgrades. No need to reinvent the wheel.]
Ryan
Wednesday, September 3, 2014 at 3:46 pm
Awesome!! Glad to see this guide!
Unfortunately, I tried to run the install on a Digital Ocean droplet that I host my web applications on and ran into some problems.
I tried the brand new Vultr.com hosting solution, fired up a new VPS for 5 bucks and better specs than D.O., and voila — the install worked flawlessly.
FYI, the problem I ran into on D.O. had to do with PHP loading a blank page when visiting my IP. Probably because of my own preconfigurations though.
Thanks again.
dny
Sunday, September 7, 2014 at 8:33 am
how can i connect multiple pbx (like branch offices) ??
[WM: Visit the PIAF Forum. There are numerous ways.]
Eric
Sunday, September 14, 2014 at 12:18 am
Hello,
Sorry if I am confused. Is fax available (specifically on the rentpbx version of Incredible Pbx for Ubuntu 14) I see references on the CuBox Ubuntu, and of course in the Incredible PBX 11… but am stumped as to installation on what i have. I saw an earlier note to consider piaf green/centos… but not sure if that was specific to fax or something else…. Thanks!!!
[WM: It’s still experimental but Josh North appears to have tamed the fax beast on Ubuntu. Here’s the link.]
Tevor
Tuesday, September 16, 2014 at 7:52 am
I am wondering if this will work with a web server installed as well on the computer. I am running a web server using Ubuntu server 14.04.
I have tried freepbx but crashed and never played nice with my setup, So i had to restore my server.
[WM: Not a good idea to do web hosting and VoIP telephony on the same box.]
Christian
Friday, September 26, 2014 at 7:02 pm
After the installation, i can only login to webmin and not the the gui. Is there something i have to do or is it running on a non standard port? Thanks.
[WM: Take another look at the tutorial. Did you set up an admin password??]
Peter
Tuesday, September 30, 2014 at 8:52 pm
I noticed that the IPTables allow access from 10.0.0.0/8 and 192.168.0.0/16 but 172.16.0.0/12 is not allowed. Is it easy to add a whole subnet?
WM: We disabled this because of a reported problem on Amazon EC2. But it’s easy to enable it again. Just issue the following commands. Or you could add a subnet directly by editing /etc/iptables/rules.v4 and restarting IPtables. Just be sure to use our iptables-restart script so that IPtables doesn’t end up disabled if you make a coding error!
sed -i 's|#-A INPUT -s 172.16.0.0/12|-A INPUT -s 172.16.0.0/12|' /etc/iptables/rules.v4
iptables-restart
Nerd Uno
Wednesday, October 29, 2014 at 5:04 am
Just a heads up that Ubuntu has released 14.10. For the time being, stick with 14.04 LTS. There are a few wrinkles to iron out with 14.10.
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Sunday, 8 March 2015

Configuring Exim on IncrediblePBX

Configuring Exim to use Gmail Step by Step
Run: 

#root/email-setup
As you go through the wizard select the following entries:
Mail Sent by SmartHost

System Mail Name:
localhost



 Listen on:
127.0.0.1

Other Domains:
blank
Other Machines:
blank
IP of Outgoing SmartHost: 
smtp.gmail.com::587
Hide Local Mail Name:
No

Dial on Demand:
No
Delivery Method: 
mbox
 Split Config:
No
Create app specific password in Google to be used for the gmail credentials in passwd.client :
pico /etc/exim4/passwd.client
 Entry should look like this:
 *.google.com:yourname@gmail.com:yourpassword
 Update Exim by running this command: 
update-exim4.conf
 Restart your mail gateway: 

service sendmail restart


Thursday, 11 December 2014

Installing FreePBX on rPi

Setup And Run Asterisk and FreeBPX on A Raspberry PI

Finally recieved the Raspberry PI on Friday (25th May 2012) after a two and half year wait! My plan, which I had all that time to think about, discuss with others and have ready is still not concrete but initially, I have order 3 devices to play with.

As a Asterisk Engineer, one of the first things I wanted to tackle was to install the latest Asterisk and FreePBX on it. I build Asterisk based PBX systems for a living, so this shouldn't be that difficult. I responded on http://www.raspberry-asterisk.org/ to say I was going to attempt this and report back but so far the Admin has not got back to me on how I can add there so I have written this up here.



This guide is for complete newbies in getting the Raspberry PI to get set-up and run as a IP PBX using Asterisk and FreePBX
 

I intended to install Asterisk and FreePBX 2.9 (this is a matter of choice as I am accustomed to the layout before 2.10). I purchased a 8GB SD card instead of 2GB, which is sufficient for just Asterisk 1.8 but not enough for FreePBX. Here's the install process....

Install Squeeze - Get The PI Ready
Anyone with a Raspberry PI in their hands should first go though the following process and set up Debian Squeeze. For my setup, I had an 8GB SD Card. I downloaded Debian Squeeze for the PI from here and the Win32DiskImager from here, Stuck my SD card in to my windows laptop and fired up Win32 Disk Imager. Next, Unzipped the debian file and browsed to it in Win32 Disk Imager, select the correct drive letter in the drop down and let the imaging start. This is by far the quickest and dirtiest way to get Squeeze on to the SD.

After completion, I launched a Live CD of GParted, which is an amazing tool to partition disks. I increased the swap partition to 300Mb and moved it to the end of the drive. I then rezised the rootfs partition to used all the unallocated space on the drive.

Alternatively, you can follow the information on this great guide to go through and set up the drive properly and learn how to do the GParted stuff I mentioned above. 

Internet Access on the Raspberry PI

If you connect the PI to your local network which has a ADSL/CABLE router or mode, then it should have DHCP on. DHCP will provide it an IP address and this will be displayed on-screen when the PI boots up before the log in screen. If it doesnt, you need to get an IP and add this in manually. To do this, log in to the PI using the default username: pi and password: Raspberry and type the following command:

sudo vi /etc/network/interfaces


Using VI : Edit the file using by pressing 'a' to insert text. Once editied, press escape to come out of editing mode.

The IP parameters should be as follows with your specific IP address information:

iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.1.100
gateway 192.168.1.1
netmask 255.255.255.0
network 192.168.1.0
broadcast 192.168.1.255


NOTE: Dont forget to comment/remove line stating:  

iface eth0 inet dhcp

Additionally you will need to set up DNS in order to get out on the internet. This setting should be done in the resolve.conf file as follows:

sudo vim /etc/resolv.conf

This should say something like:

nameserver 8.8.8.8
nameserver 192.168.1.1

to test network connectivity, at the command line, type in

ping <your favourite serach engine.com>

Press CTRL+C to stop pinging.



Update Asterisk Install Pre-requisites

To start with, update the system and install the required componants by copying the command below:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get -y install make gcc g++ libxml2 libxml2-dev ssh libncurses5 libncursesw5 libncurses5-dev libncursesw5-dev linux-libc-dev sqlite libnewt-dev libusb-dev zlib1g-dev libmysqlclient15-dev libsqlite0 libsqlite0-dev bison openssl libssl-dev libeditline0 libeditline-dev libedit-dev mc sox libedit2 libedit-dev curl libcurl4-gnutls-dev apache2 libapache2-mod-php5 php-pear openssh-server build-essential openssh-client zlib1g zlib1g-dev libtiff4 libtiff4-dev libnet-telnet-perl mime-construct libipc-signal-perl libmime-types-perl libproc-waitstat-perl mpg123 libiksemel-dev php5 php5-cli mysql-server php5-mysql php-db libapache2-mod-php5 php5-gd php5-curl mysql-client vim

Dowload and Extract Asterisk

To Download and Extract asterisk, enter the commands as below:

cd /usr/src 
sudo wget http://downloads.asterisk.org/pub/telephony/asterisk/asterisk-1.8-current.tar.gz 
sudo tar xvfz asterisk-1.8-current.tar.gz 
cd asterisk-1.8*

Set Up Correct Compilation For ARM Platform
Using your favorite editor, make the change below. I prefer VIM, an enhanced version of the popular VI command line editor:

sudo vim makeopts.in

Search for the word "proc=" in the file and change this to read "proc=arm". For those new to VIM, move to the end of this line using the arrow keys and press 'a', then remove all the chractors before the = sign using back space and type in 'arm'. Finally press escape to come out of editing mode. Then press SHIFT+Z+Z to save and exit the file.

Compile and Install Asterisk
Using the following commands:

sudo ./configure
sudo make
sudo make install
sudo make samples
sudo make config


Finally, restart the PI by typing the fillowing command:

sudo init 6

Congratulations - Asterisk installed is now installed



To test the install, log in to the PI and type the following command:

sudo asterisk -r



If this all works, great...lets move on to installing FreePBX.

Create And Setup Asterisk Users And Groups Permissions

sudo useradd -c "Asterisk PBX" -d /var/lib/asterisk asterisksudo chown -R asterisk:asterisk /var/run/asterisksudo chown -R asterisk:asterisk /var/log/asterisksudo chown -R asterisk:asterisk /var/lib/php/session/


Install Pear and DB
FreePBX uses the php pear repository and specifically requires the database repositor. Enter the commands below to install them:

sudo apt-get install php-pear
sudo pear install db


Download And Extract FreePBX

To Download and Extract FreePBX, enter the commands as below:

cd /usr/src/
sudo wget http://mirror.freepbx.org/freepbx-2.9.0.tar.gz
tar zxvf freepbx*



Start The MySQL Server And Import In The FreePBX Data
Lets start the database server and import in the tables FreePBX will require using th following commands:

sudo service mysql start
cd /usr/src/freepbx*

sudo mysqladmin create asterisk
sudo mysqladmin create asteriskcdrdb
sudo mysql asterisk < SQL/newinstall.sql
sudo mysql asteriskcdrdb < SQL/cdr_mysql_table.sql
sudo mysql





Lets add the mysql user and give it the correct permissions under the MySQL prompt:

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON asteriskcdrdb.* TO asteriskuser@localhost IDENTIFIED BY '******';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON asterisk.* TO asteriskuser@localhost IDENTIFIED BY '******';

flush privileges;

exit
NOTE where I have put '******', replace with your own password. Please keep a log of this as it will be required later. The password should secure (aplhanumeric with symbols) and in single speech marks as seen above

Now lets secure MySQL with a root password of your choice (See note above).

sudo mysqladmin -u root password '******'


Restart Asterisk With Correct Permissions

cd /use/src/freepbx*
sudo service asterisk stop
sudo ./start_asterisk start


Set The Correct Timezone for PHP
Open the PHP Configuration file:

sudo vim /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini

Under Module Settings, change the timezone accordingly:

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
; Module Settings ;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;


[Date]
; Defines the default timezone used by the date functions
; http://www.php.net/manual/en/datetime.configuration.php#ini.date.timezone


Uncomment date.timezone and set to the correct setting according to the link above. In my case, this was as follows:


date.timezone = Europe/London


To do this, move over the first charactor in the line, press 'a' the backspace to uncomment the line. Then move to the end of the line and type in your timezone after the '='. Press escape to come out of editing mode and save the file using the SHIFT+Z+Z combination.


Setup Apache For FreePBX and Asterisk
Apache user and group will need to be set to asterisk. To do this, run the following command to open the Apache configuration file:

sudo vim /etc/apache2/apache.conf

Find the line that states:

User www-data
Group www-data 



Change these to read:

User asterisk
Group asterisk

For those new to VIM, move to the end of this line using the arrow keys and press 'a', then remove all the charactors before the user or group using back space and type in 'asterisk'. Finally press escape to come out of editing mode. Then press SHIFT+Z+Z to save and exit the file.

Additionally, change the default sites settings by:

sudo vim /etc/apache2/sites-available/default

Under tags "<Directory />" and "<Directory /var/www/>" change the following settings:



Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride All



For those new to VIM, follow the origional instuction on editing above using the 'a' to go in to editing mode and escape key to come out of editing mode. Remember to save the file using SHIF+Z+Z.

Finally restart apache using the following command:

sudo service apache2 restart



Install FreePBX
To install FreePBX, you will need to specify the username and password to the database we setup earlier, start by typing in the following command:

sudo ./install_amp --username=asteriskuser --password=******

For each of the prompts, just hit enter except when prompted for

Enter the path to use for your AMP web root:
 [/var/www/html]


in this case type the following:

/var/www

Then hit enter. You should see something like this :

Checking for PEAR DB..OK
Checking for PEAR Console::Getopt..OK
Checking user..OK
Checking if Asterisk is running..running with PID: 2591..OK
Checking for /etc/amportal.conf../etc/amportal.conf does not exist, copying default
Creating new /etc/amportal.conf

Enter the hostname of the 'asterisk' database:
 [localhost]

Enter a USERNAME to connect to the Asterisk Manager interface:
 [admin]
Enter a PASSWORD to connect to the Asterisk Manager interface:
 [amp111]
Enter the path to use for your AMP web root:
 [/var/www/html] /var/www

Enter the IP ADDRESS or hostname used to access the AMP web-admin:
 [xx.xx.xx.xx]
Enter a PASSWORD to perform call transfers with the Flash Operator Panel:
 [passw0rd]
Use simple Extensions [extensions] admin or separate Devices and Users [deviceanduser]?
 [extensions]
Enter directory in which to store AMP executable scripts:
 [/var/lib/asterisk/bin]
Created /var/lib/asterisk/bin
Enter directory in which to store super-user scripts:
 [/usr/local/sbin]


One this is complete, lets set the file permissions for FreePBX to be accessable to apache users:

sudo chmod 777 /var/www/* -R

Finally Restart all services
Although in a lot of the cases, service restart is not required, I have had issues in previous versions of FreePBX, therefore as a final step, restart all the service to ensure they start with the correct permissions:

sudo amportal stop
sudo service apache2 stop
sudo service mysql stop

sudo service apache2 start
sudo service mysql start
sudo amportal start

Congratulations - Free PBX is now installed.
Ref:http://moishtech.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/setup-and-run-asterisk-and-freebpx-on.html